The Story of Alexander

by Robert Steele

CHAPTER XIX. TELLS HOW ALEXANDER DEFEATED GOG AND MAGOG, HOW HE WENT UP INTO THE AIR, AND DOWN INTO THE SEA.

Candoyl and Alexander rode from the city out into the open country, and all day passed through it, till as the sun went down they came near the hills, and they found there a cave, great beyond measure, hidden between two hills, and there they harboured all night. And when evening was come Candoyl spoke to Alexander and said, “Sir, in this cave men say that the gods appear, and tell men what shall come to pass.” Then was Alexander rejoiced and gave thanks to the gods, and went in to the darkest part of the cave, but Candoyl abode at the mouth. And as Alexander drew near he saw a great cloud and from it a light glimmering like stars, and as he gazed him thought he saw in the midst of it a throne, and on it was a great grisly god whose eyes shone out fierce like lanterns. Then was Alexander sore dismayed, and fell to the ground. “Hail, Alexander!” quoth that high god. “Sire, what is thy name, and now shall I call thee?” said the king. “Thinthisus is my name, and all the world is under my hand. Yet hast thou built a city in thy name, and thou hast set me there no temple.” “Sire, if I return to Macedon, I will build thee a temple as master of the gods: none shall be like it in any land.” “Nay, nay, long not thereafter; thou shalt never look on that land. Go further, and behold.” Then the king looked and he saw another cloud not far off, so he went thither, and lo! another grim god seated before him. Kneeling on the earth he asked, “Who art thou, Lord?” and the god answered him, “I am Serapis, the god of thy father, the father of gods.” Then said Alexander, “Tell me, I pray thee, the name of the man that shall slay me:” but the god answered him, “O king, in time past I told thee that should any man know the cause of his death beforehand, he would suffer greatly; be of good heart, thou hast conquered many nations, thou shalt yet do great deeds; thou hast built a mighty city which shall endure for ever; many men shall resort there, and many races of kings shall rule it; thou shalt die and be buried in a noble city far from thine own land.” Alexander bowed himself down before the god and returned to the mouth of the cave, and found Candoyl waiting for him in the morning dawn, and the plain lay before him covered with his armies, and he bade farewell to the son of Candace, each departing to his own.

It fell as Alexander rode on towards his camp that he began to doubt in his mind that something was wrong, for all things looked to be untended, and no guards were set round the army, and as he drew nearer he heard shouts and cries, so he spurred up his steed and rode into the camp, and no man stopped him, for all were drawn to one place. But when he had come thither he found that the Greeks were drawn up in array, and that the Indians and Persians were running hither and thither, shouting and crying; so that every now and then a band of them would turn against the Greeks and make as if to force their way among them, and when they were driven back they would again begin to cry and shout. So the Lord of Macedon rode up among them, and no man of the Indians knew him, for his helmet was closed, and he came to his own men and they knew him, and shouted for joy and opened a way for him. Then he sent for Ptolemy, and when he was come he asked him what was the cause of this trouble and why the Indians were so sore afraid. But it is to be said that at the sound of Alexander’s voice all men had returned to their tents and the guard had gone out round the camp. Then Ptolemy told the king how that men had come to the camp three days agone telling of a new and strange folk coming from the north, frightful beyond bearing, and how they destroyed all things they came across and spared nothing that was good, but what they consumed not they wasted, and whom they kept not for slaves they killed in their wanton sport. And they were short, shorter than any men, and no man might look on them without fear. So these men had fled from before them, and they had come to King Alexander to preserve them from their enemies, and Ptolemy charged them to tell their tale to no man. But when they had been in the camp two days and had not seen the Lord of Macedon, their fear broke out again, and they told their tale to whoever would hear them, and the story spread, and a saying arose among the Indians that this foe was right at hand, and they clamoured for Alexander to come out and lead them, and they threatened to tear the camp to pieces if he came not.

