Most of the men perished from sickness, bad food, and the
excessive heat of the sun, and many from sheer hunger, as they had to
march through an uncultivated region, inhabited only by a few
miserable savages, with a stunted breed of cattle whose flesh had
acquired a rank and disagreeable taste through their habit of feeding
on sea-fish.
After a terrible march of sixty days, the army passed through this
desert region, and reached Gedrosia, where the men at once received
abundant supplies of food, which were furnished by the chiefs of the
provinces which they entered.
LXVII. After he had refreshed his troops here for a little, Alexander
led them in a joyous revel for seven days through Karmania.[426] He,
himself, feasted continually, night and day, with his companions, who
sat at table with him upon a lofty stage drawn by eight horses, so
that all men could see them. After the king's equipage followed
numberless other waggons, some with hangings of purple and embroidered
work, and others with canopies of green boughs, which were constantly
renewed, containing the rest of Alexander's friends and officers, all
crowned with flowers and drinking wine. There was not a shield, a
helmet, or a pike, to be seen, but all along the road the soldiers
were dipping cups, and horns, and earthenware vessels into great jars
of liquor and drinking one another's healths, some drinking as they
marched along, while others sat by the roadside.
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