Solymaun, ibn Daood, the wise and the powerful, who could command the gins and deeves to do his bidding, when he prevailed against certain powers of darkness, made the bottomless Gulf of Ararat their prison, and there they roar and rave within it, unable to overpass the mysterious boundary traced out by his powerful wand-and woe to the child of clay who heedlessly may trespass beyond this fatal barrier! All this had Gregoor been informed of, and believed. But although he had more than once traversed the habitable regions of the mountain, it never had been in his power, and still less in his inclination, to search into the truth of the fearful tale which now came over his mind with oppressive force. His utter ignorance of every thing connected with the object of his expedition, became more palpable as he approached this awful point, and the horrors he anticipated, assumed a more formidable shape. cent. If he could but find out this, it would not only allow him shelter for the night, and security from all approach of evil spirits, but its inhabitant, if at home, might possibly assist him with some hints as to the mode of attaining his purpose. Revived by this hope, he mended his pace, and took a direction towards the spot where he believed the Santon's retreat to be. "For more than a fursang did he maintain his full speed, ascending in a direction to the left of his first route; when he found himself upon the brink of a very savage-looking and gloomy chasm, which the darkness of night, now fully set in, rendered ten times more dismal. Descending by a precipitous and dangerous way, and scarcely able to see where he placed his feet, the young Armenianheld on along the bottom, clambering over huge fragments, sometimes stepping into great holes, and scarcely avoiding chasms where he heard the roar of an unseen torrent. At length, when, wearied and harassed, he thought of laying himself down under the first overhanging rock for the night, and was looking about for a place fitted for the purpose, he found himself unexpectedly treading upon a level terrace, extending, so far as the darkness permitted him to see, for several yards under a cliff, the height of which was lost in the obscurity; but blacker than the night itself, he could distinguish in this very cliff a yawning chasm, which formed, as it were, an arch in the wall of rock. "Thus ruminating, but resolvedperplexed, and awestruck, perhaps, but perfectly undismayed-did Gregoor proceed until the shades of evening began to descend, for it was late before he left the camp, and he felt the necessity of seeking for some spot in which to pass the night; for wandering in the dark could have done no good; and, you know, agas, it would have been utter madness to have encountered the spirits of darkness in their own dens and at their own chosen hour. But he was far past the last village, and having with difficulty forced his way through the low wooded and marshy ground which in many places skirts the mountain, he had already ascended one of the shoulders which rise gradually from the plain-so that to turn back was entirely out of the question; on the other hand, to proceed, or to spend the night upon the bleak and barren hill side, was nei-light. ther likely to forward his object, nor to fit him for the next day's arduous work. "In this perplexity, it occurred to him, that among the Fakeers or Santons who make their abode in the wild and desert places of the mountain, from motives of piety, there was one whose residence could not be very distant from the line of his as Drawing his sword, to be prepared against the worst, the young man entered, cautiously groping his way with the weapon, and thus he advanced upon a slight descent for several paces, in utter and almost palpable darkness; when his eyes, growing more accustomed to their situation, became aware of a slight glimmer of For a moment he doubted whether this might not be the glare of a wild beast's eye; but another glance reassured him, for, sparkle after sparkle appearing for a moment and then becoming extinct, he felt convinced that it could only proceed from the embers of a fire, and with renewed energy, but still with caution, he made his way towards it. "It was in truth the embers of a fire, formed of dried weeds and wood, the remains of which, raked together, and excited by the young man's breath, were soon rekindled into a blaze, displaying the whole cavern into which accident had so strangely conducted him. It was a cavity formed by nature in the solid rock; its dark roof rose above the influence of the fire-light, but the extent otherwise did not appear great. In one corner lay a mat, spread over some grass and dried leaves, near to which was placed a broken earthen vessel containing water. In a remoter corner, agas, the light glimmered upon that symbol so highly esteemed by the Armenians and other followers of Huzrut Issau.* These, and a few more trifling articles, formed the whole contents of the cavern; and they convinced Gregoor, that, in all probability, he had reached by accident the very place of rest he wished for. But its owner was apparent ly absent, for no human being was to be seen. "This was a disappointment; but to have obtained shelter and fire, with the protection of a holy roof, was no trifling blessing. So Gregoor, ha ving eaten sparingly of a cake of bread, the only provision he had taken along with him, and drinking from the broken pot of water, once more scraped together the embers of his fire, and placing his arms in readiness in case of attack, he lay down upon the bed of leaves and grass, and soon fell fast asleep. "It is not wonderful, agas, that the same matters which occupied the waking thoughts of Gregoor should visit his dreams-nor need I remind you how often it pleases the Omnipotent to send forth the angels of his presence, and shadow out through them to his creatures, in the hours of sleep, the images of those coming events which concern their misery or their welfare. The young man, as he afterwards declared, dreamed that he was toiling up the mountain, until at length he reached the brink of a fearful abyss, where he stopped in horror; for deformed shapes were sporting in its darkness, and hovering in the thick