Then were these ambassadors of fear brought before Alexander, and he questioned them of this people and of its coming, and they told him how that they were scarce ten days’ journey from them, and that they were settled in that land and had sown a crop, for it was ever their custom to come into a land at sowing time and to make the men of that land their slaves, so that they reaped the harvest for them, and then to slay them or drive them out to starve. And the ambassadors told how this race of dwarfs raged horribly at the name of Alexander, and said they had come to destroy him and the Greeks from the face of the earth, and they told last how these men were enemies of the Gods themselves above all things, so that evil was their good and good their evil. Then Alexander asked which of them had seen this folk, but no man had seen them, save one who had been far off them. So he sent for the clerk who had told him of the double-dealing of Porus and straitly questioned him, and he told the king how these folk were scarce two cubits high, but stronger than mortal men. “For in winter they wear no clothing, but they are covered with hair from their waist downward; their mouths are huge and set with fangs like a wild boar, their hands are like lion’s claws, no man may look on their eyes when they are set on him, and their ears are so great that in sleep they serve as coverlets. Two princes have they, whose names are Gog and Magog.” Moreover the clerk said mayhap the saying of the ambassadors was true, that they would wait where they were till next spring time, yet mayhap they might move before winter came on. Then Alexander decided that he would attack these dwarfs in the land where they were and drive them back to their own land.

The tale tells that the march of the army lay through a strange land and many wonders there befell them, for they passed through the valley of serpents and fought the griffins; they came to the shores of the sea and saw there wondrous beasts, and many things of which it were long to speak. On the third day of their march they came into a dark valley smelling sweetly of all spices, there cloves and ginger, and the pepper plant grew. But among these shrubs were many serpents and adders, who lived on the plants and had none other food, and these snakes had on their heads an emerald crown, as it were of goldsmith’s beaten work. Now the people of that land, when they wish to gather the pepper, set fire to this wood, and the flame drives away the snakes, but blackens and rivels the pepper. In the hills of this place were many precious stones called smaragds, and Alexander set his heart on gathering them, and sent men to climb the hills, but when they came near the place where the stones were, beasts came out and fell on them, in shape like lions but with cleft claws a yard across, and among them were griffins, with birds’ wings and beak and claws but otherwise like to a lion, and each of them so strong that it might bear away a knight full armed on his horse. Then came up Alexander and encouraged his dukes, and bade them shoot with a will, and the archers and arbalasters shot altogether, and the knights struck down and killed many of the beasts with their lances and their battle-axes, but the griffins tore the knights from their saddles and with their tails blinded them so that they could not see where to strike, and at last the Greeks were driven down, and over two hundred of those who wore golden spurs were slain in that fierce fight. Yet were a few of the griffins beaten down, and four of them were bound in strong chains and borne away by Alexander.

On the morrow after the host had come clear away from these hills, it came to a great and mighty river running straight down to the shores of ocean, and its banks were covered with huge reeds, longer than the highest tree, and so heavy that twenty men could scarce lift them. Of these reeds Alexander bade them make barges and ferry over his host, for the river was twenty furlongs broad, and two days were spent in the crossing over of the army. And when Alexander and his men were on the further side of the river the people of the land came to him, and they were a simple folk, clothed in the skins of great fish and of beasts. Nor were they inhospitable, for they brought sponges, white and purple, mussels so great that six men might make a meal of one, eels from the river thicker than a man’s leg, and lampreys weighing twenty pounds each. Then Alexander thanked them for their gifts, and gave them great rewards, and asked them of their land and its wonders, and they told him of the sirens who lived in that river, women with long hair for clothing who lived in the water like fishes. Yet when these creatures saw any man they drew him into the water, if he knew not their craft, and kept him there till he died, and sometimes they bound him to the great reeds and forced him to make sport for them till at the last they killed him, for they had neither love nor hate nor any care or thought, naught of mankind save its outward semblance. Then Alexander bade his men to search for these beasts and offered great rewards, and at the last two of them were taken and brought before him, and they were white as snow, their hair came down to their feet round their body, and they were taller than men have custom to be, yet they could not live without water, and in few hours’ time both were dead.

