We had many an occasion for admiring the sureness of foot of the mules and horses in this country; but we also noticed that, like their fellows elsewhere, they have some peculiarities of disposition that a traveller should take note of. Maw’s mule, hitherto remarkably steady, had a trick of keeping to the outer verge of the path in steep places, and when his head was turned inward his hind foot would go over the edge. After recovering himself once or twice, he at last slipped completely. Maw saved himself in good time, while the animal rolled down the steep slope towards the torrent. In many places this is so precipitous that the beast must have been killed; as it was, he was stopped by some thorny bushes, and was with some trouble got back to the track, a sadder and a wiser mule for the rest of that day at least. It is well known that several fatal accidents in the Alps have occurred in places of the same character from interference with a mule, who should be left to take his own course. The now almost familiar road to Arround, with the ascent of the watercourse, seeming more objectionable each time that we passed it, was accomplished without further incident, and no other delays than those involved in plant-collecting. In six hours from Hasni we reached the village, whose inhabitants had all turned out of doors to gaze on the Christian strangers who, from some inscrutable motive, had come a second time to their secluded valley, and now seemed resolved to fix their abode there. A house, the best in the village we were told, had been prepared for us by the simple process of turning out its inmates, and to this we were at once conducted. On the ground floor were two quite dark and low cellars or [Illustration: HOUSES AT ARROUND.] dens, seemingly filthy, but which we were not inclined to explore. Ascending by some rickety steps, we reached the upper floor, the larger part of which was occupied by a rude open verandah, at each end of which was a little closet about seven feet square, one of which was occupied by Maw, while the other was used as a kitchen, the open verandah serving as our sitting-room, and as night quarters for Hooker and Ball. As usual in the Shelluh houses, the doors were only about four feet, and the rooms and verandah not over five feet high, making it inconvenient for us to move about. In most of the houses there are underground cellars to which the inhabitants retire in winter, as is the custom in Armenia and in some of the higher valleys of the French Alps.