ASCENT TO A TOMB. 
521 
strong arms above, hauling him upwards. I immediately looked 
out for assistants. My mehmandar was at his stories and fore¬ 
bodings agai-n, for tempting such daemon-wrought places. But 
the peasantry of this district seemed to know better than to 
have fear of either deev or difficulty ; and one of them more 
active and sinewy than the rest, managed to scramble up the 
perpendicular cliff, like a rat hanging by a wall; and, gaining the 
ledge of the platform, or vestibule to the tomb, he lowered 
down a rope, by which some of his nimble companions assisted 
themselves in ascending. I followed the example, by fastening 
the rope round my waist, and by their united exertions was 
speedily drawn up to the place of rendezvous. The distance 
was sufficiently high from the ground to give me time for 
thought; and during my ascent, in a manner so totally depen¬ 
dent on the dexterity of others, I could not but recollect the 
fate of half-a-dozen kinsmen of Darius Hystaspes, who had all 
perished at once in the very same expedition. Ctesias relates, 
that this great Persian monarch “ caused a tomb to be dug for 
him while he yet lived, in the double mountain ; but when it 
was completed, the Chaldean soothsayers forbid him to enter it 
during his life under a penalty of some terrible danger. Darius 
was intimidated, but some princes of his family could not resist 
a strong curiosity which impelled them to view its interior. 
They went to the mountain, and by their desire were to be 
drawn up by the priests who officiated there; but in the act, 
while they yet hung between earth and air, the sudden ap¬ 
pearance of some serpents on the rock so terrified the people 
above, that they let go the ropes, and the princes were dashed to 
pieces.” On this very spot, more than two thousand years ago, the 
catastrophe happened. Certainly, being in any noted place, has a 
3 x 
VOL. I. 
