SHIRAZ TO BUSHIRE. 63 



at this hour we should reach the worst part of the 

 road about the time day would break. We descended 

 continually, splashing every now and then through 

 a stream. The road seemed to find a pleasure in 

 crossing from bank to bank. It was anything but 

 a pleasure to us, for our horses slipped and stumbled 

 about in the darkness over the rocky bed in such a 

 way, that a cold bath seemed imminent more than 

 once. After riding about three miles, a ruined toll- 

 hoiise on the right warned us that we \vere on the 

 summit of the pass. "\Ve halted some little time 

 here, to allow ourselves the advantage of full day- 

 light before we commenced the descent, which the 

 gholaum described as " nal-shicken," literally, shoe- 

 breaking to a degree. This is a word very com- 

 monly made use of; and when a Persian does not 

 know the name of any particular mountain - pass 

 or ascent perhaps a name does not exist he 

 will at once christen it nal-shicken. As daylight 

 streamed over the wilderness of mountains around 

 us, we found we were looking down upon a scene 

 surpassing, in savage wild grandeur, anything either 

 of us had ever beheld. From the height on which 

 we stood, the road plunged down the precipitous 

 mountain - side, like an eagle from his eyrie, into 

 the gloomy depths below. To the right and to 

 the left, sharp jagged rocks of limestone -rock shot 

 up as if ready to impale us. The mountains about 

 the pass form a sort of horse-shoe around it; and 



