travelling-staff to help me?"

"Here is one ready," answered the man, handing him a long pole, made
of a light tough wood, with a strong iron spike fixed to it. He then
shook him heartily by the hand, and let him out of the opening.

When he gained the exterior, he looked all around him. He hoped to
discover some track which would indicate in what direction he should
set out; but stones and ruins, the effects of a great convulsion of
nature, surrounded, in a wild and unnatural confusion, the small and
even spot before the entrance of the castle. But what most astonished
him was, that the road which had appeared formerly to be impassable
for his camel should now present an even and unencumbered path. At
last, after various attempts, by great good fortune, he found a part
where, by help of his travelling-staff, he was able to climb up the
projecting mass of rock. On the other side he found a spot by which he
could, without much danger, descend into a large plain. It seemed to
him like the same piece of rock on which he, in the first instance,
had got in proceeding from the castle. He was nearly, from this
circumstance, led to descend there; but he thought of the warning
given to him by the old woman in good time, who had advised him not to
fetch water from the bottom, but from the summit, and he accordingly
bent his steps upwards. But here the road lay through enormous
fragments of rock, choked up at intervals with briars and thorns. At
length, after frequently-repeated efforts, he succeeded in journeying
on a short distance by the help of his travelling-staff, when a spot
presented itself where there was a chasm in the rock, which it was
impossible for him to surmount. He was accordingly obliged to turn
sideways till he had passed it, in order to follow up his prescribed
route. He toiled on with intense exertion, endeavouring to reach the
summit of the rock, for more than an hour; but, from various
obstacles, had not made any great progress. At last, worn out with
fatigue, he sat himself down beneath the shade of an overhanging crag,
to recruit his strength, in order to renew the attempt with increased
vigour.

Up to this time, through all his wanderings, he had not found a stream
from whose source he was able to draw water. He had certainly seen in
deep hollows small rivulets issuing from the rock, which by their
fall covered the neighbouring plain with white flakes of foam. Still,
although he persevered assiduously,