156 A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE
Militarily it went vvTell with the Greeks, and every-
thing fell before the prowess of Alexander's arms. But
the World Conqueror felt that he had met more than his
match when he was confronted by men who baffled him
by their dialectical skill and still another who, though
unarmed, had rendered himself invulnerable, by virtue of
his spiritual power against which no earthly weapon could
prevail
Near Peshawar, records the historian, Alexander cap-
tured ten sannyasis who were principally concerned in
persuading King Sambhas to revolt and by infusing among"
the people an unconquerable spirit of resistance " had
done much harm otherwise to Macedonians ". He pro-
posed for their solution some knotty conundrums with the
condition that " he would put to death first the one whose
answer was the poorest and then the others in order/7
He demanded of the first which he took to be
most numerous — the living or the dead. The answer was,
" The living, for the dead are not."
The second was asked which bred the largest animals-
— the sea or the land. He answered, " The land, for the
sea is only a part of it."
The third was asked which was the cleverest of
beasts. He answered, " That with which man is not ac-
quainted."
The fourth was asked for what reason he induced.
Sambhas to revolt. He replied, " Because I wished him
to live with honour and die with honour."
The fifth was asked which he thought existed first
— the day or the night. He answered, " The day wa&
first by one day." As the King appeared surprised at this,
solution, he added, " Impossible questions require impossi-
ble answers."
Alexander, then turning to the sixth, asked him how
a man could best make himself beloved. He replied, " If
a man being possessed of great power did not make him-
self feared."