The Classical Accounts of India c8.s2.t2.7

c8.s2.t2.7

7. There was a kind of plant like the laurel which caused any beast of burden which tasted of it to die with epilepsy, along with foaming at the mouth. And there was a prickly plant, the fruit of which strewed the ground, like cucumbers, and was full of juice; and if drops of this juice struck an eye of any creature, they always blinded it. Further, many were choked by eating unripe dates. And there was also danger from the snakes; for herbs grew on the sand-hills, and beneath these herbs the snakes had crept unnoticed; and they killed every person they struck. It was said that among the Oreitae the arrows, which were made of wood and hardened in fire, were besmeared with deadly poisons; and that Ptolemaeus was wounded and in danger of losing his life; and that when Alexander was asleep someone stood beside him and showed him a root, branch and all, which he bade Alexander to crush and apply to the wound; and that when Alexander awoke from his sleep he remembered the vision, sought for, and found, the root, which grew in abundance; and that he made use of it, both he himself and the others; and that when the barbarians saw that the antidote had been discovered they surrendered to the king. But it is reasonable to suppose that someone who knew of the antidote informed the king, and that the fabulous element was added for the sake of flattery. Having arrived at the royal seat of the Gedrosii on the sixtieth day after leaving the Orae,¹ Alexander gave his multitudinous army only a short rest and then set out for Carmania.