464 
DAROO MOUNTAIN. 
ing over our heads, at other places we had to scramble over 
detached fragments; fathomless abysses beneath preventing 
any path round. One slip of man or beast was destruction ; no 
hand could have time to catch him, and not a twig was there, to 
stop his fate a moment; yet, to my unceasing astonishment, 
notwithstanding the nature of these obstacles, even our laden 
mules made their way with an ease and sure-footedness that 
seemed miraculous. We were an hour and a half thus ar¬ 
duously climbing, ere we got sight of the village of Baytoush, 
our purposed halting-place; and when we did descry it, it looked 
like a little Gibraltar; being built on a high range of crags, and 
overshadowed by another, of stupendous Daroo, whose white 
summits, even then, appeared interminable. The possible greater 
difficulties of the next day’s march, I must confess, appalled me, 
when our guide pointed it out, as lying directly over the highest 
peak. 
I had dispatched my Courdish mehmandar, as soon as we 
espied the place, to announce my approach to the governor 
of this part of the district, a native chief, who resided there; 
and the news of a Frangy coming ! a being totally strange to 
such remote and elevated regions, soon called the whole popu¬ 
lation to gaze at the wonder. The inhabitants of 500 houses, 
men, women and children, were all in lines on the roofs and 
walls of the ridgy streets, to catch a sight of him as I passed. 
The general uniformity in the dresses of both sexes, at some 
little distance, rather gave them the appearance of a military 
garrison turned out, than an assemblage of peaceable families; 
and the dark monotony of their garb, with the wild ferocious 
countenances of the men, completely finished the terrible sublime 
which surrounded me on all sides. After passing the first range 
