Αλεξανδρου αναβασις 6.3.4

6.3.4

οἵ τε ἵπποι διαφαινόμενοι διὰ τῶν ἱππαγωγῶν πλοίων, οὐ πρόσθεν ἵπποι ἐπὶ νεῶν ὀφθέντες ἐν τῇ Ἰνδῶν γῇ ʽκαὶ γὰρ καὶ τὸν Διονύσου ἐπʼ Ἰνδοὺς στόλον οὐκ ἐμέμνηντο γενέσθαι ναυτικόνʼ, ἔκπληξιν παρεῖχον τοῖς θεωμένοις τῶν βαρβάρων, ὥστε οἱ μὲν αὐτόθεν τῇ ἀναγωγῇ παραγενόμενοι ἐπὶ πολὺ ἐφωμάρτουν,

When all the preparations had been completed, the army at break of day began to embark. Alexander himself sacrificed according to custom both to the gods and to the river Akesines as the seers directed. After he had embarked he poured a libation into the river, from his station on the prow, out of a golden bowl, and invoked not only the Hydaspes, but also the Akesines, as he had learned that the Akesines was the greatest of all the confluents of the Hydaspes, and that their point of junction was not far off. He invoked likewise the Indus, into which the Akesines falls after receiving the Hydaspes. He further poured out libations to his ancestor Herakles, and to Ammon and every other god to whom it was his custom to sacrifice, and then he ordered the signal for starting on the voyage to be given by sound of trumpet.
The fleet as soon as the signal sounded began the voyage in due order, for directions had been given at what distances the luggage-boats, the horse-transports, and the war-galleys should keep apart from each other to prevent collisions which would be inevitable if the ships sailed at random down the channel. Even the fast sailers were not allowed to break rank by out-distancing the others. The noise caused by the rowing was great beyond all precedent, proceeding as it did from a vast number of boats being rowed simultaneously, and swelled by the shouts of the officers directing the rowing to begin or to stop, commingled with the shouts of the rowers, which rung like the war-cry when they joined together in keeping time to the dashing of the oars. The banks, moreover, being in many places higher than the ships, and compressing the sound within a narrow compass, sent the echoes, greatly increased by the compression itself, flying to and fro between them. The ravines also which occasionally opened on the river on either of its shores served further to swell the din by reverberating amid their solitudes the thuds of the oars. The appearance of the war-horses on the decks of the transports struck the barbarians, who saw them through the lattice work, with such wonder and astonishment, that the throng which lined the shores to witness the departure of the fleet accompanied it to a great distance, for in the country of the Indians horses had never before been seen on shipboard, nor was there any tradition to the effect that the Indian expedition of Dionysos was of a naval character. Those Indians also who had already submitted to Alexander, as soon as they heard the shouts of the rowers and the dashing of the oars, ran down to the edge of the river and followed the fleet, singing their wild native chaunts, for the Indians have been peculiarly distinguished among the nations as lovers of dance and song, ever since Dionysos and his attendant Bacchanals made their festive progress through the realms of India.