[226] Certain trees are still held sacred in India. The pipal, for instance, is thought to be frequented by bhûts, i.e. demons.
[228] Arrian says, however, that most of the inhabitants of this city, which belonged to the Aspasians, and was fortified by a double wall, escaped to the mountains.
[229] Philostratos (ii. 4) says that Alexander did not ascend the mountain, but, though anxious to do so, contented himself with offering prayers and sacrifices at its base. He was afraid that the Macedonians on seeing the vines would be reminded of home, and have their love of wine revived after being accustomed to do without it.
[230] The Elzevir editor aptly quotes here Tacit. H. i. 55: Insita mortalibus natura, propere sequi, quae piget inchoare.
[231] Justin (xii. 7) speaks of mountains which he calls Daedali, and these Cunningham (p. 52) takes to be Mount Dantalok, which is about three miles distant from Palo-dheri (or Pelley, as General Court calls it), a place forty miles distant from Pashkalavati (Hasht-nagar). In the spoken dialect, he adds, Dantalok becomes Dattalok, which the Greek Daidalos may fairly be taken to represent. I think, however, Alexander had not penetrated so far eastward as this identification implies. It has been taken by Müller to be Arrian’s Andaka or Andêla, which he would therefore alter to Daidala. An Indian city called Daidala is mentioned by Stephanos Byz., and in Ptolemy’s Geography another city of the same name is mentioned as belonging to the Kaspeiraioi (or Kashmirians), who in Ptolemy’s days had extended their rule as far eastward as the regions of the Jamna. Abbot in his Gradus ad Aornon seems to identify Daedala with Doodial, and Acadira, which is mentioned immediately after, with Kaldura.
[232] Arrian calls this river the Euaspla. It is most probably the Kâmah or Kunâr river. Its name, Cho-asp-es, has one of the elements of the name of the people in its neighbourhood, the Asp-asioi. The prefix cho may, like eu or su, mean river, and Aspa means a horse, in Zend.
[233] Beira, it has been supposed, is the Bazira of Arrian; but as this has been on adequate grounds identified with Bazâr of the present day, the supposition is untenable. Bazâr lies too far east to suit the requirements.
[234] “How this arrangement was to prevent the upper part of the wall from settling down is a mystery as the text stands; and we can only suppose that (a) Curtius has not understood his authorities, or (b) has left out some important steps in the description, or (c) that the text is mutilated so as to conceal his real meaning.”—Alex. in India, p. 107.
[235] Seneca (Epistle 59) puts almost the same words into his mouth: “All swear that I am the son of Jupiter, but this wound proclaims me to be a man.” This is perhaps the occasion to which Plutarch refers when he states (Alex. 28) that Alexander when shot with an arrow turned in his pain to his attendants, and said: “This blood, my friends, is not the ichor which blest immortals shed”—a quotation from Homer.