I have already mentioned that we had received a letter to Shah Pursund Kh[=a]n, the chief of the Doa[=u]b, who accordingly came out to welcome us to his territory; he embraced us in the Uzbeg fashion, telling us in eastern phraseology “to consider his dominion as our own, and that we might command all he possessed.”  After many compliments of this nature, he inquired with some bluntness whither we were bound and what our object was?  We answered him, that we were proceeding to Koollum, and were anxious to get as much information as he would be good enough to afford us concerning so beautiful a portion of the globe, and we wished to survey its particular features.  “Mind,” rejoined he, “that the chief of Heibuk and the Meer Walli of Koollum are my enemies, and may be yours.”  “If,” answered Sturt, “we shall meet with the same reception from them as we have hitherto enjoyed from all other chiefs whose possessions we have had occasion to trespass upon during our journeyings, we cannot complain of want of either kindness or hospitality; for as travellers we come, and once eating the ‘salt of an Uzbeg,’ we know that none would dishonour himself by acting the traitor.”  “True,” retorted the kh[=a]n, “but he who is your friend while in his dominions will rob you as soon as you set your foot across his frontier.”  We were not much pleased at this prospect, as we knew he spoke truth when declaring himself at enmity with the surrounding chiefs, but “sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,” so we made up our minds to take what advantage we could of his friendly disposition towards us, and trust to our good fortune and the “chapter of accidents” for our future safety.  Shah Pursund Kh[=a]n did not confine his kindness to words, for he sent us an ample supply of flour and clarified butter for our followers, grass and corn for our cattle, and a sheep for ourselves; these sheep are of the Doomba species, with large tails weighing several pounds, which are considered the most delicate part of the animal.  He also sent us from his harem an enormous dish of foul[=a]deh, made of wheat boiled to a jelly and strained, and when eaten with sugar and milk palatable and nutritious.

The following morning, as we were preparing to start, I happened to enter into conversation with an aged moollah, the solitary cicerone of the Doa[=u]b, who gave us a brief but very extraordinary account of a cavern about seven miles off; our curiosity was so much excited by the marvellous details we heard, that we determined to delay our departure for the purpose of ascertaining how much of his story was due to the wild imagination of our informant.  We accordingly gave orders to unsaddle, and communicated our intentions to the khan.  At first he strongly urged us not to put our plan into execution, declaring that the cave was the domicile of the evil one, and that no stranger who had presumed to intrude upon the privacy of the awful inhabitant had ever returned to tell of what he had seen.  It will easily be imagined