In the night after the battle of the first day the guards cried out for that lights were moving on the field of battle, and soon three dwarfs came near holding in their hands peeled white wands; and when the guards saw them they brought them to the tent of Alexander. Then the eldest of them said, “O leader of the Greeks from Macedon, truly ye be braver than the Persians or the men of India, give us now an ounce of gold and a sword for each man and we will return whence we came.” Then Alexander said, “O leader of the dwarfs, haters of God and men, meseems I am not come to this land but to free mankind from you. If ye abide my face till day I will slay you all, and if ye flee I will pursue you till ye return to your own land.” Then he bade his men to take them and lead them from the camp.
It was of custom among this folk to travel in great waggons, and to make of these their forts in times of danger, so on the morrow when the Greeks and the Persians drew out in battle array, the dwarf-folk came not forth all to attack them as on the day before, but the more part stayed within the waggons, and when the knights rode up to the waggons their progress was stopped and they could go no further, and the dwarfs stood on the waggons and mocked and jeered at them as they shot their arrows at them, and the knights were sore angered and brought up firebrands but the dwarfs had covered the waggons with hides so that they burnt not. So that day wore on, and when night came the Greeks returned to their camp, and they spent the night in plans for the morrow. When it was light the army of Alexander got them ready for another day’s fighting, but when they came out on the plain, they found not the hordes of the dwarfs for they had departed, burning all the country round. Then Alexander provided good store of food and drink and began to follow up the abominable dwarfs, for well he knew that he should find neither on the road, for these wretches destroy all the crops and poison and defile all the springs of water they pass. And after many days he came to the land of the dwarfs, and there he found two-and-twenty kings, and fought a great battle with them, and made them give up all the iron and copper in their land, and then he set his men to build a great wall at the entrance to their land.