APOLLONIUS:At last we left Babylon; and as we travelled by the light of the moon, we suddenly beheld an Empusa.
DAMIS:Aye, indeed! She leaped upon her iron hoof; she brayed like an ass; she galloped among the rocks. He shouted imprecations at her; she disappeared.
ANTHONY (_aside_):
What can be their motive?
APOLLONIUS:At Taxilla, the capital of five thousand fortresses, Phraortes, King of the Ganges, showed us his guard of black men, whose stature was five cubits, and under a pavilion of green brocade in his gardens, an enormous elephant, which the queens amused themselves by perfuming. It was the elephant of Porus which had taken flight after the death of Alexander.
DAMIS:And which had been found again in a forest.
ANTHONY:Their speech is superabundant, like that of drunken men!
APOLLONIUS:Phraortes seated us at his own table.
DAMIS:How strange a country that was! During their drinking carousels, the lords used to amuse-themselves by shooting arrows under the feet of a dancing child. But I do not approve....
APOLLONIUS:When I was ready to depart, the king gave me a parasol, and he said to me: 'I have a stud of white camels upon the Indus. When thou shalt have no further use for them, blow in their ears. They will come back.'
We descended along the river, marching at night by the light of the fire-flies, which glimmered among the bamboos. The slave whistled an air to drive away the serpents; and our camels bent down in passing below the branches of the trees, as if passing under low gates.
One day a black child, who held a golden caduceus in his hand, conducted us to the College of the Sages. Iarchas, their chief, spoke to me of my ancestors, told me of all my thoughts, of all my actions, of all my existences. In former time he had been the River Indus; and he reminded me that I had once been a boatman upon the Nile, in the time of King Sesostris.
DAMIS:As for me, they told me nothing; so that I know not who or what
I have been.
ANTHONY:They have a vague look, like shadows!
APOLLONIUS:Upon the shores of the sea we met with the milk-gorged Cynocephali, who were returning from their expedition to the Island Taprobana. The tepid waves rolled blond pearls to our feet. The amber crackled beneath our steps. Whale-skeletons were whitening in the crevasses of the cliffs. At last the land became narrow as a sandal; and after casting drops of ocean water toward the sun, we turned to the right to return.
So we returned through the Region of Aromatics, by way of the country of the Gangarides, the promontory of Comaria, the country of the Sachalites, of the Adramites and of the Homerites; then, across the Cassanian mountains, the Red Sea, and the Island Topazos, we penetrated into Ethiopia through the country of the Pygmies.
ANTHONY (_to himself_):
How vast the world is!
DAMIS:And after we had returned home, we found that all those whom we used to know, were dead.
DAMIS: Aye, indeed! She leaped upon her iron hoof; she brayed like an ass; she galloped among the rocks. He shouted imprecations at her; she disappeared.
ANTHONY (_aside_):
What can be their motive?
APOLLONIUS: At Taxilla, the capital of five thousand fortresses, Phraortes, King of the Ganges, showed us his guard of black men, whose stature was five cubits, and under a pavilion of green brocade in his gardens, an enormous elephant, which the queens amused themselves by perfuming. It was the elephant of Porus which had taken flight after the death of Alexander.
DAMIS: And which had been found again in a forest.
ANTHONY: Their speech is superabundant, like that of drunken men!
APOLLONIUS: Phraortes seated us at his own table.
DAMIS: How strange a country that was! During their drinking carousels, the lords used to amuse-themselves by shooting arrows under the feet of a dancing child. But I do not approve....
APOLLONIUS: When I was ready to depart, the king gave me a parasol, and he said to me: 'I have a stud of white camels upon the Indus. When thou shalt have no further use for them, blow in their ears. They will come back.'
We descended along the river, marching at night by the light of the fire-flies, which glimmered among the bamboos. The slave whistled an air to drive away the serpents; and our camels bent down in passing below the branches of the trees, as if passing under low gates.
One day a black child, who held a golden caduceus in his hand, conducted us to the College of the Sages. Iarchas, their chief, spoke to me of my ancestors, told me of all my thoughts, of all my actions, of all my existences. In former time he had been the River Indus; and he reminded me that I had once been a boatman upon the Nile, in the time of King Sesostris.
DAMIS: As for me, they told me nothing; so that I know not who or what
I have been.
ANTHONY: They have a vague look, like shadows!
APOLLONIUS: Upon the shores of the sea we met with the milk-gorged Cynocephali, who were returning from their expedition to the Island Taprobana. The tepid waves rolled blond pearls to our feet. The amber crackled beneath our steps. Whale-skeletons were whitening in the crevasses of the cliffs. At last the land became narrow as a sandal; and after casting drops of ocean water toward the sun, we turned to the right to return.
So we returned through the Region of Aromatics, by way of the country of the Gangarides, the promontory of Comaria, the country of the Sachalites, of the Adramites and of the Homerites; then, across the Cassanian mountains, the Red Sea, and the Island Topazos, we penetrated into Ethiopia through the country of the Pygmies.
ANTHONY (_to himself_):
How vast the world is!
DAMIS: And after we had returned home, we found that all those whom we used to know, were dead.