d been built up wherever the
ground was sufficiently level for a foundation. Many dreary-looking
cells attracted our notice amongst the ruins, and all the information
I could get was, that they were the abode of evil spirits. My
informant would, I do believe, have amused me for hours with legends
of the said spirits, and indeed every river and lake, every mountain
and valley in this district bears its peculiar legend, always
improbable, generally absurd, and though from that very cause
diverting for the moment, I fear that the naive taste amongst our
"savans" which delighted in the history of Jack the Giant-killer being
fast on the wane, they would not be gratified by a lengthy recital;
but I must still take the liberty of repeating as well as I could
follow the vile jargon of my narrator, a tale which he told me of the
Castle of Zohawk while standing on its ruins. He had evidently been
accustomed to tell the same story to others, or else I imagine that,
in consideration of our both being on the spot, he would have spared a
description of what I saw before my eyes. I give it to the reader as
nearly as I can in the narrator's words.

"At the extreme end of a precipitous hill jutting out from the main
range of mountains at the junction of the Bamee[=a]n and Ir[=a]k
rivers, are the remains of an old castle called Zohawk, after a noted
freebooter, who, secure in the strength of his fortress, was the
terror of the surrounding villages, and lived by rapine, pillage, and
plunder of every kind. To a careless observer the diminutive tower,
which alone remains standing, would not convey an adequate idea of the
original extent of the castle; but on a close examination the whole
face of the mountain will be found to be covered with ruined walls
and roofless chambers, now the fit abodes of devils of all sorts and
denominations. Many hundreds of years ago, before the invasion of
Nadir Shah, Zohawk Khan occupied the castle; he did not build it, but
as it acquired an infamous notoriety during his life-time, and has not
been inhabited since, it still bears the name of the ferocious robber,
who with a band as vicious as himself lived there for many years.
Zohawk Khan was originally an Huzareh peasant; he was seized while
a child and carried off in slavery to Toorkisth[=a]n, where
his naturally cruel and savage disposition was exasperated by
ill-treatment and fostered by the scenes of wickedness with which he
was made familiar. Being ver