. A ride to India across Persia and Baluchistan. y. I shall get off and walk. Wetfeet are better than a broken neck any day ! The words were scarcely out of his mouth,when a loud cry from the Shagird, and a snortand struggle from the pack-horse behind, attractedmy attention. This time the beast had slippedwith a vengeance, and was half-way over theedge, making, with his fore feet, frantic effortsto regain terra firma, while his hind legs andquarters dangled in mid-air. There was no timeto dismount and render assistance. The wholething was over in less than ten seconds. TheShagird might, indeed
. A ride to India across Persia and Baluchistan. y. I shall get off and walk. Wetfeet are better than a broken neck any day ! The words were scarcely out of his mouth,when a loud cry from the Shagird, and a snortand struggle from the pack-horse behind, attractedmy attention. This time the beast had slippedwith a vengeance, and was half-way over theedge, making, with his fore feet, frantic effortsto regain terra firma, while his hind legs andquarters dangled in mid-air. There was no timeto dismount and render assistance. The wholething was over in less than ten seconds. TheShagird might, indeed, have saved the fall hadhe kept his head instead of losing it. All hecould do was, with a loud voice and outstretchedarms, to invoke the assistance of Allah ! Wewere not long in suspense. Slowly, inch by inch,the poor brute lost his hold of the slipperyground, and disappeared, with a shrill neigh ofterror, from sight. For two or three seconds weheard him striking here and there against a juttingrock or shrub, till, with a final thud, he landed. CROSSING THE KHARZAN. PATCHINAR—TEHERAn. 69 on a small plateau of deep snow-drifts at leastthree hundred feet below. Here he lay motion-less and apparently dead, while we could seethrough our glasses a thin stream of crimson flowfrom under him, gradually staining the white snowaround. A cat is popularly supposed to have nine my experience of the Persian post-horse, Ishall never believe that that rough and ill-shapedbut useful animal has less than a dozen. Thefall I have described would assuredly have killeda horse of any other nationality, if I may use theword. It seemed, on the contrary, to have atonic and exhilarating effect on this Patchinarpony. Before we could reach him (a work ofconsiderable difficulty and some risk) he had risento his feet, given himself a good shake, and wasnibbling away at a bit of gorse that peepedthrough the snow on which he had fallen. Adeep cut on the shoulder was his only injury,and, curiousl
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