Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/102

72 foes, yet the visitations of the Deity cannot be foreseen or guarded against by man."

The words of Koinos were greeted with loud applause, which left no doubt about the temper of the men. Alexander, deeply mortified and unwilling to yield, retired within his tent, but emerged on the third day, convinced that farther advance was impracticable. The soothsayers judiciously discovered that the omens were unfavourable for the passage of the river, and Alexander, with a heavy heart, gave orders for retreat, in September, 326 B. C.

To mark the farthest point of his advance, he erected twelve huge altars, built of squared stone, and each fifty cubits in height, dedicated to the twelve great gods. Although the army had not passed the river, these massive memorials were erected on the farther bank, where they long remained to excite the wonder and veneration of both natives and foreigners. Traces of them may still exist, and should be looked for along the oldest bed of the Bias, near the hills, in one or other of the three districts—Gurdaspur, Hoshyarpur, or Kangra—where nobody has yet sought them.

The judicious Arrian simply records:—

"Alexander divided the army into brigades, which he ordered to prepare twelve altars equal in height to the loftiest military towers, while exceeding them in breadth, to serve both as thank-offerings to the gods who had led him so far on the path of conquest, and as a memorial of his achievements. When the altars had been constructed, he offered sacrifice upon them with