THE ELLYRIA PASS. 
112 
[chap. IV. 
-behind us, and I looked forward with anxiety to getting 
through the pass before them. 
The natives of both Tollogo and Ellyria are the 
same in appearance and language as the Bari; they 
are very brutal in manner, and they collected in large 
' crowds on our departure, with by no means a friendly 
aspect. Many of them ran on ahead under the base of 
the rocks, apparently to give notice at Ellyria of our 
arrival. I had three men as an advance guard,— 
five or six in the rear,—while the remainder drove the 
animals. Mrs. Baker and I rode on horseback at the 
head of the party. On arriving at the extremity of 
the narrow valley we had to thread our way through 
the difficult pass. The mountain of Ellyria, between 
two and three thousand feet high, rose abruptly on our 
left, while the base was entirely choked with enormous 
fragments of grey granite that having fallen from the 
face of the mountain had completely blocked the pass. 
Even the horses had great difficulty in threading their 
way through narrow alleys formed of opposing blocks, 
and it appeared impossible for loaded camels to proceed. 
The path was not only thus obstructed, but was broken 
by excessively deep ravines formed by the torrents 
that during the rains tore eveiything before them 
in their impetuous descent from the mountains. To 
increase the difficulties of the pass many trees and 
bushes were growing from the interstices of the rocks ; 
thus in places where the long legs of the camels could 
have cleared a narrow cleft, the loads became jammed 
between the trees. These trees were for the most part 
intensely hard wood, a species of lignum vitae, called 
by the Arabs “babanoose,” and were quite proof against 
our axes. Had the natives been really hostile they 
could have exterminated us in five minutes, as it was only 
necessary to hurl rocks from above to insure our im¬ 
mediate destruction. It was in this spot that a traders 
party of 126 men, well armed, had been massacred to 
a man the year previous. 
• Bad as the pass was, we had hope before us, as the 
