DOWN-HILL. 253 



back, while as soon as you were free from 

 thein, a root or bough at your feet sent you 

 sprawling on all fours. 



Turning out of the wood for a moment 

 the track led down hill ; clown a hill so steep 

 that you felt it would make you ' stand over ' 

 for the rest of your life, and up the other side 

 at an inchne that made us tremble for our back 

 sinews. All the while we were passing through 

 beds of tall nettles, which stung hands, neck, 

 and face impartially. 



Once during the day we stopped to dig up 

 the roots of what, to my unbotanical eye, 

 seemed a species of crocus, of a beautiful 

 purple colour, which grew in profusion wher- 

 ever the track was most trodden. The flowers 

 were very large and the bulbs gregarious, if I 

 may use such a term of flowers, growing in a 

 thick lump of from six to sixteen together. 

 This flower we saw once before at ShukachMo, 

 but nowhere else m Radcha ; whereas we met 



