356 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



clear and inviting, but it was completely out of 

 reach ; the basin was so deep that we could not 

 reach the water with our hands, and we had no 

 vessel of any kind to dip it out with. In our entire 

 ignorance of the character of the place, we had not 

 made any provision, and the Indians had only 

 brought what they were told to bring. I crawled 

 down on one side, and dipped up a little with one 

 hand; but it was a scanty supply, and with this 

 water before us we were compelled to go away with 

 our thirst unsatisfied. Fortunately, however, after 

 crawling back through the first narrow passage, we 

 found some fragments of a broken water-jar, with 

 which the Indians returned and brought us enough 

 to cool our tongues. 



In going down we had scarcely noticed anything 

 except the wild path before us ; but, having now 

 some knowledge of the place, the labour was not so 

 great, and we inquired for the passage which the 

 Indians had told us led to Mani. On reaching it, 

 we turned off, and, after following it a short dis- 

 tance, found it completely stopped by a natural clo- 

 sing of the rock. From the best information we 

 could get, although all said the passage led to Mani, 

 we were satisfied that the Indians had never at- 

 tempted to explore it. It did not lead to the water, 

 nor out of the cave, and our guides had never en- 

 tered it before. We advised them for the future to 

 omit this and some other particulars in their stories 

 about the well ; but probably, except from the pa- 



