By means of this unsocial path the travellers
threaded their way in silence,---Hartley, whose
impatience kept him before the Vakeel, eagerly
enquiring when the moon would enlighten the
darkness, which, after the sun's disappearance,
closed fast around them. He was answered by the
natives according to their usual mode of expression,
that the moon was in her dark side, and that he
was not to hope to behold her bursting through a
cloud to illuminate the thickets and strata of black
and slaty rocks, amongst which they were winding.
Hartley had therefore no resource, save to keep
his eye steadily fixed on the lighted match of the
Sowar, or horseman, who rode before him, which,
for sufficient reasons, was always kept in readiness
to be applied to the priming of the matchlock.
The vidette, on his part, kept a watchful eye on
the Dowrah, a guide supplied at the last village,
who, having got more than half way from his own
house, was much to be suspected of meditating how
to escape the trouble of going further.* The Dowrah,
* In every village the Dowrah, or Guide, is an official person,
upon the public establishment, and receives a portion of
the harvest or other revenue, along with the Smith, the Sweeper,
and the Barber.
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