TIMUR BEG. 
121 
tars. With this vast army Timur set out from Sa- 
merkund on the eighth of January, 1405, undismayed 
by the inclemency of the winter, which had set in 
with unusual severity. So intense was the cold that 
he ordered huts to he erected upon the line of march, 
not choosing to expose his troops under canvass in so 
inclement a season. He was not deterred by the diffi- 
culties opposed to his progress, feeling at the age of 
sixty-nine fully equal to the labour of ascending moun- 
tains and scaling precipices as in the best vigour of his 
days. The whole country through which he had to 
pass was subject to his dominion, and he had no op- 
position to apprehend until he reached the enemy’s 
frontier. Even amid the mountains he knew that he 
might be entertained by the petty princes presiding 
over small districts, in a manner not unworthy of his 
dignity- and of his fame. As little advance has been 
made among the inhabitants of those mountainous re- 
gions in social improvements for several centuries, the 
present aspect of their country will give a tolerably cor- 
rect idea of what it was in the days of the Jagatay 
monarch. The engraving represents the summer re- 
treat of a mountain rajah. The simple and appropriate 
style of archit ecture may be remarked as singularly cha- 
racteristic and original, combining extreme taste with a 
nice discrimination of appropriateness to climate and 
locality. It is built of clay and stone covered with white 
chunam, the roof neatly tiled and ornamented at the 
angles after the Chinese fashion. It has two stories, 
the second rising out of the first in the form of a square 
tower surmounted by an elegant gallery, the whole 
crowned with a small dome and spire. The banners 
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