death him who gave the worst answer."

LXV. Alexander now gave them presents and dismissed them unhurt. He
also sent Onesikritus to the most renowned of them, who lived a life
of serene contemplation, desiring that they would come to him. This
Onesikritus was a philosopher of the school of Diogenes the cynic. One
of the Indians, named Kalanus, is said to have received him very
rudely, and to have proudly bidden him to take off his clothes and
speak to him naked, as otherwise he would not hold any conversation
with him, even if he came from Zeus himself. Dandamis, another of the
Gymnosophists, was of a milder mood, and when he had been told of
Sokrates, Pythagoras, and Diogenes, said that they appeared to him to
have been wise men, but to have lived in too great bondage to the
laws. Other writers say that Dandamis said nothing more than "For what
purpose has Alexander come all the way hither?" However, Taxiles
persuaded Kalanus to visit Alexander. His real name was Sphines: but
as in the Indian tongue he saluted all he met with the word 'Kale,'
the Greeks named him Kalanus. This man is said to have shown to
Alexander a figure representing his empire, in the following manner.
He flung on the ground a dry, shrunken hide, and then trod upon the
outside of it, but when he trod it down in one place, it rose up in
all the others. He walked all round the edge of it, and showed that
this kept taking place until at length he stepped into the middle, and
so made it all lie flat. This image was intended to signify that
Alexander ought to keep his strength concentrated in the middle of his
empire, and not wander about on distant journeys.

LXVI. Alexander's voyage down the Indus and its tributaries, to the
sea-coast, took seven months. On reaching the ocean he sailed to an
island which he himself called Skillustis, but which was generally
known as Psiltukis. Here he landed and sacrificed to the gods, after
which he explored the sea and the coast as far as he could reach.
Having done this, he turned back, after praying to the gods that no
conqueror might ever transcend this, the extreme limit of his
conquests. He ordered his fleet to follow the line of the coast,
keeping India on their right hand: and he gave Nearchus the supreme
command, with Onesikritus as chief pilot. He, himself, marched through
the country of the Oreitae, where he endured terrible sufferings from
scarcity of provisions, and lost so many men that he scarcely br