And Alexander the king spoke with their wise men of the combat with the dwarfs from the desert of the north, since the men of that land were exceeding wise, and they told him of the way by which he could fall on them at unawares; and when they knew that he had with him in the host the griffins they rejoiced and told him of a marvellous thing. Then the Lord of Macedon caused his smiths to make him a chair of black iron, and on the top of it at each corner was a large smaragd stone, and they brought the chair to the top of an exceeding high mountain in that land, and when they had come thither they bound the griffins to each corner of the chair at the bottom with great and very strong chains, for Alexander was minded to be carried up into the air by the griffins that he might see all lands. So when he was set in his chair and covered round with great bars of iron, he bade them uncover the eyes of the griffins, and they saw the smaragd stones fixed high above them and all at once they flew up towards the stones, for the sight of that stone is meat and drink to these animals, and they hunger to gather it together and to bear it off to their dens, neither care they for any hurt they receive in the getting of it. So they flew and soon Alexander was borne out of sight of men, high above the clouds, and he saw the earth below him like a basin, and the lands, and the way to the dwarfs, the men of Gog and Magog, and still they flew higher and the earth grew small like a mill-stone and the ocean and the rivers seemed like a writhing adder, and then the gods struck the griffins with fear, and they shut their eyes and stretched out their wings, and sunk lower and lower till they lay at the last on the ground in a green field in a strange land, and Alexander looked round and saw far on the towers of Jerusalem. But the griffins arose, and flew away till they came to their nest in the mountains, and when they came thither the Lord of Macedon left his seat and made his way through the hills till he came to the river, when he crossed it and came to his army again.

Then marched the host on its way and at the last it came near the country of the ambassadors where the abominable dwarfs were, and when they came there the ambassadors went forward to bring the news of the coming of the Greeks. It chanced that the third day after the coming of the ambassadors was a feast of the dwarf-folk, and all the men of that country kept the news of the coming of the Greeks from them so that they met in all their number in one place. It was of custom among them that every feast some one should be slain in torment that the chief men of the dwarf-folk might give a presage of what should befall the folk, and that feast one of them was to be slain for he had given food to a man that was starving in a prison cell. So the ambassadors returned and told Alexander what was to be done; and he deemed it well to fall on them when they were all in one place. And this he did, and the fight was long and sore between him and the dwarfs, for the dwarfs were so small that they escaped the lance point, and they ran under the horses and houghed them, and their skins were so tough that the arrows glanced off them, if they did not hit straight, and the sword edges slipped, but the claws of the dwarfs and their teeth and their arrows availed them little against the armour of the Macedonians.

In the night after the battle of the first day the guards cried out for that lights were moving on the field of battle, and soon three dwarfs came near holding in their hands peeled white wands; and when the guards saw them they brought them to the tent of Alexander. Then the eldest of them said, “O leader of the Greeks from Macedon, truly ye be braver than the Persians or the men of India, give us now an ounce of gold and a sword for each man and we will return whence we came.” Then Alexander said, “O leader of the dwarfs, haters of God and men, meseems I am not come to this land but to free mankind from you. If ye abide my face till day I will slay you all, and if ye flee I will pursue you till ye return to your own land.” Then he bade his men to take them and lead them from the camp.

It was of custom among this folk to travel in great waggons, and to make of these their forts in times of danger, so on the morrow when the Greeks and the Persians drew out in battle array, the dwarf-folk came not forth all to attack them as on the day before, but the more part stayed within the waggons, and when the knights rode up to the waggons their progress was stopped and they could go no further, and the dwarfs stood on the waggons and mocked and jeered at them as they shot their arrows at them, and the knights were sore angered and brought up firebrands but the dwarfs had covered the waggons with hides so that they burnt not. So that day wore on, and when night came the Greeks returned to their camp, and they spent the night in plans for the morrow. When it was light the army of Alexander got them ready for another day’s fighting, but when they came out on the plain, they found not the hordes of the dwarfs for they had departed, burning all the country round. Then Alexander provided good store of food and drink and began to follow up the abominable dwarfs, for well he knew that he should find neither on the road, for these wretches destroy all the crops and poison and defile all the springs of water they pass. And after many days he came to the land of the dwarfs, and there he found two-and-twenty kings, and fought a great battle with them, and made them give up all the iron and copper in their land, and then he set his men to build a great wall at the entrance to their land.

