64 TRAVEL, ADVENTUEE, AND SPORT. 



certainly possessed ; but so hideous and horrible, so 

 unnatural and spectre -like was their aspect, that 

 their sudden encounter in that gloomy ravine, and 

 in the almost darkness that surrounded us, might 

 well have shaken the strongest nerves. We stood 

 for a second, Rowley and myself, paralysed with 

 astonishment at these strange appearances ; but an- 

 other piercing scream restored to us our presence of 

 mind. One of the women had either tripped or 

 fallen from fatigue, and she lay a white heap upon 

 the ground. The drapery of the other was in the 

 clutch of one of the spectres, or devils, or whatever 

 they were, when Rowley, with a cry of horror, rushed 

 forward and struck a furious blow at the monster 

 with his machetto. At the same time, and almost 

 without knowing how, I found myself engaged with 

 another of the creatures. But the contest was no 

 equal one. In vain did we stab and strike with our 

 machettos ; our antagonists were covered and de- 

 fended with a hard bristly hide, which our knives, 

 although keen and pointed, had great difficulty in 

 penetrating ; and on the other hand we found our- 

 selves clutched in long sinewy arms, terminating in 

 hands and fingers, of which the nails were as sharp 

 and strong as an eagle's talons. I felt these horrible 

 claws strike into my shoulders as the creature seized 

 me, and, drawing me towards him, pressed me as in 

 the hug of a bear ; while his hideous half-man half- 

 brute visage was grinning and snarling at me, and 



