THE STORY OF BUCEPHALUS 59 



that though subsequently it came to allow the 

 grooms to ride it bareback, yet when it had on 

 one of the cloths that at that period did duty for 

 a saddle it would allow only Alexander to mount 

 it. As one writer neatly says : " When others 

 tried to mount the horse with the cloth on they 

 invariably had to take to their heels to save them- 

 selves from his." It is further recorded that when 

 Alexander wished to mount, Bucephalus would 

 crouch of its own accord to enable its master to 

 get on more easily. 



Alexander took Bucephalus with him on his 

 famous expeditions into the East, and on one 

 occasion, in Hyrcania, the horse was stolen. The 

 king " thereupon became terrible to see, so great 

 was his rage." At once an edict was issued that 

 unless the horse were returned to him without 

 delay he would " carry fire and sword throughout 

 the country north and south, east and west, 

 sparing neither men nor women, nor, if need be, 

 even the smallest children." 



A chronicler of the period, commenting upon 

 this, drily observes that when Alexander's deter- 

 mination became known, " the horse was returned 

 in a hurry ! " 



"Thus," remarks Arrian, the great historian, 

 " the horse must have been as dear to Alexander 

 as Alexander was terrible to the barbarians." As 

 he here employs the word " barbarian" in its 

 offensive signification he evidently despised the 



