King Alexander's Adventures
I. THE VISION OF VICTORY
More than two thousand years ago there lived a king in the land of
Macedon who was a great conqueror, and when his son, Alexander, was
born, the soothsayers and the priestesses of the temples predicted
that he would be a greater warrior than his father. Alexander was a
wonderful boy, and his father, King Philip, was very proud of him when
he tamed a spirited horse which nobody else could manage. The wisest
philosophers of the day were Alexander's teachers, and when he was
only sixteen years of age, Philip left him in charge of the country
when he went to subdue Byzantium. Alexander was only twenty when he
ascended the throne, but before then he had suppressed a rebellion and
had proved himself possessed of exceptional daring and courage.
"I shall conquer the whole world," he said, and although he only
reigned thirteen years and died at the age of thirty-three, he
accomplished his ambition. All the countries which were then known had
to acknowledge his supremacy.
King Alexander was a drunkard and very cruel, but he treated the Jews
kindly. When they heard he had been victorious over Darius, king of
Persia, who was their ruler, and that he was marching on Jerusalem,
they became seriously alarmed. Jadua, the high priest, however,
counseled the people to welcome Alexander with great ceremony.
All the priests and the Levites donned their most gorgeous robes, the
populace put on their holiday garb, and the streets of the city were
gaily decorated with many colored banners and garlands of flowers. The
night before Alexander arrived at the head of his army, a long
procession was formed of the priests, the Levites, and the elders of
the city, each carrying a lighted torch. At the gates of the city they
awaited the approach of the mighty warrior.
In the early morning, before the sun had risen, Alexander made his
appearance and was astonished at the magnificent spectacle which met
his gaze. At the head of the procession stood the high priest in his
shining white robes, with the jewels of the ephod glittering on his
breast. To the surprise of his generals, Alexander descended from his
horse and bowed low before the high priest.
"Like unto an angel dost thou appear to me," he said.
"Let thy coming bring peace," replied Jadua.
Parmenio, the chief of Alexander's generals, had promised the soldiers
rich store of plunder in Jerusalem, and he approached the king and
said:
"Wherefore do you honor this priest of the Jews above all men?"
"I will tell thee," answered Alexander. "In dreams have I often seen
this dignified priest. Ever he bade me be of good courage and always
did he predict victory for me. Shall I not then pay homage to my
guardian angel?"
Turning to the priest, he said, "Lead me to your Temple that I may
offer up thanksgiving to the God of my guardian angel."
It was now daylight, and the priests walked in procession before King
Alexander past cheering multitudes of people. At the Temple the king
removed his sandals, but the priests gave him a pair of jeweled
slippers, fearing that he might slip on the pavement. The king was
pleased with all that he saw and desired that a statue of himself, or
a portrait, should be placed in the holy building.
"That may not be," replied the high priest, "but in honor of thy visit
all the boys born in Jerusalem this year shall be named Alexander."
"It is well," said the king, much pleased; "ask of me what you will,
and if it be in my power I shall grant it."
"Mighty monarch," said Jadua, "we desire naught but to be permitted to
serve our God according to our laws. Permit us to practice our
religious observances free and unhindered. Grant also this privilege
to the Jews who dwell in all thy dominions, and we shall ever pray for
thy long life and triumph."
"It is but little that ye ask," replied the king, "and that little is
easily granted."
The people cheered loudly when they heard the good news, and many Jews
enrolled themselves in the army.
Alexander stayed some time in Jerusalem, and messengers arrived from
Canaan to ask him to compel the Jews to restore them their land.
"It is written in the Books of Moses," they said, "that Canaan and its
boundaries belong to the Canaanites."
Gebiah, a hunchback, undertook to answer.
"It is also written in the Books of Moses," he said, "'Cursed be
Canaan; a servant shall he be unto his brethren.' The property of a
slave belongs to his master, therefore Canaan is ours."
Alexander gave the envoys of Canaan three days in which to reply to
this, but they fled from Jerusalem.
Messengers from Egypt came next, asking for the return of the gold and
silver taken by the Israelites from the land of Pharaoh.
"What says Gebiah to this?" asked Alexander.
"We shall return the gold and silver," answered the hunchback, "when
we have been paid for the many, many years of labor of our ancestors
in Egypt."
