The Story of Alexander

by Robert Steele

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.