THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 61 



tiana, and her syce was holding the horse, when it 

 was startled by some falling stones, and all three went 

 over and were destroyed. Not very long after I went 

 up this lethal road, a Calcutta judge of one of the 

 subordinate courts went over it and was killed in the 

 presence of some ladies with whom he was riding, 

 owing simply to his horse becoming restive. An eye- 

 witness of another of these frightful accidents told 

 me that when the horse's hind foot got off the road, 

 it straggled for about half a minute in that position, 

 and the rider had plenty of time to dismount safely, 

 and might easily have done so, but a species of par- 

 alysis seemed to come over him ; his face turned 

 deadly white, and he sat on. the horse without mak- 

 ing the least effort to save himself, until they both 

 went over backwards. The sufferer is usually a little 

 too late in attempting to dismount. Theoretically, it 

 may seem easy enough to disengage one's self from a 

 horse when it is struggling on the brink of a precipice; 

 but let my reader try the experiment, and he will see 

 the mistake. The worst danger on these cut roads is 

 that of the horse backing towards the precipice ; and 

 when danger presents itself, there is a curious tendency 

 on the part of the rider to pull his horse's head away 

 from the precipice towards the rock wall, which is 

 about the worst thing he can do. The few seconds (of 

 which I had some experience further on) in which you 

 find yourself fairly going, are particularly interesting, 

 and send an electric thrill through the entire system. 



