"Tis Vardanas' cursed Arian-race nonsense," I said. "Tell him, Vardanas."
Vardanas explained the Persian doctrine of racial purity. "All right," said Pyrron. "You and Leon are good friends, aren't you?"
"Surely," said Vardanas. "None better."
"If Leon were demonstrated to be an Arian after all, would you find him acceptable as a brother-in-law?"
"Why certainly—well, perhaps. But it must needs be a better proof than some of your Greek tricks of logic. You know, proving Achilles could never catch a tortoise when we all know he could. What are you coming to?"
"Thanks to the coaching of your attractive and quite intelligent sister, I've acquired a fair smattering of the Persian language. Now, I've observed that many of the words of Persian sound recognizably like their Greek synonyms." Pyrron gave as examples the words for door, man, foot, and ship.
"It's therefore my hypothesis," he went on, "that the Hellenes and the Persians are ultimately of common ancestry. For, if you compare these same words in Syrian, you find no resemblance whatever. As far as I know, this is a point which none of my colleagues has ever raised, as none of them considers any foreign language worthy of study. Someday I shall compose a treatise on the subject. There should be lists of words having the same signification in the various languages, in parallel columns—"
"Excuse me," I said, "but aren't you straying off the subject of Nirouphar's future?"
"Oh yes, to be sure. My point is that, if Hellenes and Persians are of common lineage, then, if Persians are Arians, Hellenes must be Arians also. Thus are Vardanas' racial objections refuted."
My hopes rose, but Vardanas frowned in thought. "It were not so easy," he said. "However our forebears wandered and interbred in legendary times, we Arians certainly do not mean 'Greek' when we say 'Arian.'"
I said: "Prince Vaxouvartas of Baktria must have deemed the Hellenes Arian, since he married his daughter to Alexander. And aren't the Baktrians the purest Arians of all?"
"No purer than we Persians," said Vardanas. "And a conqueror takes what women he pleases. But, even if the racial obstacle be overcome, there remains the barrier of religion."
"Must I then become a worshiper of Auramasdas?"
"That were a necessary though not a sufficient condition. It were but the first of the labors of Samas. But I cannot decide the matter now. Whilst my father live unreconciled, and my sister's wayward heart be turned elsewhither than towards him who desires her, there is no prospect of a wedding feast in any case."
We dressed and went back to camp. Nirouphar also returned. She bent a suspicious look upon us and said: "What plot have you three been hatching?"
"Pyrron has striven to make a philosopher of Leon and a swimmer of me," said Vardanas. "I fear with but little success in either case."
Book Seven
SYRIA
We rode up the left bank of the Tigris, passing through a gap in a low range of hills that lies athwart the river's path. We forded the Lesser Zabatos and marched through sparsely settled country, a desert save close upon the river. We sighted bands of marauding Arabs. Warned of their thievish ways, we kept close watches and were not molested.
The land waxed hillier, the air became cooler, and mountains appeared in the distance. We were in Assyria, the Arthoura of the Persians. The folk in the villages were larger and stouter than the Babylonians, with powerful frames, big noses curved like plowshares, and thick black beards.
I questioned Vardanas on the religion of Zarathoushtras, without committing myself. After all, I thought, when all other obstacles to my union with Nirouphar be overcome, it were time enough to proclaim my conversion.
At first, what Vardanas told me pleased me. Magianism seemed to have a more sensible answer to the problem of evil than other religions. Most start with a crew of all-too-human gods, as full of lust and folly as any mortals. Then people like Platon assure us this cannot be true; the gods are all-wise, all-good abstractions. When one asks whence comes evil, they throw out a cloud of words, like the ink an octopus squirts when one corners it in a seaside pool. It is all very confusing.
The Magians, however, frankly suppose two rival gods, of good and of evil, equally matched, who strive for the mastery of the universe. Every man must choose which of the twain he will side with. But my zeal for Magianism waned when I learned of the rites I should have to undergo to join it, such as that of washing my face in cow's urine.
We crossed the Great Zabatos, another tributary of the Tigris, and passed the site of the battle of Gaugamela. The battle had taken place five and a half years before, on a broad plain reaching almost to the horizon, on which rose a rank of low hills. The scene awoke strong memories in those of us who had fought in this great conflict.
We camped in sight of the battlefield on a chilly night and spoke in hushed tones of our memories. Knowing that Vardanas had served in Masdais' heavy horse on the Persian side in that vast struggle, I asked:
"Why in Hera's name did Masdais lead his division back to our camp after he had broken through our center? Had he assailed our foot from behind, when the Sakas made their fierce attack on our right, we had been in an evil plight indeed."
"Dareios had commanded Masdais at all costs to rescue his mother and his children."
"For this he threw away the battle?" said Thyestes. "What a silly carle!"
"Do Hellenes then count it a vice to love one's family?" said Vardanas.
"Na, na; but, like the dog with the bone in the fable, Dareios lost his battle outen getting his family back, through trying to grasp over-many things at once. What sort of body was he?"
"Not without virtues. Kind and courteous to his subjects, as far as the rules of courtly manners let him be. He labored hard to make them prosper after the oppressions of Artaxashas Vaukas. But his efforts had not borne fruit when the Macedonians fell upon him. True, he was no warrior, but timid and hesitant. When he did the right thing at last, like training his soldiers in the Greek methods of fighting, it was always too late. And he did twice flee from a battle, leaving his men to die for him. That is why I came over to Alexander with Nabarzanes; honor commands not to follow such a craven forever and aye. In peaceful times, though, he had made a good enough king."
"'The first in banquets, but the last in battle,'" quoted Pyrron. "Still and all, he suffered from the king's disease."
"What is that?"
"Self-conceit, which, as the proverb says, leads to self-destruction."
"I do not think him self-conceited. In his last days, when Bessos was hustling him through Media and Baktria, he became pitifully humble."
"Better beans and bacon in security than cakes and ale in fear," quoth Pyrron. "Nonetheless, he killed that Hellene who tried to give him sound advice."
"That adventurer, Charidemos of Oleus? My cousin Bagabouxas saw the whole thing. Charidemos besought Dareios to give him command of the entire army. When Dareios refused, Charidemos burst into rage. Before the whole court he shouted that all Persians, the king included, were womanish weaklings. One Macedonian, he said, could dompt ten of them. No king could be expected to bear such insults. As for self-conceit, I have heard naught for a year but complaints from you Hellenes about the same vice in Alexander. At least poor Daraiavaus never claimed to be a god."
"Of course you've heard complaints against the king," said Pyrron. "That's why most of the Greek states abolished kings and instituted democracies."
"Democracy is a fine ideal," said Vardanas, "but anyone can see it is doomed."
"Why so?"
"Because, as your own philosophers have pointed out, no state can be democratically ruled if its citizens exceed a few thousand. Suppose Alexander made his empire a democracy? The citizens could never come together from so vast an area to vote. If they did, such a huge disorderly throng, speaking a score of tongues, could not transact any business."