ong them on our hands and knees. Our
party had just emerged from one of these defiles and were standing
together on a kind of sloping platform, at which point the declivity
seemed to become more precipitous as it receded from our sight,
when our attention was suddenly arrested by the reappearance of the
mysterious naked footprints which I had before observed in the chamber
of skeletons. I examined them minutely, and am certain from the spread
of the toes that they belonged to some one who was in the habit of
going barefoot. I took a torch, and determined to trace them as far as
I could. Had I met with these prints in the open air, I should have
decided upon their being quite fresh, but the even temperature and
stillness of atmosphere which reigned in these strange regions might
account for the tracks retaining that sharpness of outline which
denotes a recent impression. The direction I took led me immediately
down the slope I have just mentioned, and its increasing steepness
caused me some misgivings as to how I should get back, when suddenly a
large stone on which I had rested my foot gave way beneath my weight,
and down I came, extinguishing my torch in my fall. Luckily I managed
to stop myself from rolling down the fearful chasm which yawned
beneath, but the heavy rounded fragment of rock rolled onwards, first
with a harsh grating sound, as if it reluctantly quitted its resting
place, then, gradually acquiring impetus, down it thundered, striking
against other rocks and dragging them on with it, till the loud echoes
repeated a thousand times from the distant caves mingling with the
original sound raised a tumult of noise quite sufficient to scare a
braver crew than our party consisted of. The effect of my mishap was
instantaneous. Our followers raised an universal shout of Sheit[=a]n,
Sheit[=a]n, (the devil, the devil,) and rushed helter skelter back
from the direction of the sound. In the confusion all the torches
carried by the natives were extinguished, and had not my friend Sturt
displayed the most perfect coolness and self-possession, we should
have been in an alarming predicament; for he (uninfluenced by any such
supernatural fears as had been excited amongst the runaways by the
infernal turmoil produced by my unlucky foot, and though himself
ignorant of the cause of it from having been intent upon the footmarks
when I slipped), remained perfectly unmoved with his torch, the only
one still burning, raised high a