VALLEY OF KEMINE. 
509 
leaving the tomb of Cyrus, with the other ruins of Pasargadse, on 
our right. The country we passed over was in the most fruitful 
cultivation ; well answering the description of Arrian, “ fields, 
covered with high grass, and long tracts, golden with the 
swelling harvest.” On our way, we started a serpent, five feet in 
length; its head was extremely small, belly a pale yellow, and 
back black with bright green stripes ; the thickest part of his 
body was about the diameter of a gun-barrel. Several tortoises 
also crawled along the sides of the road; and, indeed, we found 
the soil prolific of this inferior kind of animal life, as well as in 
the abundant vegetation which furnished them food to repletion. 
About four miles farther, we passed the nearly deserted village 
of Mesched Omoum ; and after another farsang’s march, crossed 
the deep bed of a stream which takes its rise in the mountains 
behind the royal tomb, and flowing onward, ultimately falls 
into the Kur-aub. Turning our back on the plain, we soon com¬ 
menced an ascent over an extremely difficult path, being too un¬ 
formed and rugged to merit the name of a road. But our guide 
told us, it was a far sang shorter than the usual route, which lay 
more to the eastward; and, forgetting the wisdom of the old 
proverb, “ the farthest way about being often the nearest way 
home,” I was tempted to take the near cut; and, at the manifest 
danger of all our necks, mounted almost trackless heights ; and 
having achieved them, had as slippery and hazardous declivities 
to descend cautiously, before we could reach the bottom of the 
mountains on their southern slope. We were full two hours in 
making the descent, but then found ourselves in the pleasant 
little valley of Kemine, which is about a farsang wide. We 
passed through the village that bears its name, and halted at 
another called Buchun, at the southern side of the vale. It 