"Truly a wise answer," said Alexander, and he gave the Egyptians three
days to consider it. But they also fled.
When Alexander left Jerusalem he sought the advice of the wise men of
Israel.
"I desire," he said, "to conquer the land beyond the Mountains of
Darkness in Africa; it is also my wish to fly above the clouds and
behold the heavens, and also to descend into the depths of the sea and
gaze with mine own eyes on the monsters of the deep."
How to accomplish these things he was instructed by the wise men, but
they warned him never to enter Babylon.
"For shouldst thou ever enter the city of Babylon," they said, "thou
wilt assuredly die."
King Alexander thanked them for the advice and the warning, and set
forth on his adventures.
II. THE LAND OF DARKNESS AND THE GATE OF PARADISE
After many days King Alexander came to the Mountains of Darkness.
Acting on the advice of the wise men, he had provided himself with
asses from the land of Libya, for they have the power of seeing in the
dark, and also with a cord of great length. Mounted on the asses, he
and his men plunged into the realms of darkness, unwinding the cord as
they went, so that they might find their way back with it.
Around them was blackest darkness and a silence that inspired the men
with awe. The asses, however, picked their way through the tall trees
that grew so high and so thick that not the least ray of light could
penetrate. How many days they traveled thus they knew not, for day
and night were alike. The men slept when they were tired, ate when
they were hungry and trusted to the asses and the cord.
At last when they emerged into the light they were almost blinded by
the sun, and it was some time before they could see properly. Then, to
their great astonishment, they found that there were no men in the
land, only women, tall and finely proportioned, clothed in skins and
armed with bows and arrows.
"Who are ye?" asked Alexander.
"We are the Amazons, women who are skilled in war and in the art of
hunting," they answered.
"Lead me to your queen," commanded Alexander, "and bid her surrender,
for I am Alexander, the Great, of Macedon, and conqueror of the world.
I fight not by night, for I scorn to steal victories in the dark, and
my men are armed with magic spears of gold and silver and are
therefore invincible."
The queen of the Amazons appeared before him, a beautiful woman, with
long raven hair.
"Greeting to thee, mighty warrior," she said. "Hast thou come to slay
women?"
"Perchance it is you who will triumph over me," replied Alexander.
The queen of the Amazons smiled.
"Then shall it be said of thee," she replied, "that thou wert a
valiant warrior who conquered the world, but was himself conquered by
women. Is that to be your message to history?"
King Alexander was a man of learning and of wisdom, as well as a great
soldier, but the words of the queen of the Amazons were such that he
could not answer. He bowed low before the queen and with a gesture
indicated that he had naught to say.
"Then it is to be peace," said the queen. "At least, before thy
return, let me prepare for thee a banquet."
In a hut made of logs and decorated with skins, a rough wooden table
was placed before Alexander and on it was laid a loaf of gold.
"Do ye eat bread of gold?" asked the king, much surprised.
"Nay," replied the queen. "We are women of simple tastes, but thou art
a mighty king. If thou didst but wish to eat ordinary bread in this
land, why didst thou desire to conquer it? Is there no more bread in
your own land that thou shouldst brave the dangers of the dark
mountains to eat it here?"
Alexander bowed his head on his breast. Never before had he felt
ashamed.
"I, Alexander of Macedon," he said, "was a fool until I came to the
land beyond the Mountains of Darkness and learned wisdom from women."
With all haste he returned through the land of eternal night on his
Libyan asses. But in the flight the cord was broken. He had to trust
entirely to the asses, and many long and weary days and nights did he
journey before he saw the light once more.
Alexander found himself in a new and beautiful land. There were no
signs of human beings, nor of animals, and a river of the clearest
water he had ever seen, flowed gently along. It was full of fish which
the soldiers caught quite easily. But a strange thing happened when,
after having cut up the fish ready for cooking, they took them to the
river to clean them. All the fish came to life again; the pieces
joined together and darted away in the water.
At first Alexander would not believe this, but after he had made an
experiment himself, he said: "Let all who are wounded bathe in this
river, for surely it will cure every ill. This must be the River of
Life which flows from Paradise."
