The Story of Alexander

by Robert Steele

CHAPTER XV. HOW THE BRAHMANS CAME TO KING ALEXANDER AND WHAT HE 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.