LEARNT FROM THEM: AND OF THE COMING OF THE AMAZONS.
Now the tale tells that by this time the army was encamped near the
great river of India, the river Ganges. The river was very broad so
that men could just see across it from one bank to another, and it
was full of all manner of living beasts, crocodiles, scorpions, and
snakes, so that men dare not swim in it nor drive in their horses.
It happened on a day, that three men came to the other side of the
river, and stood there, so that the guards came to Alexander and
told him of it, and he came to the bank over against them. Then the
king bade one of his nobles ask them who they were, whence they
came, and what was their wish; and they answered, “We be Brahmans,
that never thought or did harm, and we bear a message from our
lord Dindimus to the lord of this army, Sir Alexander of Greece.”
And when he heard this the king ordered a carpenter to make a boat
to pass the river, and as soon as it was ready, he sent a knight
over the river with a message inviting them to come: so they
crossed the river and stood before him. Now they were very old men.
Then Alexander spoke to these Brahmans of one thing and another,
and found that they lived in another manner than the Greeks; for
what he esteemed rich and noble and good, they set little or no
store by, and what they admired he thought mean and poor. But since
he was a wise king, and one who desired to learn the secrets of
things, he sent a letter to the chief of the Brahmans asking him to
describe what their nation did, “for,” said he, “you differ from
us very greatly, it cannot harm you to tell us about yourselves,
and we may learn from your example. A candle when it is alight can
light many others without burning less brightly.” And with this
letter of Alexander’s the Brahmans went away to their lord, and in
due time they returned bearing an answer.
The tale tells in full of these letters, though it likes me not to
write them here at length, but the answer of Dindimus astonished
the Greeks. He told them that the Brahmans were a lowly folk, who
neither ploughed nor reaped, fished nor hunted, who lived on the
fruits of the earth, and who drank water, who fought not and
lied not, who studied not, nor wore fine clothing, who loved the
sun and the sea, the woods and the song of birds, and who cared
neither for iron nor for gold. Then he went on to reprove them
for their worship of evil gods, for their pride, cruelty, and
avarice. However, Alexander answered him fairly, but only drew on
himself a worse reproof. Then Alexander seized eight of the chief
Brahmans, and put to each of them a question, saying that the one
who answered worst should be put to death first.
So the first of them was brought before him, and he said to him,
“This is thy question: Why have you no graves in which to bury
your dead?” The old man said, “We are buried in the cave in the
hillside where we pass our days, that we may know that our present
life is but a training for the future.” Then came the second, and
the king asked him, “Which are more in number, the dead or the
living?” “Those that are dead are more in number than the living,
thou thyself knowest how many men thou hast slain,” said the old
man. Then came the third and Alexander said, “What is the most
wicked thing in creation?” “Man is the most wicked thing, and thou
thyself art one of the worst of men, for many men hast thou slain,
and few hast thou saved from death.” “Is night older than day, or
day older than night?” was the next question of the king, and the
Brahman answered him that night was older than day. Then he asked
the others these questions, and to each of them the wise men gave
him a good answer. “How do you live, and now do you die?” “Is death
mightier than life?” “Who is it that has never been born?” “Which
is man’s strongest limb, his right hand or his left?”
At the last the lord of Macedon forgave their bold speech and let
them go; but, before they went, Alexander asked them, as his custom
was, what were the wonders of their land?
Then the eldest of the Brahmans told him of a wonderful well in
the land, that few men dare drink of, for he that was miserly or
unfaithful to his trust and drank of it, went mad on the spot.
But Alexander did not fear this, for no man had ever thought him
miserly, for when he had shared the spoil at Macedon, he left for
himself only hope and glory. Then the king asked to be led to that
place, and he went with few of his knights without fear, for the
Brahmans were an unarmed folk. Now, as he went on his way with the
Brahman, he came into a certain town of the land, and saw two men
pleading before the Judge, and he drew near to listen to them. The
first of them stood up before the Judge, and said, “Sir, in time
past I bought a house from this man, and dwelt in it; now, long
after, I have found in it a treasure hid under the earth of the
garden, which is not mine. Accordingly I offered to deliver the
treasure to him, and carried it to his house, but he has refused
it and will not take it. Wherefore, sir, I beseech you that he be
compelled to take this treasure, since he knows full well that it
is not mine, for I have no right to it.” Then Alexander said to
the Brahman, “Surely this man is foolish, for he might keep this
treasure to himself.” But the Judge turned to the other man, and
bade him answer what was said against him. So he stood up and said,
“Sir Judge, that same treasure was never mine, but he has digged
in a place that no other man who had the house has digged, and
hath made that his own which before had no master. And, therefore,
I have no right to take it.” Then Alexander said to the Brahman,
“Surely this man may take it, for the land was his, and the other
man wishes him to take it.”
