structions
they had received, nor whether indeed they had been told anything except
to bring us as far as they could, to see that the Kurds brought the
baggage, and to fetch us back again, which last was essential for
Jaafar's peace of mind. We concluded therefore that if left to
themselves they would probably wait our return; and the day was running
on so fast that it was clear there was no more time to be lost in trying
to drag them along with us.

Accordingly I resolved to take what I wanted in the way of food, and
start at my own pace. My friend, who carried more weight, and had felt
the want of training on our way up, decided to come no farther, but wait
about here, and look out for me towards nightfall. We noted the
landmarks carefully,--the little snow-bed, the head of the glen covered
with reddish masses of stone and gravel; and high above it, standing out
of the face of the great cone of Ararat, a bold peak or rather
projecting tooth of black rock, which our Cossacks called the Monastery,
and which, I suppose from the same fancied resemblance to a building, is
said to be called in Tatar Tach Kilissa, "the church rock." It is
doubtless an old cone of eruption, about thirteen thousand feet in
height, and is really the upper end of the long ridge we had been
following, which may perhaps represent a lava flow from it, or the edge
of a fissure which at this point found a vent.

It was an odd position to be in: guides of two different races, unable
to communicate either with us or with one another: guides who could not
lead and would not follow; guides one-half of whom were supposed to be
there to save us from being robbed and murdered by the other half, but
all of whom, I am bound to say, looked for the moment equally simple and
friendly, the swarthy Iranian as well as the blue-eyed Slav.

At eight o'clock I buckled on my canvas gaiters, thrust some crusts of
bread, a lemon, a small flask of cold tea, four hard-boiled eggs, and a
few meat lozenges into my pocket, bade good-by to my friend, and set
off. Rather to our surprise, the two Cossacks and one of the Kurds came
with me, whether persuaded by a pantomime of encouraging signs, or
simply curious to see what would happen. The ice-axe had hugely amused
the Cossacks all through. Climbing the ridge to the left, and keeping
along its top for a little way, I then struck across the semi-circular
head of a wide glen, in the middle of which, a little lower, lay a
snow-