Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/370

316 effort to gallop over the rugged road we were thoroughly drenched road we reached Kara Bagtcha. The houses in this village are almost subterranean, one narrow passage running through the centre divides every family residence into two wings in which the apartments are ranged one behind the other. The only light admitted comes through a circular orifice in the roof, which serves also for a chimney. Into one of these graves for the living we were ushered, a fire was soon lighted on the ground, and we prepared to change our clothing. It was very difficult to make the Coords understand that Mrs. Badger and I desired to be left alone for a time; they felt that they were masters, and did not like to be ejected notwithstanding our civility. Towards the evening the room was shared by three groups, ourselves at the upper part, our muleteer's servants, and two or three native travellers in the centre, and a calf and sick camel of an immense size at the end opposite our own. The smoke from the fires, as the proprietors said, increased the malady of the camel, and after a long consultation it was decided that the animal should be slaughtered to prevent its dying. This decision brought an influx of the interested villagers to witness the ceremony; four or five held the head while another cut the throat just where the creature lay, and the blood was suffered to flow over the apartment much to our disgust and discomfort. The process of flaying next commenced and lasted for a couple of hours, and then a troop of incipient barbarians, each with a knife in his hand, danced round the carcase, uttering the most unearthly yells, and looking like little demons in the glare of the fires. Every now and then one stooped to cut off such parts as he thought most delicate, and I was given to understand that the whole would be consumed by the villagers on the morrow. This amusement continued till after midnight, and no expostulations of ours could induce the urchins to abandon their sport. They were at length tired out, and then condescended to leave us to—sleep, I was about to say, but this would be a mistake; swarms of fleas replaced the annoyance of the young Coords, and we were glad when the day dawned, and called us to pursue our journey.

But to return to our narrative: we continued our route through the valley, which is here rugged in the extreme, and if