SHUALLS FROM AN EASTERN QUIVELR. 250

horses have behaved, T think we ought to give them an cequal chance with ourselves.” As he spoke, Denviers unclasped his arms, which had hitherto been round his horse's neek, and a moment afterwards was swim- ming with a grand stroke amid the waters. I raised myscelf from my own horse, and, plunging into the stream, followed my com- panion, who was within a few yvards of the rocks on cither side.

“ Grasp the buttress on the left,” he called out to mz; I will hold on to the other.” I drew o deep breath, and waited for the torrent to hurl me forward. Once ship, and [ knew that a moment afterwards my body would be sucked mto the scething gull in front, and then all would be over. My hands clasped the buttress firmly, and, stcadying myscll for a moment, T drew my body slowly out of the water. When I had climbed up hand over hand in this way for several yards, I saw Denviers was already leaning over from what appeared to me to be a huge stone lattice. He stretched out his hands, and, scizing me, drageed me half senseless and exhausted behind it Resting there until the strain of the cfforts which T had made secmed to become less oppressive, T hegan to obscrve, in the dim light, the shape of the bases of the pillar which rose from the stone platform on which we weree T traced out the representations of two gigantic feet, just as Denviers looked upwards and exclaimed suddenly : —

“look at the shape of this support, which reaches to the arched top of the chasm ! Surcly 1t 1s some monstrous idol!” We drew close to the lattice work and, standing with our backs to the latter, found ourselves facing an cnormous idol, which we sub- scquently discovered was the grim cguardian of onc of the entrances to the tomb of On.

Its repulsive-looking head, adorned with cnormous cars, was of a type similar to that of the Nubtn race, and was hare of Covering, Across ats swarthy breast passed a carved band which interlaced a garment bound at the waist by a belt which supported the representation of - a looscly-hanging garly rcaching to the knees. In one of its giant hands it held a curved sword, winle the other was raised to grasp a serpent which twisted i mazy coils about the idol's hody,

“The entrance to the tomh of On, with- out doubt,” said Denviers. “1 wonder if wo shall ever get out of 1t again ' We moved past the cnormous image and found our- sclves facing a massive stone door, which ylelded readily as we pressed upon it, and

then a moment afterwards we saw before us a wonderful natural hollow apparently in the heart of the mountain, for we were in the tomb of On' | ITI.

Tacoen and red; from the sides and roof of this gigantic tomb huge boulders protruded, while, lymg stretched upon a low bier, was the body of the dead On, apparently cmbalmed, and conspicuous among the others round it by its length; for the dead king must have been much beyond the staturc ol the present race of men. A look of Infinite despair was upon his face ; the hands of the monarch were joined upon his breast, while in them was clasped the handle of a massive sword, the blade of which rested upon his silent form. Peering cautiously out from the position which we had taken

.behind one of the many boulders which

strewed the floor at intervals, we soon dis- covered the real use to which the tomb was put. Closc beside the entrance through which we had come was another, through which the moonlight streamed into the tomb, and apparcntly led i a dircction the same as the ravine into which we had leapt. I'rom this we conjectured that, had we ridden a httle further up, we might have succeeded in turning our horses’” heads into the entrance of 1t, and so have avoided the peril in which we had been placed. The man’s ery had not come to us from in front, as we had thought when breasting the waters, but from this sccond cntry to the tomb. Looking down the entrance we saw several of the horses hehind which we had ridden haltered by arope to some projecting fastenings in the rocky wall.

The tomb itsell was no mere charnel house despite the many bodies which we saw vanging through it. By the side of the dead On we observed the form of one who must have dicd of extreme age, and from the deseription which Hassan had given us, we Judged that this was the body of the Scer whom the eredulous people of Khorassan hehieved to be stiil alive,

The real ruler of the tomb was a negro much Tike the riders whom we had scen and tracked over the plain. From the throng of men which surrounded him and were evi- dently narrating the capture of the vietim who stood among them, we casily distinguished this leader from the abundance of the jewel- Lry which he wore. Tis limbs were seantily clothed, hut his aims and ankles were heavily bound with bracclets, while round his thickly matted hair where it reached his retreating