1 506 THE GHILZAES.
2 horses. A sharp wind blew in our faces, and
3 the water on the sides of the Nala which
4 flowed down the pass was completely frozen.*
5 There is a footpath over the hills to the left,
6 which people generally prefer in winter.
7 The Ghilzaes, observing how things were
8 going on at Kabul, had now become very bold.
9 At night, while encamped at Khurd Kabul, we
10 could hardly sleep, the thieves being very
11 troublesome in their excursions. The 3rd Ca-
12 * On the 17th we moved to Khurd Kabul, the ascent
13 of the narrow defile leading to it being accomplished in a
14 cold wind that cut us to the skin, whilst the splashings
15 from the water, as we crossed the stream, froze before it
16 could drop from the skists of our cloaks or the tips of our
17 steel scabbards. The next day we marched to Tezeen, and
18 as we neared the summit of the lofty Haft-Kotal, we
19 passed the dead body of a native who had evidently died
20 from the severity of the weather, and who with out-
21 stretched arms was lying flat on his face, apparently having
22 fallen in that position while making a last struggle to gain
23 the top. He had been stripped of every rag. Not far
24 distant the corpse of another was seen in the cleft of a
25 ravine, which the poor fellow had entered with the vain
26 hope of screening himself from the keen blast that hurried
27 up the pass, and where, instead of the repose of sleep, he
28 had found # more lasting rest in death !”--Barr’s Journal,
29 pp. 383, 384.