APOLLONIUS. "When I was ready to depart, the king gave me a parasol, and he said to me: 'I have a stud of white camels upon the Indus. When thou shalt have no further use for them, blow in their ears. They will come back.'
"We descended along the river, marching at night by the light of the fire-flies, which glimmered among the bamboos. The slave whistled an air to drive away the serpents; and our camels bent down in passing below the branches of the trees, as if passing under low gates.
"One day a black child, who held a golden caduceus in his hand, conducted us to the College of the Sages. Iarchas, their chief, spoke to me of my ancestors, told me of all my thoughts, of all my actions, of all my existences. In former time he had been the River Indus; and he reminded me that I had once been a boatman upon the Nile, in the time of King Sesostris."
DAMIS. "As for me, they told me nothing; so that I know not who or what I have been."
ANTHONY. "They have a vague look, like shadows!"
APOLLONIUS. "Upon the shores of the sea we met with the milk-gorged Cynocephali, who were returning from their expedition to the Island Taprobana. The tepid waves rolled blond pearls to our feet. The amber crackled beneath our steps. Whale-skeletons were whitening in the crevasses of the cliffs. At last the land became narrow as a sandal; and after casting drops of ocean water toward the sun, we turned to the right to return.
"So we returned through the Region of Aromatics, by way of the country of the Gangarides, the promontory of Comaria, the country of the Sachalites, of the Adramites and of the Homerites; then, across the Cassanian mountains, the Red Sea, and the Island Topazos, we penetrated into Ethiopia through the country of the Pygmies."
DAMIS. "And after we had returned home, we found that all those whom we used to know, were dead."
"Then men began to talk of me the world over.
"The plague was ravaging Ephesus; I made them stone an old mendicant there."
DAMIS. "And forthwith the plague departed."
ANTHONY. "What! Does he drive away pestilence?"
APOLLONIUS. "At Cnidos, I cured the man that had become enamored of Venus."
DAMIS. "Aye! a fool who had even vowed to espouse her! To love a woman is at least comprehensible; but to love a statue--what madness! The Master placed his hand upon the young man's heart; and the fire of that love was at once extinguished."