DISTRICTS TRAVERSED BY ALEXANDER 19 became jealous, and observed that it seemed as if Alex- ander had found none on whom he could confer favours before he passed the Indus. Some writers say that this country is larger than Egypt. Above this country among the mountains is the territory of Abisaros (Abhisara), who, as the ambas- sadors that came from him reported, kept two serpents, BRIDGE OF BOATS ON THE INDUS. one of eighty, and the other, according to Onesikritos, of one hundred and forty cubits in length. This writer may as well be called the master fabulist as the master pilot of Alexander. For all those who accompanied Alexander preferred the marvellous to the true, but this writer seems to have surpassed all in his descrip- tion of prodigies. Some things, however, he relates which are probable and worthy of record, and will not be passed over in silence even by one who does not
