64 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



their rugged foreheads, clearly defined against the 

 morning sky, beetled ominously over every inch of the 

 descent. It looked as if a child's strength exerted 

 on those awful summits could crush a host in the 

 pass below. We thought the pass of the Tungi 

 Toorkoon bad, but it was a joke compared to this. 

 There was no trace of the hand of man having been 

 employed in any one single part of the descent. 

 Since the day that Alexander and his legions had 

 poured down it, this must have been one of the great 

 highways of Persia ; still, there was no sign that 

 there had been any attempt to better or broaden the 

 roadway. Our horses were down on their sides sev- 

 eral times, and I saw the Swede himself shoot down 

 the smooth sloping side of a mass of rock like an 

 avalanche. The gholaum was the only one of the 

 party who did not dismount. His horse was a won- 

 derfully sure-footed animal. Without any assistance 

 from his rider, he picked his way, doubled his legs 

 under him, and sprang from rock to rock like a goat. 

 It was the most marvellous performance on the part 

 of a horse I ever saw off sawdust I led my fa- 

 vourite horse, a hot-blooded fiery chestnut, the whole 

 way, but he was slipping and plunging like a mad 

 thing, and in such a fearful way that I knew at any 

 moment he might be over the side and dashed to 

 a thousand atoms. It was with no small relief then 

 that, at the end of three quarters of an hour or so, I 

 heard the gholaum gurgle out an " AUiumdulillah," 



