A JHYSTERY SOLVED. 327 



took care to secure clrang-lits of f'resli milk as soon as pos- 

 sible. The arrival of strangers did not seem to surprise 

 the peasants here so much as in the upper villages, and 

 we enjoyed comparative jjrivacy ; although we heard 

 afterwards, from Paul, that our real character was a 

 subject of deep discussion between our horsemen and 

 our host's family. We were not exactly like Eussians, 

 and bore no resemblance to the only other class of visitors 

 with whom they were acquainted — the inhabitants of the 

 north side of the chain, who are said to cross here by the 

 Timber glacier, either on business to dispose of their mer- 

 chandise — iron, salt, and sheepskin cloaks — or attracted by 

 the apples and pears which abound in this neighbourhood. 

 Altogether they were fairly puzzled, until our Davkar 

 horseman hit on a happy solution of the mystery, and 

 pronounced us to be, beyond doubt, wandering Jews, on 

 the ground of our not observing church-fasts. 



As the evening closed in, the clouds melted away from 

 the summits, and, to our surprise, at the head of the 

 Mushalaliz, Tau To tonal shone out, a silvery spear, poised 

 at an amazing height in the air, the point of which flushed 

 rosy as the sun sank in the west. Immediately opposite 

 us stood the glacier-crowned, forest-girt Leila mountains, 

 one of their summits curiously resembling in shape Monte 

 Rosa from the Gornergrat. It was one of those heavenlj^ 

 evenings which come once or twice in a summer, when 

 the whole atmosphere seems steeped in roses and purples. 

 An hour after we had been lost in admiration of the 

 sunset scene we were all writhing in slow torments in the 

 hayloft, devoured by hungry insects, and half suffocated 

 b}^ smoke, which rose through the floor from the room 

 underneath. 



July 22nd. — The morning was cloudless, and the great 

 white peak of Tau Totonal looked superb against the blue 



