marching
army, occupying a crag over against that lofty summit on which Xenophon
was posted. As it was within speaking distance, he endeavored to open a
negotiation with them in order to get back the bodies of the slain. To
this demand the Karduchians at first acceded, on condition that their
villages should not be burnt; but finding their numbers every moment
increasing, they resumed the offensive. When Xenophon with the army had
begun his descent from the last summit, they hurried onward in crowds to
occupy it; beginning again to roll down masses of rock, and renew their
fire of missiles, upon the Greeks. Xenophon himself was here in some
danger, having been deserted by his shield-bearer; but he was rescued by
an Arcadian heavy-armed foot-soldier named Eurylochus, who ran to give
him the benefit of his own shield as a protection for both in the
retreat.

After a march thus painful and perilous, the rear division at length
found themselves in safety among their comrades, in villages with
well-stocked houses and abundance of corn and wine. So eager however
were Xenophon and Cheirisophus to obtain the bodies of the slain for
burial, that they consented to purchase them by surrendering the guide,
and to march onward without any guide: a heavy sacrifice in this unknown
country, attesting their great anxiety about the burial.[60]

For three more days did they struggle and fight their way through the
narrow and rugged paths of the Karduchian mountains, beset throughout by
these formidable bowmen and slingers; whom they had to dislodge at every
difficult turn, and against whom their own Kretan[61] bowmen were found
inferior indeed, but still highly useful. Their seven days' march
through this country, with its free and warlike inhabitants, were days
of the utmost fatigue, suffering, and peril; far more intolerable than
any thing which they had experienced from Tissaphernes and the Persians.
Right glad were they once more to see a plain, and to find themselves
near the banks of the river Kentrites, which divided these mountains
from the hillocks and plains of Armenia--enjoying comfortable quarters
in villages, with the satisfaction of talking over past miseries.

Such were the apprehensions of Karduchian invasion, that the Armenian
side of the Kentrites for a breadth of 15 miles was unpeopled and
destitute of villages. But the approach of the Greeks having become
known to Tiribazus, satrap of Armenia, the banks of the river