He determined to follow the stream to its source and find the Garden
of Eden. As he marched along, the valley through which the stream
flowed, became narrower and narrower, until, at last, only one person
could pass. Alexander continued his journey on foot with a few of his
generals walking behind. Mountains, thickly covered with greenest
verdure, towered up on either side, the silent river narrowed until it
seemed a mere streak of silver flowing gently along, and there was a
delicious odor in the air.
At length, where the mountains on either side met, Alexander's path
was barred by a great wall of rock. From a tiny fissure the River of
Life trickled forth, and beside it was a door of gold, beautifully
ornamented. Before this door Alexander paused. Then, drawing his
sword, he struck the Gate of Paradise with the hilt.
There was no answer, and Alexander knocked a second time. Again there
was no reply, and a third time Alexander knocked with some impatience.
Then the door slowly opened, and a figure in white stood in the entry.
In its hand it held a skull, made of gold, with eyes of rubies.
"Who knocks so rudely at the Gate of Paradise?" asked the angel.
"I, Alexander, the Great, of Macedon, the conqueror of the world,"
answered Alexander, proudly. "I demand admittance to Paradise."
"Hast thou brought peace to the whole world that thou sayest thou art
its conqueror?" demanded the angel.
Alexander made no answer.
"Only the righteous who bring peace to mankind may enter Paradise
alive," said the angel, gently.
Alexander hung his head abashed; then, in a voice broken with emotion,
he begged that at least he should be given a memento of his visit.
The angel handed him the skull, saying: "Take this and ponder o'er its
meaning."
The angel vanished and the golden door closed.
The skull was so heavy that, with all his great strength, Alexander
could scarcely carry it. When he placed it in a balance to ascertain
its weight, he found that it was heavier than all his treasures. None
of his wise men could explain this mystery and so Alexander sought out
a Jew among his soldiers, one who had been a student with the rabbis.
Taking a handfull of earth the Jew placed it over the eyes and the
skull was then as light as air.
"The meaning is plain," said the Jew. "Not until the human eye is
covered with earth--in the grave--is it satisfied. Not until after
death can man hope to enter Paradise."
Alexander was anxious to hasten away from that strange region, but
many of his soldiers declared that they would settle down by the banks
of the River of Life. Next morning, however, the river had vanished.
Where all had been beautiful was now only a desolate plain, bounded by
bare rocky mountains, reaching to the clouds.
With heavy hearts Alexander's men began their march back.
III--THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD
One day a strange rumbling noise was heard, and toward evening the
army halted by the side of a river even more mysterious than the River
of Life. It was not a river of water, but of sand and stones. It
flowed along with a roaring sound and every few minutes great stones
were shot up into the air.
Alexander asked the Jewish soldier if he could explain.
"This," said the Jew, "is the Sambatyon, the river which ceases to
flow on the Sabbath."
"And what lies beyond?"
"The land of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel," was the answer. "None
have seen this country."
"Cannot the river then be crossed?" asked Alexander.
"Not by all who wish to cross."
The next day was Friday, and Alexander waited until the evening to see
what would happen.
An hour before sunset, at the time of the commencement of Sabbath, the
river ceased to flow. The rumbling died down and the Sambatyon
appeared like a broad expanse of shining yellow sand.
"To-morrow I shall cross with my army," said Alexander, but next
morning the Sambatyon was enveloped in dense black clouds.
Alexander could not see a yard in front of him, and when he ventured
on to the sand, the horses sank into it. Flames were also seen in the
clouds. After the sun had set and the Sabbath had ended, the clouds
cleared away, the rumbling began again and the sand flowed once more
like a river.
Alexander was disappointed for a while, but at last he consoled
himself with the thought that he had conquered the whole world.
"Now must I carry out my project of ascending above the clouds and
afterward descending into the sea," he said, and he proceeded to carry
out the instructions given to him in Jerusalem.
Four huge eagles were caught and chained to a big box. At each end of
the box was a pole, and on the end of each a brilliant jewel was
placed. When all was in readiness, Alexander entered the box and
carefully closed the doors.
"Thus did Nimrod ascend into the sky," he said, "but he was a fool. He
shot arrows into the air, and when the angels returned them stained
with blood, he thought he had killed God. I desire only to see the
heavens, not to conquer them."
