t
soundly enough, for we were very tired, till we were awakened in the
morning by the baying of those horrible death-hounds, being fed, I
suppose, in a place nearby.

Now in this city of Kaloon it was our weary destiny to dwell for three
long months, one of the most hateful times, perhaps, that we ever passed
in all our lives. Indeed, compared to it our endless wanderings amid the
Central Asia snows and deserts were but pleasure pilgrimages, and our
stay at the monastery beyond the mountains a sojourn in Paradise. To set
out its record in full would be both tedious and useless, so I will only
tell briefly of our principal adventures.

On the morrow of our arrival the Khania Atene sent us two beautiful
white horses of pure and ancient blood, and at noon we mounted them and
went out to ride with her accompanied by a guard of soldiers. First she
led us to the kennels where the death-hounds were kept, great flagged
courts surrounded by iron bars, in which were narrow, locked gates.
Never had I seen brutes so large and fierce; the mastiffs of Thibet were
but as lap-dogs compared to them. They were red and black, smooth-coated
and with a blood-hound head, and the moment they saw us they came
ravening and leaping at the bars as an angry wave leaps against a rock.

These hounds were in the charge of men of certain families, who had
tended them for generations. They obeyed their keepers and the Khan
readily enough, but no stranger might venture near them. Also these
brutes were the executioners of the land, for to them all murderers and
other criminals were thrown, and with them, as we had seen, the Khan
hunted any who had incurred his displeasure. Moreover, they were used
for a more innocent purpose, the chasing of certain great bucks which
were preserved in woods and swamps of reeds. Thus it came about that
they were a terror to the country, since no man knew but what in the
end he might be devoured by them. "Going to the dogs" is a term full
of meaning in any land, but in Kaloon it had a significance that was
terrible.

After we had looked at the hounds, not without a prophetic shudder,
we rode round the walls of the town, which were laid out as a kind of
boulevard, where the inhabitants walked and took their pleasure in the
evenings. On these, however, there was not much to see except the river
beneath and the plain beyond, moreover, though they were thick and
high there were places in them that must be passed carefully,