THE MAKCH AND ITS PERILS. 113 



A somewhat similar, but still more overwhelming agent of 

 destruction, accompanied by deafening thunder, perhaps by 

 fearful lightning, might also have overtaken them, in shape 

 of a tremendous revolving circle, which would instantly have 

 ground them into powder amidst the coruscation of flint and 

 steel. Biped enemies of lesser bulk, but to them monsters 

 still, with gaping toothless mouths, might have swallowed up 

 a legion at one fatal swoop. 



These and other perils happily escaped, the Kufians arrived 

 at what in our language is yclept a hedge, though known in 

 theirs by a word, or sign, expressive of a mighty forest. To 

 cross this barrier and re-assemble in compact array on its 

 further side, was a manoeuvre requiring not a little skill, but 

 our little Amazonian troops effected it in the most creditable 

 manner, which was the more surprising, as they seemed des- 

 titute of a leader or officers of any description to direct their 

 movements. 



Leaving the woody barrier behind, whose deep evening 

 shadow still threw the army and its movements into shade, a 

 country which presented difficulties scarcely inferior, yet lay 

 before them. Imagine a troop of infantry, or a soldier of that 

 troop, compelled to force his way through an intricate jungle, 

 composed of reeds so large that the least of them should more 

 than triple the girth of his own body ; so lofty, that his eye 

 could scarcely reach the top of a single stem, and all these 

 thickly interspersed with gigantic leaf-blades, waving and 



VOL. I. 8. 



