shields were taken, which the Greeks, by hacking them
with their swords, rendered useless. As soon as they had gained the
ascent, and had sacrificed and erected a trophy, they went down into the
plain before them, and arrived at a number of villages stored with
abundance of excellent provisions.

From hence they marched five days' journey, thirty parasangs, to the
country of the Taochi, where provisions began to fail them; for the
Taochi inhabited strong fastnesses, in which they had laid up all their
supplies. Having at length, however, arrived at one place which had no
city or houses attached to it, but in which men and women and a great
number of cattle were assembled, Chirisophus, as soon as he came before
it, made it the object of an attack; and when the first division that
assailed it began to be tired, another succeeded, and then another, for
it was not possible for them to surround it in a body, as there was a
river about it. When Xenophon came up with his rear-guard, peltasts, and
heavy-armed men, Chirisophus exclaimed: "You come seasonably, for we
must take this place, as there are no provisions for the army unless we
take it."

They then deliberated together, and Xenophon asking what hindered them
from taking the place, Chirisophus replied: "The only approach to it is
the one which you see; but when any of our men attempt to pass along it,
the enemy roll down stones over yonder impending rock, and whoever is
struck is treated as you behold;" and he pointed, at the same moment, to
some of the men who had had their legs and ribs broken. "But if they
expend all their stones," rejoined Xenophon, "is there anything else to
prevent us from advancing? For we see, in front of us, only a few men,
and but two or three of them armed. The space, too, through which we
have to pass under exposure to the stones is, as you see, only about a
hundred and fifty feet in length; and of this about a hundred feet is
covered with large pine trees in groups, against which, if the men place
themselves, what would they suffer either from the flying stones or the
rolling ones? The remaining part of the space is not above fifty feet,
over which, when the stones cease, we must pass at a running pace."

"But," said Chirisophus, "the instant we offer to go to the part covered
with trees, the stones fly in great numbers."

"That," cried Xenophon, "would be the very thing we want, for thus they
will exhaust their stones the sooner. Let us