ir heads to look, and on their cudgel-hand,
about two leagues distant, stood Solmi; to the west, and a little in
front of them, M[=o][=o]t and Makkri. Upon the topmost edge of the
snow-slope at the foot of which they were now encamped ran a long, low
border of a kind of thorn-bush, huddling among great rocks and boulders,
resembling a little the valleys of the Babbab[=o][=o]mas.

"You mean, O Man of the Mountains, whose friendship has been our very
lives to us," said Thumb, "that now we must journey on alone?"

"No, Mulla-mulgar; I mean only that here the Moona country, my people's
country, ends, and therefore that I cannot now be certain of the way to
the Valleys of Tishnar. But this I do know: that beyond here is thick
with the snares of N[=o][=o]manossi. But if the Mulgar Princes and the
Nizza-neela Eengenares, who saved my kinsman's life, would have it so,
and are not weary of our company, then I and my people will journey on
with them till they come to an end. We know from childhood these
desolate mountains. They are our home. We eat little, drink little, and
can starve as quietly as an icicle can freeze. If need be (and I do not
boast, Mulla-mulgars), we Thin-shanks can march softly all day for many
days, and not fall by the way. We are, I think, merely Leather-men, not
meant for flesh and blood. But the Mulla-mulgars have fought with us,
and we are friends. And I myself am friend to the last sleep of the
small Prince, Nizza-neela, who has the colour of Tishnar in his eyes.
Shall it be farewell, Travellers? Or shall we journey on together?"

The brothers looked at the black and thorn-set trees, at the towering
rocks, at the wastes of the beautiful snows. They looked with
astonishment at this old, half-blind mountaineer with his lean, sinewy
arms, and hill-bent legs, and his bandaged eyes. And Thumb lifted his
hands in salutation to Ghibba, as if he were a Mulla-mulgar himself.

"Why should we lead you into strange dangers, O Man of the Mountains,"
he grunted--"maybe to death? But if you ask to come with us, if we have
only to choose, how can I and my brothers say no? We will at least be
friends who do not part while danger is near, and though we never reach
the Valley, Tishnar befriends the Meermuts of the brave. Let us, then,
go on together."

So Ghibba went back to his people, and told them what Thumb had said.
And being now agreed together, they all hobbled off but three, who were
left to guard the bundles,