As he spoke, the two men talked together for a moment, and then
they turned toward the Judge, and begged him to take the treasure
himself, for they would have none of it. Then the Judge answered,
and said, “Since ye say that ye have no right thereto, so that
neither he to whom the heritage belonged in time past, nor he
to whom it now belongs may have it, how should I have any right
thereto, that am but a stranger in the matter, and never before
heard a word spoken of it. Would you escape the burden that falls
on you, and give me the charge of the treasure; that were evil done
of you.” And, after awhile, he took them and asked of him that had
found the treasure whether they had any children or no: so one of
them answered that he had a young son. Then he asked the other if
he had a daughter, and he said that he had. When he heard that,
the Judge was glad, and he ordered them to make a marriage between
the two, and that they should give them the treasure between them
as a marriage portion. And when Alexander heard this judgment, he
had great marvel thereof, and said thus to the Judge: “I trow there
is not in all the world so righteous a judge as thou art.” Then
the Judge looked on him with wonder, for he knew that he was an
outlander by his speech, though he wist not that he was Alexander,
and he asked him whether any Judge in his own country would have
done otherwise. “Yea, certainly,” said Alexander, “in many lands
would they have judged otherwise.” Then the Judge had great marvel
thereat, and he asked the king whether it rained, and if the sun
shone in that land; as if he would give him to understand that
it was strange that the gods should send any light, or rain, or
other good things to them that do not right and true judgment. But
Alexander had greater marvel than before, and he said there were
but few such nations upon earth as the people of this land.
Then king Alexander went with the old Brahman in search of the
well, and at the last they came to the place where the well was,
and it was a great square tank, built down into the ground with
blocks of stone, the sides covered with green moss, and the steps
damp and slippery, the water at the bottom dark and clear, but
the Brahman put forth his hand and said to the King, “O foolish
of heart, bathe not in this well, for thou art both miser and
unfaithful. Miser art thou for thy words about him who found the
treasure: unfaithful in that thy heart judged not as the Judge of
the land did.” And Alexander turned away in silence, for his heart
judged him, and he dared not enter the well, so he returned to his
army.
And as Alexander went out of that land he passed through a city, in
the which all the houses of the city were of one height, neither
was any house greater in show than another. Now before the door
of every house was a great pit dug, and this pit was always open.
Then Alexander asked for the lord or judge of that city, and they
told him that there was in their city no judge or lord. And the
king wondered greatly how such a thing should be, that a city could
remain without a head or a judge; and he asked of the inhabitants
thereof whereto such things should serve. So the dwellers in that
place answered him and said: “O king, whereas thou dost wonder that
we have no lord over us to do justice among us, know thou that we
have learnt to do justice ourselves, wherefore we need no man over
us to do it for us.” Then said he to the men of the city: “Why do
ye make these pits before the doors of your houses?” And they
answered him: “Know, O Alexander, that these pits are our graves,
which every man makes before his door to be his own house, to which
each of us must go, and there dwell until his deeds are judged.”
And Alexander asked them yet another question: “Why are your houses
built of one height?” and they answered him: “O King, love and
justice cannot be even among all the people of a place if some of
them are greater than others, and no house nor family shall be
greater than other in this our town.” Then Alexander departed from
them, wondering, but well pleased.
The tale tells that before Alexander fought against Porus he sent
messengers to all lands in Asia, and among the rest to the land
of the Amazons. It is said of that land that only women live in
it, and it is governed by women, and whatever man comes into it
he is straightway slain; for the first founders of that land were
the wives of the men that were called Goths, the which men were
cruelly slain, and then their wives took their husbands’ armour
and weapons, and fell on their enemies with manly hearts, and took
revenge of the death of their husbands. For by dint of sword they
slew all men, both old men and children, and saved the females,
and parted out the prey, and purposed to live ever after without
company of men. And by the example of their husbands they had
ever two queens among them, one to lead the host and fight against
enemies, the other to govern and rule the kindreds. In short time
they became such fierce warriors that they had a great part of Asia
under their lordship nigh a hundred years; and among them they
suffered no man to live or abide, but of the nations that were nigh
to them they chose husbands, and they nourished their children till
they were seven years old, and then their sons they sent to their
fathers, but they saved their daughters and taught them to shoot
and to hunt. It is told that the great Hercules was the first who
daunted their fierceness, and that was more by friendship than by
strength.
Now came messengers from Calistris, queen of the Amazons, to
Alexander, bearing letters from her in answer to his demand of
tribute, for she had heard how Alexander had followed in the
footsteps of Hercules, and had gone into India, and the letters
told of her land and its customs, and of the number of warriors she
had, and she went on: “I wonder at thy wit, that thou purposest
to fight with women, for if fortune be on our side, and if it hap
that thou be overcome, then art thou shamed for evermore, when
thou art overcome of women; and if our gods be wroth with us, and
thou overcomest us, it shall be little honour to thee that thou
hast overcome a band of women.” And when Alexander looked over the
letter he laughed, and wondered on her answer, and said that it
was not seemly to overcome women with sword and anger, but rather
with love and noble dealing: and therefore he sent messengers
to them offering friendship and a treaty. Then the queen of the
Amazons came with many of her maidens, and they reached Alexander
when he returned from the land of the Brahmans, and abode with him
many months, and at the last they departed from him and went to
their own land, being subject to his empire, not by violence, but
by friendship and by love.
And after these things Alexander reared up a pillar of marble, and
upon it he wrote in the tongue of the Greeks and of the Indians.
Now the inscription in Greek characters was but this:--
Α Β Γ Δ Ε
the first five letters of the alphabet, and they stood for the same
words as those in the Indian inscription:
ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΓΕΝΟΣ ΔΙΟΣ ΕΚΤΙΣΕ
“King Alexander the God-born built this:” and he graved it deep on
the sides of the pillar.
[Illustration]