84 ALEXANDER AND DARIUS. 



separates Palestine from Egypt, received the submis- 

 sion of that satrapy, made arrangements for its ad- 

 ministration, visited the oracle of Jupiter Ammon in 

 the Sahara, and returned to Tyre. Thence making 

 a long detour to avoid the sandy deserts of Arabia, he 

 entered the plains of Mesopotamia inhabited only by 

 the ostrich and the wild ass, and marched towards the 

 ruins of Nineveh, near which he fought his third and 

 last great battle with the Persians. He proceeded to 

 Babylon, which at once opened its vast gates. He 

 restored the Chaldasan priesthood, and the old idolatry 

 of Belus. He took Susa, Ecbatana, and Persepolis, 

 the other three palatial cities, reducing the highlanders 

 who had so long levied black mail on the Persian 

 monarchs. He pursued Darius to the moist forest- 

 covered shores of the Caspian sea, and inflicted a 

 terrible death on the assassins of that ill-fated king. 

 The Persian histories relate that Alexander discovered 

 Darius apparently dead upon the ground. He alighted 

 from his horse ; he raised his enemy's head upon 

 his knees ; he shed tears and kissed the expiring 

 monarch, who opened his eyes and said, " The world 

 has a thousand doors through which its tenants con- 

 tinually enter and pass away." "I swear to you," 

 cried Alexander, " I never wished a day like this ; 

 I desired not to see your royal head in the dust, nor 

 that blood should stain these cheeks." The legend is 

 a fiction, but it illustrates the character of Alexander. 

 Such legends are not related of Genghis Khan, or of 

 Tamerlane by the people whom they conquered. 



He now marched by Mushed, Herat, and the reedy 

 shores of Lake Zurrah to Candahar and Cabul. He en- 

 tered that delightful land in which the magpies fluttering 

 from tree to tree and the white daisies shining in the 



