s I could not discover any other
passage, I began to fancy that it was for this paltry hole we had
undergone so much fatigue, and had had our expectations raised so
high. I was about to give utterance to my disappointment, when I
perceived the Uzbegs preparing their torches and arranging the line of
march, in which it seemed that no one was anxious to take precedence.
I now began to look about me, in the hope that there was something
more to be seen, and was delighted to observe one adventurous hero
with a torch disappear behind some masses of rock. We all followed our
leader, and it was with great difficulty that, one by one, we managed
to squeeze ourselves through a narrow gap between two jagged rocks,
which I presume I am to consider as the identical ones that were
rolled to the mouth six hundred years ago at the stern command of the
Tartar Attila.

I confess that hitherto I had treated the moollah's account as an
idle tale; my unbelief, however, was quickly removed, for just as we
entered the narrow passage the light of the torches was for an instant
thrown upon a group of human skeletons. I saw them but for an instant,
and the sight was quite sufficient to raise my drooping curiosity to
its former pitch.

CHAPTER XI.

We proceeded down the sloping shaft, occasionally bruising ourselves
against its jagged sides, until our leader suddenly came to a dead
halt. I was next to him, and coming up as close as I could, I found
that one step further would have precipitated the adventurous guide
into an abyss, the bottom and sides of which were undistinguishable;
after gazing for a moment into this apparently insurmountable obstacle
to our further progress, I could just perceive a narrow ledge about
sixteen feet below me, that the eye could trace for a few yards
only, beyond which it was lost in the deep gloom surrounding us. Our
conductor had already made up his mind what to do: he proceeded to
unwind his long narrow turban composed of cotton cloth, and called to
his comrades to do the same; by joining these together they formed a
kind of rope by means of which we gradually lowered each other, till
at last a party ten in number were safely landed on the ledge. We left
a couple of men to haul us up on our return, and proceeded on our way,
groping along the brink of the yawning chasm. Every now and then loose
stones set in motion by our feet would slip into this bottomless pit,
and we could hear them bounding down