62 
ALOOY AND HOOSNY. 
seemed much on the alert, looking out on each side of our road 
into which the issues of depredation opened, for the flashes of a 
few long guns in preparatory ambush, or the rush of a troop, deter¬ 
mined on something more than a dispute of passage. However* 
our protectors moved on without any hostile demands on their 
courage; and, descending gradually amid scenes whose rugged 
aspects agreed well with the expected rencontre, we entered on 
a small plain surrounded by mountains, and traversed by a wind¬ 
ing and dry hollow, which at certain seasons of the year is the 
deep and wide bed of the spring torrents. An insulated chain 
of straggling hills stretched along this vale on our right; and, at 
the base of some of them we found the villages of Alooy and 
Hoosny, with their little home environs of fields and gardens ; 
pleasing objects amidst so extensive a theatre of savage sterility. 
Hoosny is distinguished by the lofty walls of an immense cara¬ 
vansary, built of hewn stone, but now, like too many vestiges of 
departed greatness, falling to decay. Not far distant from it, 
are still more extended remains of considerable buildings ; bear¬ 
ing, also, their silent witness of past prosperity. The day was 
very hot, and the nature of the country calculated to make us 
feel it with redoubled violence. The hills became more arid at 
every step; and the naked cliffs, assuming a chalky whiteness, 
reflected an unsufferable glare with the scorching heat. Close 
ravines, and pit-like hollows, sometimes lay in our path; and 
the suffocation from their burning air is not to be described. Hav¬ 
ing travelled four additional farsangs along this panting road, 
we arrived at the gorge of a narrow vale, whose jaundiced-faced 
hills threatened no hope of gentler atmosphere ; and they did not 
deceive us ; for through this furnace we marched, till the village 
of Deyhawk gladdened our eyes with the sight of its sheltering 
