It had been raining heavily for one whole month--raining on a camp of thirty thousand men and thousands of camels, elephants, horses, bullocks, and
mules all gathered together at a place called Rawal Pindi, to be reviewed by the Viceroy of India.
He is to take such gifts with him as shall give satisfaction to Achilles, and he is to go alone, with no other Trojan, save only some honoured servant who may drive his
mules and waggon, and bring back the body of him whom noble Achilles has slain.
We met an everlasting procession of guides, porters,
mules, litters, and tourists climbing up this steep and muddy path, and there was no room to spare when you had to pass a tolerably fat
mule.
Valparaiso -- Portillo Pass -- Sagacity of
Mules -- Mountain- torrents -- Mines, how discovered -- Proofs of the gradual Elevation of the Cordillera -- Effect of Snow on Rocks -- Geological Structure of the two main Ranges, their distinct Origin and Upheaval -- Great Subsidence -- Red Snow -- Winds -- Pinnacles of Snow -- Dry and clear Atmosphere -- Electricity -- Pampas -- Zoology of the opposite Side of the Andes -- Locusts -- Great Bugs -- Mendoza -- Uspallata Pass -- Silicified Trees buried as they grew -- Incas Bridge -- Badness of the Passes exaggerated -- Cumbre -- Casuchas -- Valparaiso.
In other towns in Italy the people lie around quietly and wait for you to ask them a question or do some overt act that can be charged for--but in Annunciation they have lost even that fragment of delicacy; they seize a lady's shawl from a chair and hand it to her and charge a penny; they open a carriage door, and charge for it--shut it when you get out, and charge for it; they help you to take off a duster--two cents; brush your clothes and make them worse than they were before--two cents; smile upon you--two cents; bow, with a lick-spittle smirk, hat in hand-- two cents; they volunteer all information, such as that the
mules will arrive presently--two cents--warm day, sir--two cents--take you four hours to make the ascent--two cents.
Ask your father, therefore, to have a waggon and
mules ready for us at daybreak, to take the rugs, robes, and girdles, and you can ride, too, which will be much pleasanter for you than walking, for the washing-cisterns are some way from the town."
Travel by
mules and ox-carts is slow and sure, but the roads are very bad, as I have heard from friends who have made explorations in Honduras.
The horses of Abyssinia are excellent; their
mules, oxen, and cows are without number, and in these principally consists the wealth of this country.
Darkness, outstripping some visitors on
mules, had risen thus to the rough convent walls, when those travellers were yet climbing the mountain.
"Nay, my fair lord," said Alleyne, "these are not horses and a squire, but
mules and a varlet.
At this moment Gurth appeared on the opposite side of the moat with the
mules. The travellers crossed the ditch upon a drawbridge of only two planks breadth, the narrowness of which was matched with the straitness of the postern, and with a little wicket in the exterior palisade, which gave access to the forest.
"We are in haste," answered one of the encamisados, "and the inn is far off, and we cannot stop to render you such an account as you demand;" and spurring his
mule he moved on.