The Oera Linda Book, from a Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century
History
The Oera Linda Book, from a Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century
Frisian language -- Texts
and children with us. When we arrived at the mouth of the Euphrates,
we might either choose a place to settle there or come back. Our pay
would be guaranteed to us the same in either case. Upon the new ships
which had been saved from the fire he embarked the Joniers and the
Greeks. He himself went with the rest of his people along the coast,
through the barren wilderness; that is, through the land that Irtha
had heaved up out of the sea when she had raised up the strait as
soon as our forefathers had passed into the Red Sea.
When we arrived at New Gertmania (New Gertmania is the port that
we had made in order to take in water), we met Alexander with his
army. Nearchus went ashore, and stayed three days. Then we proceeded
further on. When we came to the Euphrates, Nearchus went ashore
with the soldiers and a large body of people; but he soon returned,
and said, The King requests you, for his sake, to go a voyage up
the Red Sea; after that each shall receive as much gold as he can
carry. When we arrived there, he showed us where the strait had
formerly been. There he spent thirty-one days, always looking steadily
towards the desert.
At last there arrived a great troop of people, bringing with them 200
elephants, 1000 camels, a quantity of timber, ropes, and all kinds of
implements necessary to drag our fleet to the Mediterranean Sea. This
astounded us, and seemed most extraordinary; but Nearchus told us that
his king wished to show to the other kings that he was more powerful
than any kings of Tyre had ever been. We were only to assist, and that
surely could do us no harm. We were obliged to yield, and Nearchus
knew so well how to regulate everything, that before three months
had elapsed our ships lay in the Mediterranean Sea. When Alexander
ascertained how his project had succeeded, he became so audacious
that he wished to dig out the dried-up strait in defiance of Irtha;
but Wr-alda deserted his soul, so that he destroyed himself by wine
and rashness before he could begin it. After his death his kingdom
was divided among his princes. They were each to have preserved a
share for his sons, but that was not their intention. Each wished
to keep his own share, and to get more. Then war arose, and we could
not return. Nearchus wished us to settle on the coast of Phoenicia,
but that no one would do. We said we would rather risk the attempt to
return to Fryasland. Then he brought us to the new port of Athens,
where all the true children of Frya had formerly gone. We went,
soldiers with our goods and weapons. Among the many princes Nearchus
had a friend named Antigonus. These two had only one object in view,
as they told us--to help the royal race, and to restore freedom to
all the Greek lands. Antigonus had, among many others, one son named
Demetrius, afterwards called the "City Winner." He went once to the
town of Salamis, and after he had been some time fighting there, he
had an engagement with the fleet of Ptolemy. Ptolemy was the name of
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