air. The moment they perceived him, forward they flew towards him, with hideous din and frightful gestures, as if they sought to destroy him with their ter rible talons. How long these visions continued he knew not, but his agony was extreme; and just when the demons appeared to have caught him in their gripe, a sudden light burst forth, dispelling the darkness, and the figure of an old man, clad in a robe of ancient form, with a strongly marked countenance, and a huge flowing beard of grizzled hue-just such as he remembered to have seen the likeness of his patron saint represented at Etchmeadzin-appeared therein, stretching forth his hand, as if to drive the fiends from their prey. In a moment they all vanished, and another form, of more pleasing character, appeared in company with the saint-it was his Annah herself, whom the holy man led towards him, and he rushed forward to embrace her. The exertion awoke him-he opened his eyes, and, by the grey light of dawn which fell upon him through the entrance, saw bending over him an old man, whose only clothing was a sheepskin tunic, which, girt round his waist, and reaching nearly to the knee, covered the middle of his person, while a portion of the same material thrown over his back and shoulders, still left the greater part of his breast and arms exposed, His hair and beard were matted together, covering most of his face, from which a pair of keen grey eyes locked piercingly forth, and such parts of his body as were visible were thickly covered with grey curling hair. "Hoh! up, my son!' said the old man, addressing Gregoor, without any previous preparation, or evincing the smallest sign of surprise at finding him in the cell-Up!— the morning is grey-thy journey is long, and thy need is urgent-up and be doing!' Father,' replied the youth, after staring around him for a minute with a bewildered air, and rubbing his eyes to try if he were really awake, father, you speak as if you knew me and my errand. It is strange; yet, if it be so, you cannot fail of knowing my difficulties. Instruct me, if you can, how to conquer themteach me how to proceed-how to The Mahometan name for Christ. VOL. XXVIII. NO. CXLVIII. C act and may the Almighty reward you for it! My son,' returned the old man, thou hast a good cause thy object is virtuous-and the might of the Most High will not fail to strengthen the chosen instrument of his beneficent designs. Thou couldst not err while thus upheld see only that thy soul fail not, nor let thy heart wax cold in the work, and blessings shall follow thee here and hereafter.' "Father,' replied the youth, behold me ready-shew me but the work, and the means of performing it but as yet I wander in the dark, unknowing whither to direct my steps. Forward, my son, forward! Behold the mountain summit and the eternal snows of Ararat, where, thousands of years ago, the ark of Noah rested, and the world began afresh seek only to reach that summit, and fear not but thy duty shall be taught thee. Forward, then, boldly, But see-first taste of this wine and this bread-they will strengthen thee against the hour of trial; and take this chaplet of dark beads, formed of a stone from the first altar which the holy Noah raised to the Almighty, when, uncertain like thee on which side to bend his course, he descend ed with his family from the mountain. These beads are endowed with peculiar virtues. Proceed thou steadily and boldly; and when thy mind becomes darkened, and thou art doubtful which track to pursue, take one of these beads, drop it thus upon the earth, and follow the direction it will indicate. But leave behind thee these arms of human fabric, unsuited to the conflicts thou wilt have to maintain. Trust thou alone in the strength of the Most High, whose servant thou art; and throw aside what may encumber, but cannot aid thee.' Having uttered these words, the old man dropt from the chaplet a single bead; bounding up from the hard rock in front of the cavern, it sprung forward in a direction ascending the ravine. May God protect thee, youth!' said the recluse, with solemnity, and Gregoor, following the appointed way, plunged onwards among the rocky fragments, until, by dint of powerful exertion, he threaded up the intricacies of the ravine to its head, and emerged high up upon the mountain side. "Onward and onward did he thus toil for many hours, often panting and fatigued with the steep ascent, and the rough ground over which he had to pass, but never losing courage nor fainting in heart; until, after the sun had long declined from the meridian, as he reached an elevated shoulder of the mountain, he caught a view of the summit and its deep eternal snows, hanging still far above him, like a mighty mass of clouds in the blue air, but greatly nearer than ever he expected to attain to them. Encouraged by his progress, and anxious to make the best of the remaining hours of daylight, he had recourse to his chaplet, and the bead, after bounding upwards as formerly, flew like a stone thrown by the hand, in a direction slanting upwards to his left, and pointing to the eastern face of the summit. Gregoor followed gaily, and after another hour's hard walking, he discovered that he was approaching the brink of a wide and profound cavity; for the bosom of the summit, to which he had by that time more closely approached, appeared to recede in a semi-circular form, exhibiting a lofty, precipitous face, the upper part of which rose in terrific cliff's of broken ice and snow, while the lower descended, in a wall of black and rugged rock, sheer into the dark gulf below. "His heart beat thick, as he saw himself approaching this scene of anticipated horrors; and seeing that his progress must soon be stopped, or his course changed, he had once more recourse to his chaplet. The bead, after its customary bound, as if to gain free and uninterrupted scope, rolled onwards still-and onwards was Gregoor forced to follow, wondering where this extraordinary course would terminate, until, after traversing a tract of broken ground with a facility which was incomprehensible to himself, (for he felt as it were upborne and hurried onward by some unseen power,) he found himself suddenly standing upon an elevated point of rock, and