the captains were taking counsel, a Rhodian
soldier came to them with a proposition for transporting the whole army
across to the other bank of the river by means of inflated skins, which
could be furnished in abundance by the animals in their possession. But
this ingenious scheme, in itself feasible, was put out of the question
by the view of the Persian cavalry on the opposite bank; and as the
villages in their front had been burnt, the army had no choice except to
return back one day's march to those in which they had before halted.
Here the generals again deliberated, questioning all their prisoners as
to the different bearings of the country. The road from the south was
that in which they had already marched from Babylon and Media; that to
the westward, going to Lydia and Ionia, was barred to them by the
interposing Tigris; eastward (they were informed) was the way to
Ekbatana and Susa; northward, lay the rugged and inhospitable mountains
of the Karduchians,--fierce freemen who despised the Great King, and
defied all his efforts to conquer them; having once destroyed a Persian
invading army of 120,000 men. On the other side of Karduchia, however,
lay the rich Persian satrapy of Armenia, wherein both the Euphrates and
the Tigris could be crossed near their sources, and from whence they
could choose their farther course easily towards Greece. Like Mysia,
Pisidia, and other mountainous regions, Karduchia was a free territory
surrounded on all sides by the dominions of the Great King, who reigned
only in the cities and on the plains.

Sec. 7. The Greeks fight their way across the Karduchian mountains.

Determining to fight their way across these difficult mountains into
Armenia, but refraining from any public announcement, for fear that the
passes should be occupied beforehand--the generals sacrificed[56]
forthwith, in order that they might be ready for breaking up at a
moment's notice. They then began their march a little after midnight, so
that soon after daybreak they reached the first of the Karduchian
mountain-passes, which they found undefended. Cheirisophus, with his
front division and all the light troops, made haste to ascend the pass,
and having got over the first mountain, descended on the other side to
some villages in the valley or nooks beneath; while Xenophon, with the
heavy-armed and the baggage, followed at a slower pace,--not reaching
the villages until dark, as the road was both steep and narrow. T