as we
looked upon those great rock walls, grim and threatening in the
moonlight, and pierced with black fissures and caves, at those steep,
rugged slopes strewn with stones and loose boulders. In such black and
horrible holes, among the bats and baboons, did these _abatagati_ dwell;
and then we thought of the deadly little poison sticks coming at us in
clouds from these dark dens, and our hearts were filled with rage and
hatred against these miserable cowards, who would not fight fair, man to
man and spear to spear, but met us with such unsoldierlike weapons as
poisoned darts thrown from behind stones, and we vowed utterly to
destroy, to the very last living thing, the whole of this evil and
foul-dealing crew.

"Silently beneath the white light of the moon we swept up the deep,
narrow defile which we knew led to the strongholds of these _abatagati_.
It was a dark and ugly place. Huge red cliff walls on either side rose
high up to heaven, leaning forward as though about to fall against each
other, and as we entered further and further it seemed that we were
penetrating the gloomy heart of the earth.

"Just before day broke we saw a cloud of dust some distance ahead of us,
and now every heart beat quicker, every eye brightened, every hand
gripped weapon and shield. We were ordered to advance at a run, but
even then it seemed we could get no nearer to that dust-cloud. But as
the dawn fell we could see that it was caused by a large herd of cattle,
which was being urged forward by a number of figures, which at that
distance we could see were those of both men and women, also a few
children.

"They were still a great way off, and, going uphill, could, accustomed
as they were to mountains, travel every bit as fast as we could. Then
they turned into another defile as gloomy and overhung as the first, and
entering this, we came upon one of those we were pursuing.

"He was lying on the ground. As we leaped forward to make an end of
him, we saw that others had spared us the trouble. He was still a
living man, but his wrinkled carcase was bleeding from many wounds. He
was a very old man, and could not keep up, so his kindred had speared
him lest, falling into our hands, he should give information as to their
position and resources. And this, in fact, he was just able to do,
pointing out where their stronghold lay, though we could not understand
the tongue with which he spoke. So we killed him at once--which,
indeed,