ly turned than forced.

On emerging from this last defile, a prospect presents itself strongly
contrasting with the romantic scenery we had recently been witnessing.
Immediately before us lay the populous city of Koollum, the fortress
standing on a small isolated eminence, and the dome-shaped houses
embosomed in the deep foliage of their gardens and orchards clustered
round it for miles on every side. Immediately on the outskirts of the
city the desert commences, which, stretching away to Bokhara as far as
the eye could reach, formed a melancholy and uninviting background
to the busy scene before us. As we approached the city, we had our
misgivings as to the nature of our reception by the Meer Walli, as,
contrary to the treatment we had invariably experienced from the
chiefs of all the considerable places through which we had had
occasion to pass since entering Toorkisth[=a]n, no one appeared on the
part of the Meer to welcome us. At length, after wandering about the
suburbs for more than an hour, followed by a crowd of gaping idlers
who seemed half disposed to question our right of _squatting_, we
selected an open space and commenced unloading our baggage animals,
and prepared to establish ourselves.

Our spirits were raised, however, soon after, by the welcome arrival
of an officer of the Meer's household, who was sent by his master
to convey us to the caravanserai, where, after a short period, we
received three or four sheep with fruit and other provisions of all
descriptions, which supply was regularly continued during the whole
time we remained at Koollum. Our uneasiness, thus quieted, was soon
entirely dispelled by a message announcing that a visit from the great
man himself would take place in the evening. We must have been rather
difficult to please, however, on this particular day, for after the
wished-for visit was over, we both agreed that it had been dreadfully
tiresome; to be sure, as fate would have it, we had not had time to
eat our dinner before his arrival, and etiquette obliged us to defer
eating till after his departure, which did not release us till past
midnight, though he made his appearance soon after eight o'clock.

In person the Meer Walli was certainly very prepossessing; his voice
was peculiarly musical, and his manner gentlemanly and easy; his face
would have been eminently handsome but for a dreadful wound by which
he had lost a portion of his nose. At this our first interview nothing
rel