wonderful stratagem
to preserve the army safe, and without hurt; for he made baskets, like
unto arks, of sedge, and filled them with ibes, [23] and carried
them along with them; which animal is the greatest enemy to serpents
imaginable, for they fly from them when they come near them; and as
they fly they are caught and devoured by them, as if it were done by
the harts; but the ibes are tame creatures, and only enemies to the
serpentine kind: but about these ibes I say no more at present, since
the Greeks themselves are not unacquainted with this sort of bird. As
soon, therefore, as Moses was come to the land which was the breeder of
these serpents, he let loose the ibes, and by their means repelled the
serpentine kind, and used them for his assistants before the army came
upon that ground. When he had therefore proceeded thus on his journey,
he came upon the Ethiopians before they expected him; and, joining
battle with them, he beat them, and deprived them of the hopes they
had of success against the Egyptians, and went on in overthrowing their
cities, and indeed made a great slaughter of these Ethiopians. Now when
the Egyptian army had once tasted of this prosperous success, by the
means of Moses, they did not slacken their diligence, insomuch that the
Ethiopians were in danger of being reduced to slavery, and all sorts of
destruction; and at length they retired to Saba, which was a royal city
of Ethiopia, which Cambyses afterwards named Mero, after the name of
his own sister. The place was to be besieged with very great difficulty,
since it was both encompassed by the Nile quite round, and the other
rivers, Astapus and Astaboras, made it a very difficult thing for such
as attempted to pass over them; for the city was situate in a
retired place, and was inhabited after the manner of an island, being
encompassed with a strong wall, and having the rivers to guard them
from their enemies, and having great ramparts between the wall and the
rivers, insomuch, that when the waters come with the greatest violence,
it can never be drowned; which ramparts make it next to impossible for
even such as are gotten over the rivers to take the city. However, while
Moses was uneasy at the army's lying idle, [for the enemies durst not
come to a battle,] this accident happened:--Tharbis was the daughter of
the king of the Ethiopians: she happened to see Moses as he led the
army near the walls, and fought with great courage; and admiring th