but he at
length determined to proceed into Ind to conquer that country of
enchanters and enchantment.

On approaching Ind he wrote to Kaid, summoning him to surrender his
kingdom, and received from him the following answer: "I will certainly
submit to thy authority, but I have four things which no other person in
the world possesses, and which I cannot relinquish. I have a daughter,
beautiful as an angel of Paradise, a wise minister, a skilful physician,
and a goblet of inestimable value!" Upon receiving this extraordinary
reply, Sikander again addressed a letter to him, in which he
peremptorily required all these things immediately. Kaid not daring to
refuse, or make any attempt at evasion, reluctantly complied with the
requisition. Sikander received the minister and the physician with great
politeness and attention, and in the evening held a splendid feast, at
which he espoused the beautiful daughter of Kaid, and taking the goblet
from her hands, drank off the wine with which it was filled. After that,
Kaid himself waited upon Sikander, and personally acknowledged his
authority and dominion.

Sikander then proceeded to claim the allegiance and homage of Faur, the
king of Kanuj, and wrote to him to submit to his power; but Faur
returned a haughty answer, saying:--

"Kaid Indi is a coward to obey thee,
But I am Faur, descended from a race
Of matchless warriors; and shall I submit,
And to a Greek!"

Sikander was highly incensed at this bold reply. The force he had now
with him amounted to eighty thousand men; that is, thirty thousand
Iranians, forty thousand Rumis, and ten thousand Indis. Faur had sixty
thousand horsemen, and two thousand elephants. The troops of Sikander
were greatly terrified at the sight of so many elephants, which gave the
enemy such a tremendous superiority. Aristatalis, and some other
ingenious counsellors, were requested to consult together to contrive
some means of counteracting the power of the war-elephants, and they
suggested the construction of an iron horse, and the figure of a rider
also of iron, to be placed upon wheels like a carriage, and drawn by a
number of horses. A soldier, clothed in iron armor, was to follow the
vehicle--his hands and face besmeared with combustible matter, and this
soldier, armed with a long staff, was at an appointed signal, to pierce
the belly of the horse and also of the rider, previously filled with
combustibles, so that when the ignited point c