14th July.  Ali allowed us to rest only half the night; at 2 o’clock we were again mounted.  A few hundred paces from our resting-place was the entrance of a stupendous mountain-pass.  The space between the sides of the rocks afforded only sufficient room for the stream and a narrow pathway.  Fortunately the moon shone out brilliantly, otherwise it would have been scarcely possible for the most practised animal to ascend the narrow and extremely dangerous road between the fallen masses of rock and rolling stones.  Our hardy animals scrambled like chamois along, over the edges of the steep precipices, and carried us with safety past the terrible abyss, at the bottom of which the stream leapt, with a frightful roaring, from rock to rock.  This night-scene was so terrible and impressive that even my uncultivated companions were involuntarily silent—­mute, and noiseless, we went on our way, nothing breaking the death-like stillness but the rattling steps of our animals.

We had proceeded about an hour in this way, when the moon was suddenly obscured; thick clouds gathered round from all sides, and the darkness soon became so great that we could scarcely see a few steps before us.  The foremost man continually struck fire, so as to light up the path somewhat by the sparks.  But this did not help us much, the animals began to slip and stumble.  We were compelled to halt, and stood quiet and motionless, one behind the other, as if suddenly changed to stone by magic.  Life returned again with daybreak, and we spurred our animals briskly forwards.

We were in an indescribably beautiful circle of mountains; at our side lay high cliffs; before and behind, hills and mountains crowded over each other, and in the far distance an enormous peak, covered with snow, completed the romantic picture.  This mountain-pass is called Ali-Bag.  For three hours and a half we continued going up hill, without intermission.

A short distance before reaching the plateau, we observed, in several places, small spots of blood, of which nobody at first took much notice, as they might have been caused by a horse or mule that had injured itself.  But shortly we came to a place which was entirely covered with large blood-spots.  This sight filled us with great horror; we looked round anxiously for the cause of these marks and perceived two human bodies far down below.  One hung scarcely a hundred feet down on the declivity of the rock, the other had rolled further on, and was half-buried under a mass of rock.  We hastened from this horrible scene as quickly as we could; it was several days before I could free myself from the recollection of it.

All the stones on the plateau were full of holes, as if other stones had been stuck in.  This appearance ceased as we went further up.  In the valley, at the other side of the plateau, there were vines, which, however, did not rise far above the ground, as they were not supported in any way.