"That is wicked! He must stop sinful life, go back home, take up caste duties! Otherwise the gods degrade him further in next life."
"Look here, laddie, Siladites works for Aristoteles the now, not for me or for King Alexander. So what he does is his own affair."
"Oh, you are just another immoral Hellene!" he snorted, and stormed out. Next day, however, he bade us a courteous farewell, placing his palms together and bowing over them.
"Ship sails for Sidon tomorrow," he said. "There I buy horses, ride back to India."
"Can you manage alone?" I asked. "Shouldn't you buy a slave or hire a traveling merchant like Elisas as your guide?"
"Me, throw away good money? Anyhow, I do not approve of slavery. Do not worry about me. I am a seasoned traveler now. Wait till I tell friends in Paurava of adventures. Those poor clods would fear to cross the sea in ship!"
I thought it tactful not to mention the fuss Kanadas had made about his first sea voyage. He swaggered off, the huge sword hanging down his back, on his way to Peiraieus. Though not an easy man to know, he was brave and honest and true in his own dour way. I hope he made it home.
Thus Siladites became Aristoteles' head elephant keeper. His Greek, though still frightful, was good enough to order around his helper, a trembling Nubian slave whom Aristoteles bought with money from the king's fund. Without Kanadas to keep him in the narrow path of caste rules, Siladites blossomed into a man of some character and consequence. In later years, though his Greek remained foul, he became chief elephantarch to Antipatros and his son Kassandros when they ruled Macedonia.
As the year of Antikles' archonship began and the heat of summer came on, my Persian friends suffered in the warm woolen coats and trousers they had brought from Sousa the previous winter. They found that, whilst they could buy thin stuffs for summer suits, nobody in Athens could do the elaborate tailoring needed to make garments of the Persian style.
I therefore persuaded Nirouphar to try on a Greek woman's chiton. When she walked out from Syloson's gynaikeion, Vardanas gave a shriek. "Cover yourself, hussy!" he cried.
"Oh, hush your shouting!" said Nirouphar. "Anybody would think you my maiden aunt!"
Syloson's wife had given Nirouphar a Dorian chiton, open on the right side from the shoulder down. I found the sight of my loved one's bare flank charming, but Persian modesty won out.
"Now," said I, when Nirouphar had been pinned together, "our next step, buckie, is to get you out of those flapping trousers."
Vardanas said: "Oh no! Not for me to walk the streets waving my private parts in the breeze as you do!"
"You are an old fuss-budget like Father," said Nirouphar. "Rheon —I mean Leon—has sense. In trouser country he wears trousers, and in this bare-breeked land he goes without. Whom fear you to shock? Having seen Athenians strolling about their town stert-naked, I am no longer surprised by such things."
"You do not understand these things," said Vardanas. "It is a matter of honor with me to protect your purity and innocence."
"Rubbish!" said Nirouphar. "Either you try Greek garb, or I will forth without these safety pins."
"Mithras, do not do that!" he cried. At last we got him into one of my shirts, a little short for him but perfectly proper. But, at the next lecture, he stood through the whole session, explaining afterwards: "I dared not sit for fear of indecent exposure."
What with the lectures to hear and the beautiful monuments of Athens to see, I felt I needed only to be joined to Nirouphar for my happiness to be complete. I hinted as much to Vardanas, hoping that time and his sister's growing regard for me would dispose him more kindly to such a marriage. But Vardanas looked squarely at me and said:
"Dear Leon, betimes you have twitted me for acting impulsively and without enough forethought."
"So I have. But what has that to do—"
"A moment, please. I shall demonstrate by irrefragable logic, as Aristoteles would say, that you are now so acting yourself."
"How so?"
"First, passing by the question of racial purity, it is your Greek custom for the parents of a bride to give the couple a sum of money and property called a dowry. In Persia the girls do not have dowries. Instead, the groom, or his parents, give the dowry. To put it crudely, Hellenes buy husbands; Persians buy wives. Would you wed a Persian woman under those conditions?"
"This is no matter of vulgar money," I said, though not so forcefully as I might have. I confess that this news had shaken me.
"Hear the rich young lordling! Which brings up a second point: to wit, what would your parents say about such a match? Unless you are minded to defy them—a course on the imprudence of which, if I remember aright, you once lectured me." Vardanas smiled a little grimly.
This silenced me, for I had not thought about the matter at all. Or, to be truthful, I had thought about it but quickly pushed the thought to the back of my mind because of the discomfort it caused me. I knew my parents would make an uproar when they heard of the proposal, and I was not prepared to defy them. Despite the usual petty squabbles that occur in most families, we were a close-knit group who dearly loved one another. Moreover, there were property rights involved, which a serious quarrel would jeopardize.
"Thirdly," continued the Persian implacably, "I know something of your Greek customs: how a man wed to a poor woman, given a chance to marry one with a large marriage portion, thinks nothing whatever of divorcing the first wife to take the second. I would not have my sister so used."
"That's Athens, not Thessalia," said I feebly.
"It is the general opinion in Hellas, north and south, east and west, that to marry for love, rather than for property and posterity, is foolish and uncivilized conduct. If you insist, I will get Aristoteles to testify to this effect. And fourthly, what says your law about marriage to foreigners?"
"I know not," I said miserably. "I never thought of such a thing ere I left home, and of course there was nobody to ask about such matters in Persia and India."
"Well, the other day Aristoteles was talking about the methods that Greek states use to preserve their—what is that long word he uses?— their homogeneity, thus to keep down schisms and seditions. One method is to forbid marriages between citizens and strangers. If an Athenian wed an alien and live here, the alien shall be sold into slavery. Now, I do not know what the rules are in Thessalia, but the matter were worth looking into ere you do aught rash."
Crushed, I gave up for the time being and pined after Nirouphar more desperately than ever from afar. When my lusts became intolerable I sought relief in the brothel, pretending it was Nirouphar I rode.
I was cheered by another letter, reading as follows:
eumenes of kardia wishes leon aristou well
King Alexander asks me to convey to you his unstinted praise and admiration for the glorious feat you have accomplished, and to request you to pass on to your lieutenant, Vardanas of Sousa, his thanks for the loyal support that Vardanas has afforded you in this enterprise.
The king notes with regret that you and Vardanas have tendered your resignations from the armies of Macedonia and Asia. He has instructed me to enter your names in the roll of honorably discharged soldiers with ranks one grade higher than those you last had: Leon of Atrax to be squadron leader, and Vardanas of Sousa to be troop leader. If ever you or Vardanas decide to re-enlist, those ranks shall be yours for the asking.
We are at the mouth of the Indus, preparing for an overland march westward along the shores of the Ocean. Rumor says that the march will be through difficult deserts; hut, with Alexander to lead them, there is nothing our soldiers cannot do.