OUR GUIDES REFUSE TO PROCEED. 153 



of oiir advance ; we could, unfortunately, place no 

 settled reliance upon oiu' observations, from various 

 causes, among which the frequent stopping of the 

 chronometer from cold was perhaps the greatest 

 inconvenience. 



To our expressions of desire to proceed to Yandangah, 

 Mooldooyah and his wife to our surprise, returned 

 only replies indicative of reluctance and even refusal. 

 " The people at Yandangah," said he, " were unfriendly 

 to him, and he would inevitably be 'wahl-da,' 

 (knifed) if he appeared among them." Belconta was 

 equally unwilling, and so all others to whom we 

 applied; even promises of extra reward could not 

 induce any one to take the place of guide. Whether 

 the cause of objection was real or imagined I could 

 not tell ; it was, at any rate, well sustained, and our 

 chances of going to Yandangah seemed very small, 

 unless we went by ourselves, which would have been 

 not only rash, but also a great infraction of our 

 instructions both in letter and spirit, and of course 

 one or the other of these must always be observed. 

 However we awaited patiently the advent of the 

 morrow, and meanwhile made ourselves as comfortable 

 as might be. Belconta's tent was of contracted 

 dimensions, the inner apartment being only nine feet 

 by five feet six inches, but we were becoming used to 



