SHIRAZ TO BUSHIEE. 55 



a close sultry night, and for some minutes I found it 

 impossible to get clear of these long black boxes that 

 came crowding upon me as if there was no end to 

 them. For those few minutes they seemed an age 

 a sickness came over me that made me reel in my 

 saddle, and left me with scarcely strength sufficient 

 to keep my seat, whilst my horse plunged and started, 

 as every now and again a coffin came bumping against 

 his sides. , ; Many of these coffins had travelled thus 

 hundred of miles ; and into their gaping fissures 

 indeed from some of them whole planks had fallen 

 away the moon shed her dim rays. I fancied every 

 now and then I could see the ghastly faces of the 

 dead, and their shrivelled limbs as they swayed back- 

 wards and forwards in their fragile tenement with 

 the jolting of the mule. 



Shortly after day dawned we commenced the 

 descent of the " Kotul-e-Doktur " (the Pass of the 

 Maiden). The descent was very rapid, hut the road 

 excellent. It led in a series of short zigzags down 

 the perpendicular side of a stupendous cliff of the 

 mountain. The road was perfectly smooth ; quick- 

 lime had been used in filling up and levelling the 

 way, after the debris of rocks and stones had been 

 hurled over the side. A strong stone parapet is 

 continued down the descent for about two miles. 

 Looking over this parapet at the summit, one might 

 drop a stone on to any one of the tiny zigzags of- the 

 way far below, so precipitous is the mountain-side. 



