þei drawen hem. —Gautier de Châtillon narrates the loves of Alexander and the queen of the Amazons, named Thalestris:
… Visendi succensa cupidine regisGentis Amazoniae venit regina ThalestrisCastraque virginibus subiit comitata ducentis.……Laeva papilla manet et conservatur adultis,Cuius lacte infans sexus muliebris alatur.Non intacta manet, sed aduritur altera, lentosPromptius ut tendant arcus.……Se venisse refert, ut pleno ventre regressaCommunem pariat cum tanto principe prolem………… Fuerit si femina partuProdita, maternis potietur filia regnis:Si mas exstiterit patri reddetur alendus.……… tandem pro munere noctemTer deciesque tulit.(Alexandreis, ed. Mueldener, 1863, l. VIII., ll. 8-47, pp. 173-174.)
The distinction made between aristocratic girls, who lose the left breast, and the infantry, who lose the right, seems a characteristic duplication, imagined by d'Outremeuse.