A PRECARIOUS SITUATION. 



275 



and smoothed the bark across his forehead with a little 

 cushion to relieve the pressure. An Indian on each 

 side lifted it up, and the carrier rose on his feet, stood 

 still a moment, threw me up once or twice to adjust me 

 on his shoulders, and set off with one man on each side. 

 It was a great relief, but I could feel every movement, 

 even to the heaving of his chest. The ascent was one 

 of the steepest on the whole road. In a few minutes he 

 stopped and sent forth a sound, usual with Indian car- 

 riers, between a whistle and a blow, always painful to 

 my ears, but which I never felt so disagreeably before. 

 My face was turned backward ; I could not see where 

 he was going, but observed that the Indian on the left 

 fell back. Not to increase the labour of carrying me, 

 I sat as still as possible ; but in a few minutes, looking 

 over my shoulder, saw that we were approaching the 

 edge of a precipice more than a thousand feet deep. 

 Here I became very anxious to dismount ; but I could 

 not speak intelligibly, and the Indians could or would 

 not understand my signs. My carrier moved along 

 carefully, with his left foot first, feeling that the stone 

 on which he put it down was steady and secure before 

 he brought up the other, and by degrees, after a partic- 

 ularly careful movement, brought both feet up within 

 half a step of the edge of the precipice, stopped, and 

 gave a fearful whistle and blow. I rose and fell with 

 every breath, felt his body trembling under me, and his 

 knees seemed giving way. The precipice was awful, 

 and the slightest irregular movement on my part might 

 bring us both down together. I would have given him 

 a release in full for the rest of the journey to be off his 

 back; but he started again, and with the same care as- 

 cended several steps, so close to the edge that even on 

 the back of a mule it would have been very uncomfort- 



