I hoped to find water that I could drink. I hastened so much that I really was the first to reach the place indicated. I soon perceived the well, which was like a brown puddle. I filled my hands; it was as if I had laid hold of ice. I raised the moisture to my lips. Oh! what a martyrdom! not a drop could I swallow--so bitter, so salt, so stinking, was the ice-cold draught. My despair knew no bounds: it was the first time that I really felt anxiety for the result. [Footnote 24: The Orientals love to dignify their saints also with the attribute of bodily size. In Persia I have remarked several giant graves; and even in Constantinople, on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, on the so-called Mount of Joshua, exists a long tomb which the Turks venerate as that of the Joshua of the Bible, but the Greeks as that of Hercules.] {113} CHAPTER VIII. THUNDER GAZELLES AND WILD ASSES ARRIVAL AT THE PLATEAU KAFTANKIR ANCIENT BED OF OXUS FRIENDLY ENCAMPMENT APPROACH OF HORSEMEN GAZAVAT ENTRY INTO KHIVA MALICIOUS CHARGE BY AFGHAN INTERVIEW WITH KHAN AUTHOR REQUIRED TO GIVE SPECIMEN OF TURKISH PENMANSHIP ROBES OF HONOUR ESTIMATED BY HUMAN HEADS HORRIBLE EXECUTION OF PRISONERS PECULIAR EXECUTION OF WOMEN KUNGRAT AUTHOR'S LAST BENEDICTION OF THE KHAN. _On n'y verra jamais que l'heroisme et la servitude_.--Montesq., _Esprit des Lois_, 1. xvii. c. 6. _Chiefs of the Uzbek race Waving their heron crests with martial grace_. Moore, _Veiled Prophet_. [Thunder; Gazelles and Wild Asses]