He gave the signal, and the heads of the eagles chained to the poles
were uncovered. The moment they saw the dazzling jewels they tried to
snatch them, but could not. So they continued to rise higher and
higher until the box was carried above the clouds. By looking through
the windows at the top and bottom of the box, Alexander could see how
high he was. For a long time he saw nothing but clouds, which appeared
like a vast sea beneath him, but when these cleared away, he saw the
earth again.
So high was he that the world looked like a ball. Until then he had
not known the earth was round. The seas enveloping the greater part of
the globe looked like writhing serpents.
"Now I can understand," he said, "why the wise rabbis say that the
great fish, the leviathan, surrounds the world with its tail in its
mouth."
Then he looked above. The sun seemed further away than ever.
"Heaven is not so near as I thought," he said, and seeing himself but
a tiny speck miles above the earth and still further away from the
heavens, he grew afraid for the first time in his life. With a stick
he knocked the jewels from the poles outside the box, and the eagles,
seeing them no longer, began to descend. Alexander breathed more
freely when he was safe on the ground again, but he would not tell his
generals what he had seen.
"Wait until I have descended into the sea," he said.
Under his orders, a diving bell of clear thick glass, bound with iron,
had been constructed. Alexander entered the bell, all the joints were
then tightly secured with pitch, and the bell lowered from a ship into
the ocean by means of chains.
Before he entered, Alexander took the precaution to put on a magic
ring, which his wife, Roxana, had sent him. This, she said, would
protect him against the monsters of the deep.
Down, down into the watery deep sank the bell, and for some time
Alexander could see nothing. When his eyes grew accustomed to the
strange, greenish light, he noticed multitudes of queer fish darting
round about the bell. Many were of a shape never conjectured by man,
some were so tiny that he could scarcely see them, and others so large
that one of these monsters actually tried to swallow the bell. But
Alexander showed the magic ring which glowed like a blazing star and
the monster darted away.
So deep down sank the bell that no light could at last penetrate from
the sun. Most of the fish, however, were luminous, and Alexander was
almost dazzled by the changing of the brilliant lights as the denizens
of the deep swam swiftly around the bell. Shells of wondrous beauty
did he see, together with pearls of great size. The treasures of the
deep were revealed to him, and he saw that the riches on land were as
nothing compared with them. He saw the coral insects at their work of
building, and of entrancing beauty growing in the oozy bed of the
ocean.
"I wonder," said Alexander, "if I dare venture forth and take some of
these beautiful gems back with me. The ring will protect me."
Alexander was one of the bravest men that ever lived, and he
immediately set about trying to open the bell. In doing so, he rattled
the chains by which it was lowered, and Robus, the officer in charge,
took this as a signal to raise the bell.
In his excitement he dropped the chains into the sea, and they fell
with a big crash on the bell and smashed it to pieces. When Robus saw
what had happened, he cast himself into the sea in a gallant endeavor
to rescue his master.
Down below in the glittering depths of the ocean, Alexander saw the
fish hurrying away in great fear and he heard the rattling of the
chains as they dropped through the water. He looked up and saw them
crash on the bell. A terrible, buzzing sound filled his ears, a
thousand dazzling colors danced before his eyes and made him giddy.
With great presence of mind he remembered his ring, and immediately a
big fish swam underneath him, raised him from the wreckage of the bell
and rose swiftly to the surface. Alexander emerged just as Robus dived
into the sea. At once he showed the fish his ring and it dived and
brought his gallant officer safe to his side.
"I have seen enough," said Alexander, when he was safe on land, "more
than mortals should see. I have learned that the earth is for man and
that the air above and the waters beneath are for the other and more
wonderful creatures of God."
He made preparations to return to Macedon, but his army was wearied
with long marching and begged of him to let them rest. Accordingly, he
halted outside Babylon. Sickness seized him, but he remembered the
warning of the rabbis and would not enter the city. For days he
wandered around until his soldiers showed signs of mutiny. Then,
throwing caution to the winds, Alexander entered Babylon.
At once his illness took a serious turn, and in a few days he died.
When the Jews heard the news, they mourned him sincerely, for they
knew that they had lost a good friend. All that remains as a memorial
of Alexander is the city of Alexandria, which he founded in Egypt. It
stands to this day.
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