He flung on the ground a dry, shrunken hide, and then trod upon the
outside of it, but when he trod it down in one place, it rose up in
all the others. He walked all round the edge of it, and showed that
this kept taking place until at length he stepped into the middle, and
so made it all lie flat. This image was intended to signify that
Alexander ought to keep his strength concentrated in the middle of his
empire, and not wander about on distant journeys.
LXVI. Alexander's voyage down the Indus and its tributaries, to the
sea-coast, took seven months. On reaching the ocean he sailed to an
island which he himself called Skillustis, but which was generally
known as Psiltukis. Here he landed and sacrificed to the gods, after
which he explored the sea and the coast as far as he could reach.
Having done this, he turned back, after praying to the gods that no
conqueror might ever transcend this, the extreme limit of his
conquests. He ordered his fleet to follow the line of the coast,
keeping India on their right hand: and he gave Nearchus the supreme
command, with Onesikritus as chief pilot. He, himself, marched through
the country of the Oreitae, where he endured terrible sufferings from
scarcity of provisions, and lost so many men that he scarcely brought
back home from India the fourth part of his army, which originally
amounted to a hundred and twenty thousand foot, and fifteen thousand
horse.
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