1 BUTKHAK. 471
2 bers in passing’, perched on the tops of the hills,
3 . with their matchlocks in hand ; but our party,
4 owing to good care and vigilance, came through
5 without meeting with any accident.*
6 Butkhak, so named by Mahmoud of Ghazni,
7 having buried the idols of Somnath at this place,
8 is a small village surrounded by a high wall.
9 After passing through bare hills, and a rocky
10 * < On the lst of September we moved to Butkhak, our
11 road for the first five miles being confined to the Khoord
12 Kabul pass, a narrow defile bounded on either side by
13 precipitous and lofty mountains, whose frowning summits
14 darkened the chasm; as in the early morning we crossed
15 and recrossed a small rivulet that rapidly sped down its
16 shingly bed. We then entered on an open valley, bounded
17 on the west by a low range of hills, which concealed the
18 long-desired city of Kabul from our sight, and in half an
19 hour arrived at our encampment. Some stragglers having
20 lagged in the pass, were attacked by the Ghilzaes, who
21 killed one or two, and wounded the remainder before they
22 could effect their escape. In the evening we were re-
23 joined by the guns that last night had remained near the
24 Haft Kotal, the men having with the greatest difficulty
25 succeeded in dragging them up the stupendous ascent of
26 the pass under the superintendence of Maule, who has had
27 charge of them ever since leaving Gundamuk, and to
28 whom, therefore, much credit is due.”—Barrs Journal,
29 p. 367.