Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/49

 CURIOUS CUSTOMS AND SAVAGE DOGS 23 therefore established in order to check the practice of administering poison; but neither the existence nor the origin of the law are probable facts. It is said, that in the territory of Sopeithes there is a mountain composed of salt to be mined, sufficient for the whole of India. Valuable mines also, both of gold and silver, are situated, it is said, not far off among other mountains, according to the testimony of Gorgos, the miner of Alexander. The Indians, unacquainted with mining and smelting, are ignorant of their own wealth, and therefore traffic with great simplicity. The dogs in the territory of Sopeithes are said to possess remarkable courage; Alexander received from Sopeithes a present of one hundred and fifty of them. To test them, two were set at a lion; when these were mastered, two others were set on; when the battle became equal, Sopeithes ordered a man to seize one of the dogs by the leg, and to drag him away or, if he still held on, to cut off his leg. Alexander at first re- fused his consent to the dog's leg being cut off, as he wished to save the dog. But as Sopeithes said, " I will give you four in the place of it," Alexander con- sented, and he saw the dog permit his leg to be cut slowly off, rather than loose his hold. The direction of the march, as far as the Hydaspes, was for the most part toward the south. After that, to the Hypanis, it was more toward the east. The whole of it, however, was much nearer to the country lying at the foot of the mountains than to the plains. Alexander therefore, when he returned from the Hy-