PENKONDA. 
19 
bid Sirkeh go and refresh himself after so arduous 
an excursion ; adding, that if he were sufficiently 
restored from his fatigue after an hour’s repose, they 
would proceed. Sirkeh in silence withdrew, and 
seating himself at a distance from the Moslem chief, 
invited his humble follower, the guide, to partake of 
his repast. 
That day, before the sun had set, Mallek-ul-Tija 
had confessed that the difficulties of the road were 
even greater than he had anticipated. Indeed, 
although he and his body-guard, attended by Sirkeh 
and the guide, had traversed many miles since noon, 
they were certain that the rear of the line could not 
have advanced very far from the spot where they 
had rested, so narrow and irregular had been the 
pass through which they wound their way. And 
thus they bivouacked during the night. 
Upon the first appearance of returning day, again, 
the warriors proceeded. It was a chill dull morn- 
ing, shut in with heavy clouds rolling before a 
driving wind, unusual at that season ; but Mallek-ul- 
Tija pleasantly observed to Sirkeh, that his minions 
of wind and water were ordered out to clear the 
way and lay the dust before his army. For once, 
however, his humour failed to excite a cordial laugh 
among his followers ; so that the great man stared, 
and his lips involuntarily muttered “ How so?” A 
forced laugh from the foremost officers answered 
him ; they would have laughed as boisterously as 
