"We enter the mountains that border the land of the Houzans, where wild hill tribes live. The tale is that they have thrown off your Greek king's rule and begun waylaying and plundering again."
"Indeed?"
"I have been at my wits' end to get my folk through safely. If you will join me, we shall have a better chance than traveling separately."
"I fear you will delay us too much."
"It will only be for two or three days. Then we shall reach the plains of Houza."
"Very well," I said, and passed the word.
"Vaush, vaush," said the caravan leader, which means "good."
"True, I am as brave as a lion, and my people are mighty fighters. But there is nothing like a troop of trained soldiers in such a strait."
Our road joined the upper reaches of the Eulaios River, which wound snakelike through the rugged mountains that sunder Persis from Sousiana. We crept through narrow gorges and under frowning cliffs. Castles loomed over us. Little could be heard over the murmur and rush of the river. The sky darkened, and the first rain we had seen since India pelted down upon us.
Thouchras, the caravan leader, sought me out to boast of his bravery. On the second day after we joined the caravan, he said:
"You should have seen me in the land of the Iautians when my caravan was attacked, Hipparch. By Mithras, I built a rampart of the bodies of those I slew! There is nought I love better than a good, rousing fight. I shall almost be sorry if the hillmen assail us not." He brandished his sword towards the frowning, rocky hills, shouting: "Come, villains, try conclusions with Thouchras the Dauntless!"
As if in answer to Thouchras' boasts, a troop of horsemen trotted over the nearest ridge on our right. More and more came into view until at least a hundred were to be seen.
Shouts and screams came from the caravan. Seeing men pointing in the other direction, I looked and discerned a band of foot archers pouring over the crest on our left. Thyestes blew the alarm on our trumpet. My hipparchia, with the speed of long practice, drew itself into a compact formation with the wains on the inside and the elephant in the rear, ready to charge out.
"Stand by for orders, lads!" I cried. "Iai for Thessalia!"
I turned to Thouchras. "Draw your men up!" I said. "If you will take the first shock, we will launch a countercharge on their flank ..."
But Thouchras was in no mood to talk of battle plans. Pale under his native swarthiness, he turned his camel about and went bouncing back along the road, crying: "All is lost! Auramasdas save us! Every man for himself!"
Similar cries of despair arose from the other Persians. In a trice, the whole mass of camels, horses, mules, and carts had turned about and was fleeing without order back towards Persis. Vardanas screamed at them not to be fools, that they were going to their deaths. A few collected their wits and attached themselves to us, but the rest fled on.
We poised our javelins and nocked our shafts. The men looked to me for the next command.
The strange horsemen broke into a gallop down the slope. They aimed, not at us, but at the fleeing caravan. In fact, they swerved to keep out of range of our bows. On the other side, the footmen ran towards the same quarry.
The sun twinkled on weapons at the far end of the valley. We could not clearly see what happened because of the distance and the dust of the pursuit. Howsomever, thin despairing screams told us the hill-men had caught the fugitives ere they reached the end of the valley. I think a few men on good horses got away, but the rest were all taken.
It would have been folly for us to attack so large a force. Hence I ordered my people and the Persians who had joined us to take up our march again with all possible speed. Even so, the barbarians could have closed with us had they wished. Before we issued from the valley, they galloped past us along the hillcrest, waving plunder, herding captured beasts, driving the women, and carrying the heads of caravaneers on their lance points. None, however, came close to us. Though they outnumbered us ten to one in fighting strength, our resolute bearing and the fearsome sight of Aias kept them off.
Vardanas was much cast down by this tragedy. "I am ashamed of my countrymen," he muttered. "By the favor of Auramasdas, Leon, I will show you how a proper Persian acts. Verethragnas aid me!"
Rakous bounded uphill towards the disappearing raiders. Vardanas whirled the kamynda he had taken from the Asagartian. I divined that he meant to ride up to the foe, snare one of them with his rope, and drag him back to us. That would bring the whole pack down upon us in a trice. I spurred after him.
"Come back, fool!" I cried. "That's an order!"
He paid no heed but galloped ahead. A trick of the ground enabled me to cut in between him and the tribesmen. I caught Rakous' bridle and hauled the big horse around.
"Let me go, Leon!" cried Vardanas.
I led him back, protesting bitterly, to the troop. As he was not mad enough to set out after the hillmen afoot, that ended the matter, except that I had to bear the berating of my friend until his anger cooled.
"You practical Hellenes!" he fumed. "Cold and calculating, like a lot of grasping Phoenicians! No manly spirit, no honor! May you be kinless, for cheating me of my exploit!"
When he had finished, I said quietly: "Each to that at which he excels, as we say in Thessalia. If you're so eager to show your manly spirit, get behind our Persians and harry them. They lag."
He did so, albeit grudgingly. For days thereafter, Vardanas was sunk in such bottomless gloom that I feared he might even slay himself. When I asked him what ailed him, he said:
"I am baser than the veriest slave, Leon, for speaking to my best friend so churlishly."
"'Tis nought, buckie! I gave it no thought, so why should you? Cheer up!"
Still he continued to brood, nor could I say aught to lift his spirit, until one day he suddenly became his old gay self. As I came to know him, I found that these fits of gloom were a part of his nature that nought could relieve. Being a rather even-tempered man myself, I found such extremes of emotion hard to understand. As Sophokles said, man is the most wonderful of all natural wonders.
Book Five
SOUSIANA
Following the Eulaios, we came down out of the Persian mountains into the Sousian plain. This is a land of many names. Some call it Sousiana from Sousa, the principal city. To the Hellenes it is Kissia, from the Kossian tribe. To the Persians it is Houza, from the Houzans or Ouxians. To the people of Sousiana itself, however, it is Elymais or Elamis, a name which goes back to the days when it was a powerful kingdom, in an age of which all definite knowledge has perished.
The road came close to the river at intervals only, where the Eulaios made sharp bends in its winding course. Elsewhere, swamps and thickets fringed the river, spreading far out over the plain where tributaries joined it. Wild cattle and swine abounded in these wooded parts. Had I not hurried my men along, they would have lingered forever and aye for the hunting.
We had killed a buffalo cow and were cutting it up when there came a scream from the river. I thought I heard Thyestes call my name and looked up. He was really shouting:
"Lion!*( * Leon.) Took one of the women!"
Irtastouna, the concubine of Charinos of Krannon, had been seized whilst going for water. We had heard much roaring since we reached the plain, as well as the snarl of leopards. But, since such beasts as a rule avoid a company as large as ours, we had grown careless of them.
We seized upon weapons and ran towards the river. There was a shout of, "There it goes!" though when I arrived I saw no lion. However, blood and spoor in the soft soil led us into the thickets. The men spread out, beating the bushes and havering excitedly.