THE FIRST DIVERS 3 5 



between campaigns in the east. Only one manuscript is 

 known. This was made some time following the fifth or 

 sixth century, from Persian or Arabic sources. 



And here is how the dusky Semite, Theodoros, cam- 

 paigning far in the interior of Africa, is intimately con- 

 cerned with the history of deep-sea diving. About the 

 middle of the last century this same Emperor Theodoros, 

 who had just seized the crown of Abyssinia, decided to 

 form a magnificent library for the proudest church in his 

 capital. For some time, as he methodically rifled the mon- 

 asteries of his country, he gathered together their richest 

 literary treasures. People rebelled, but everything went 

 moderately well until the Emperor threw into prison a 

 couple of consuls and a British ambassador. When the in- 

 evitable Tommies put in their appearance, Theodoros fled 

 to a mountain fortress, released his prisoners and despair- 

 ingly committed suicide. Next day the British stormed the 

 fort, and there, tumbled ingloriously onto a heap of a 

 thousand other precious documents, lay the Ethiopic 

 Pseudo-Callisthenes. A rescue was effected and it was 

 brought to England. 



The following passage, taken from Budge's latest 

 (1933) translation, relates to the undersea activities of 

 Alexander. Throughout the tale the hero is called "the 

 Two-horned" because his father was popularly supposed 

 to have been not Philip of Macedon, but the Egyptian 

 God Amen, who numbered a pair of horns among his 

 symbolic regalia. 