Now the land of the dwarfs lies behind two very high mountains and there is no way by which men may come in or go out of it but between these mountains, so Alexander built a wall across from one to the other and he strengthened it with the iron and the copper of the dwarfs, and wrought mighty spells on it, so that no dwarf should pass over it, and left them there. And all the world rejoiced and praised the name of Alexander, and this deed of his was counted the greatest of his life. And in after days a tale grew, and men told how every day the dwarf-folk came down to the wall and tore it down bit by bit with their claws, and night by night the spells of Alexander prevailed and the wall was made whole again, because this folk feared not the gods, nor obeyed them. But the tale tells that when the enemy of the gods and the deceiver of men shall come on earth, he will teach them to name their children “Inshallah,” which means, if the gods will, and then when they call their children to help them, they will tear down the wall, and come out from their prison, and destroy the cities of Alexander, and the works of men since his time, and bring death on all men, if the gods stay them not.

Furthermore men told of this dwarf-folk, that they have among them sorcerers who work such spells that the might of the dwarfs is increased an hundred-fold, and that when the time shall come, these sorcerers will run through the air between heaven and earth, swifter than the wind, and will slay a child, and will dip the weapons of the dwarf-folk in its blood, and each of the dwarfs shall have with him a hundred warriors on horseback, armed with mace and spear. And when they ride out through the broken wall and through the iron threshold that Alexander built to strengthen the wall, the hooves of their horses shall wear away a span-depth from the lower threshold of iron, and their spear-points shall wear away a span-height from the upper threshold of brass. And these sayings of men show how great was their fear of the dwarf-folk, and their thanks to the Lord of Macedon, who freed the land from them.

After these things the heart of Alexander was lifted up and he thought within himself that he was even as one of the high gods, for he had travelled through the air, where no man had been before, borne by griffins on an iron throne, and he had saved all men from the foes of mankind, and he had raised himself above all men in power and dignity, nor had any man conquered him or stood before his face. So when his army turned and came to the shores of ocean, a new thought came into his mind how that he would see the wonders of the sea, and the things that live there, and come not up to the surface of the deep.

So he ordered, and his cunning men began to make for him great sheets of green glittering glass, and to shape it into a box, and bind it with great girths of iron, that he might sit in it and see all things that were without it, while he himself was untouched. Then he bade them take it to the borders of ocean, and bind great chains to it, and take it in a boat, and when he was entered into it to let it sink to the bottom of the sea for a set space of time. And as all things were ready, and he had given in charge to Roboas, son of Antipater, whom he loved, to draw him up after the set time, there came to him a clerk who had been sent to him by Roxana the Queen on a special errand. So the clerk drew near, and said, “O Alexander, thus saith Roxana thy Queen and thy love: Many nights have I been troubled concerning thee, for a man with two horns on his head has stood by me, and has warned me of evil that may hap to thee. Now, therefore, I send thee a ring, one of the treasures of Darius, my father; slay and offer a sacrifice to the gods, rub the ring with the blood, and wear it, and no evil shall happen thee on the sea or under it.” Then Alexander did as the messenger bade him, and offered the sacrifice to the gods, and put the ring on his finger, but none of those who stood by understood the matter, for the message was a secret one.

Alexander sees the wonders of the sea

The tale tells that Alexander entered into the vessel of glass, and quickly shut the wicket; and his princes pointed it with pitch so that no water might come in at the joints, and in a moment he entered the deep with a heavy plunge. There saw he fish whose figures he had never dreamed of, with forms diverse and horrible, and creeping things and four-footed things crawling on the sea bottom, and feeding on strange fruits of corals and sea weeds and trees growing on the sand and sea ooze, and great monsters came sailing up to the side of the cage and looked in and turned away affrighted, and other sights he saw such that he would never tell to any man till the day of his death, for they were so horrible that tongue could not tell or man hear them told, and Alexander fell down on the floor of his vessel of glass and lay there for a time without life.

Now when the set time was come that Alexander was to be drawn up, it fell that Roboas, the son of Antipater, was struck by some god with blindness, for he loosened the chain from the ship and let it fall so that it ran into the sea and sunk. And as he saw what he had done, and how he had destroyed the life of his lord, he plunged into the sea straightway, if so be he might die with him, for his comrades were like to tear him in pieces. But the great iron chains falling into the sea broke the vessel of glass, and the gods saved Alexander again, for the chains crushed him not, and the glass wounded him not, and he was borne to the surface of the sea whether by the rush of the water or by the virtue of the ring of Roxana, and his princes saw him come to the surface and they took him up, for they thought it was Roboas, and when they found it was Alexander great was their joy, and Roboas also they brought up, and Alexander forgave him, for much did he love him.