Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/74

46 the places next attacked. An attempt to take the town by assault having failed by reason of the depth of the protecting river, Alexander was preparing to reduce it by blockade when the speedy submission of the inhabitants rendered further operations unnecessary. They are alleged to have craved his clemency on the ground that they were akin to Dionysos and the Greeks, because the ivy and vine grew in their country, and the triple-peaked mountain which overshadowed their town was no other than Mount Meros. Alexander, who found such fancies useful as a stimulant to his homesick troops, did not examine the evidence for the kinship with Dionysos in too critical a spirit, but was glad to accept the Nysaian appeals and to exercise a gracious clemency.

In order to gratify his own curiosity, and to give some of his best troops a pleasant holiday, he paid a visit to the mountain, now known as the Koh-i-Mor, accompanied by an adequate escort of the companion cavalry and foot-guards. The chants and dances of the natives, the ancestors of the Kafirs of the present day, bore sufficient resemblance to the Bacchanalian rites of Hellas to justify the claims made by the Nysaians, and to encourage the soldiers in their belief that, although far from home, they had at last found a people who shared their religion and might be regarded as kinsmen. Alexander humoured the convenient delusion and allowed his troops to enjoy with the help of their native friends a ten days' revel in the jungles. The Nysaians, on their part, showed their gratitude for the