<TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" xmlns:py="http://codespeak.net/lxml/objectify/pytype" py:pytype="TREE"><text xml:lang="eng"><body><div type="translation" n="urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg044.perseus-eng5" xml:lang="eng"><div type="textpart" subtype="section" xml:base="urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg044.perseus-eng5:" n="61"><p>
When I have told you as my fifth case the
deeds of Abauchas I will stop. This Abauchas
once came into a city of the Borysthenites, bringing with him his wife, whom he loved tenderly,
and two small children, one of them a baby at
the breast and the other a girl seven years old.
A friend of his, Gyndanes, journeyed in company
with him, and he, moreover, was suffering from a
wound he got from robbers who had waylaid
them on the road. For in fighting them he got a
thrust in the thigh, so that he could not even
stand for pain. As they were asleep at night—
they happened to be lodging in an upper story—a
great fire broke out, all means of exit were cut
off, and the flames surrounded the house on every


<pb n="p.235"/>

side. Thereupon Abauchas awoke, and he left
his weeping child behind and shook off his wife,
who clung to him, calling to her to save herself;
but he lifted his friend and made his way down,
and was in time to get out through part of the
house not yet entirely seized by the fire. His wife
followed, carrying the baby, and bidding the little
girl come after; but the woman was half-burnt and
let the baby fall from her arm, and barely leaped
through the flame with the little girl, who also had
a narrow escape from death.
When it was afterwards made a reproach to
Abauchas that he had deserted his wife and
children to bring Gyndanes out, he would say,
"It is an easy matter for me to have more children, and it is impossible to know whether they
will be good or not; but it would take me a long
time to find another such friend as Gyndanes,
who has given me great proof of his affection."</p></div></div></body></text></TEI>