On approaching Aūsh, news was had that Taṃbal, unable to make stand in that neighbourhood, had drawn off to the north, to the Rabāṯ-i-sarhang sub-district, it was understood. That night we dismounted in Lāt-kīnt. Next day as we were passing through Aūsh, news came that Taṃbal was understood to have gone to Andijān. We, for our part, marched on as for Aūzkīnt, detaching raiders ahead to over-run those parts.[471] Our opponents went to Andijān and at night got into the ditch but being discovered by the garrison when they set their ladders up against the ramparts, could effect no more and retired. Our raiders retired also after over-running round about Aūzkīnt without getting into their hands anything worth their trouble. Taṃbal had stationed his younger brother, Khalīl, with 200 or 300 men, in Māḏū,[472] one of the forts of Aūsh, renowned in that centre (_ārā_) for its strength. We turned back (on the [Sidenote: Fol. 67.] Aūzkīnt road) to assault it. It is exceedingly strong. Its northern face stands very high above the bed of a torrent; arrows shot from the bed might perhaps reach the ramparts. On this side is the water-thief,[473] made like a lane, with ramparts on both sides carried from the fort to the water. Towards the rising ground, on the other sides of the fort, there is a ditch. The torrent being so near, those occupying the fort had carried stones in from it as large as those for large mortars.[474] From no fort of its class we have ever attacked, have stones been thrown so large as those taken into Māḏū. They dropped such a large one on `Abdu'l-qāsim _Kohbur_, Kitta (Little) Beg's elder brother,[475] when he went up under the ramparts, that he spun head over heels and came rolling and rolling, without once getting to his feet, from that great height down to the foot of the glacis (_khāk-rez_). He did not trouble himself about it at all but just got on his horse and rode off. Again, a stone flung from the double water-way, hit Yār-`alī _Balāl_ so hard on the head that in the end it had to be trepanned.[476] Many of our men perished by their stones. The assault began at dawn; the water-thief [Sidenote: Fol. 67b.] had been taken before breakfast-time;[477] fighting went on till evening; next morning, as they could not hold out after losing the water-thief, they asked for terms and came out. We took 60 or 70 or 80 men of Khalīl's command and sent them to Andijān for safe-keeping; as some of our begs and household were prisoners in their hands, the Māḏū affair fell out very well.[478] From there we went to Unjū-tūpa, one of the villages of Aūsh, and there dismounted. When Taṃbal retired from Andijān and went into the Rabāṯ-i-sarhang sub-district, he dismounted in a village called Āb-i-khān. Between him and me may have been one _yīghāch_ (5 m.?). At such a time as this, Qaṃbar-`alī (the Skinner) on account of some sickness, went into Aūsh.