the blessed Fathers, who did thus enact for the salvation of our
race. For the pathway to virtue is rough and steep, especially
for such as have not yet wholly turned unto the Lord, but are
still at warfare, through the tyranny of their passions. For
this reason also we need many encouragements thereto, whether it
be exhortations, or the record of the lives of them that have
travelled on the road before us; which latter draweth us towards
it the less painfully, and doth accustom us not to despair on
account of the difficulty of the journey. For even as with a man
that would tread a hard and difficult path; by exhortation and
encouragement one may scarce win him to essay it, but rather by
pointing to the many who have already completed the course, and
at the last have arrived safely. So I too, "walking by this
rule," and heedful of the danger hanging over that servant who,
having received of his lord the talent, buried it in the earth,
and hid out of use that which was given him to trade withal, will
in no wise pass over in silence the edifying story that hath come
to me, the which devout men from the inner land Of the
Ethiopians, whom our tale calleth Indians, delivered unto me,
translated from trustworthy records. It readeth thus.


I.

The country of the Indians, as it is called, is vast and
populous, lying far beyond Egypt. On the side of Egypt it is
washed by seas and navigable gulphs, but on the mainland it
marcheth with the borders of Persia, a land formerly darkened
with the gloom of idolatry, barbarous to the last degree, and
wholly given up to unlawful practices. But when "the only-