overlooking a scene which froze his blood with horror. "He had approached the highest region of the mountain, in a manner as unaccountable as the almost preternatural rapidity of his latter progress, and was involved, as it seemed, in the heart of its eternal snows. Around him rose precipices and peaks of cold blue ice, surmounted by the more recent snow, which adds yearly to the mass, more than is abstracted from it by the action of summer suns and thaws. In front, rose in all its savage majesty the great snowy cone which strikes the eye from below, a mingled aggregation of rock and ice, the base of which was lost a thousand gez below, in the gulf that opened at its very feet,-a fearful gulf, the depth of which mocked the straining eye. Masses of rock and ice, with all their superincumbent snow, were every moment detached from the edge of the cliffs; and, thundering down with a crashing and hollow sound, mingled their din with the distant roar of unseen torrents. 'Here then, at least,' thought the astounded youth, must this enterprise termi nate in some way or other-here, if at all, unless I have been altogether mocked by evil spirits, must my course of duty be revealed to meand, oh God! thou wilt not desert an honest youth and a true Christian, who has gone forth among these perils in firm reliance on thy aid!' "Thus, agas, prayed the Armenian youth; and from these words he received, as he affirmed, a support and a courage which astonished even himself. It soon became all requi red, for on appealing for the last time to his chaplet, to his astonishment no less than his horror, the dark bead glided forward for a few yards, along the very verge of the giddy precipice, and then leaping downwards, he saw it bound from one slight inequality of rock to another, slanting along the blackest and deepest side of the abyss, until at a yawning rift in the rock it disappeared, and was seen no more. "Oh, God! deliver me in this peril and perplexity,' exclaimed the young man aloud, as he gazed with a shudder of dismay at the indicated track. But it was the weakness of the flesh, not of the spirit; for his resolution did not falter; and neither seeing nor hearing any farther token, he boldly, but cautiously, addressed himself to examine his appalling path. "On reaching the point at which the bead had descended, he remark ed, what had not been perceptible before, a slight irregularity upon the face of the rock, like a ledge, which, had the place been one to yield pasturage, would scarcely have afforded to the most adventurous goats a way to reach such stray herbs as might have sprung upon the face of the cliff; but neither goat nor herb was ever seen there; not even moss, nor the green coating of dampness, ever grew upon that black rock-no living thing existed there. "Casting off his sandals, in order to cling more firmly with his feet, Gregoor flung himself over the edge of the cliff, and commenced his fearful course, suspended upon the narrow ledge, above an abyss he dared not look at. So narrow, indeed, was this ledge, and so perpendicular the rocky face along which it led, that even the thickness of his slender body pro jecting from it almost destroyed his balance, and the irregularities by which he held were so slight and far between, that they scarcely af forded him the means of dragging himself forward; and sometimes a jutting angle would occur, the dan ger of doubling round which, while ignorant of the footing beyond, was extreme. "Thus, sticking like an insect to the rocky wall along which he slowly crawled, Gregoor had proceeded several yards, intent only upon preserving his precarious hold, when a new and fearful horror assailed him, The gulf, before so silent and drea ry, resounded now at once with cries and groans, and dismal howlings; and the involuntary sidelong glance of his eye fell upon forms dim and indistinct, but of appalling character, which flitted through the murky atmosphere, and fluttered upwards with fierce and uncouth gestures. Muttering an earnest prayer, with a powerful effort he withdrew his eyes, but turning them upwards in hopes of relief, he saw the snow and icecracks above him tenanted with visionary shapes more ghastly yet than those below. Oh, agas! how shall I describe-how can you conceive— those terrible ghosts of the snow! Yards, Stark and stiff, like stretched and swathed corses, were they-and yet they had a movement, a wandering flitting motion, which the eye could not catch, nor the mind comprehend. No human tongue could name their forms;-dim and colourless, they seemed void of substance;-the very glare of their glassy eyes cast a deadly chill, which seemed to freeze the marrow in the young man's bones. "The dream of the preceding night rushed forcibly into the mind of Gregoor, as he gazed upon the scene around him; but the remembrance rather recalled his sinking courage than added to his alarm, for he doubt ed not that the visionary aid he had then experienced, would not desert him now in the reality of his danger. Casting forward his eyes, therefore, he saw at no great distance the chasm where the last bead had disappear ed. May God grant that the adventure shall terminate there, and happily for his servant!' ejaculated the youth, and on he went. "Scarcely had he reached its nearest verge when a mass of ice and snow appeared above him towering to the very clouds, and horridly tenanted by the ice ghouls, while a glance downwards betrayed to him a deeper and blacker gulf, with the dim glimmer of a roaring torrent at an immeasurable distance beneath. A sudden pang of horror seized his heart-his limbs trembled, and his hold almost relaxed; for now the rock and ice rose high on all sides, cutting off retreat; and there hung the unhappy youth above a fathomless abyss, into which it seemed that, sooner or later, he must drop. His courage, which till now had been unshaken, at that moment almost failed him, when his eye was attracted to a quivering rapid motion in a part of the ice above, but almost within his reach. A second and more attentive glance shewed him a creature like a serpent, of the same pale hue and transparent substance as the spirits of the ice, which was playing in and out of the cracks and crevices in the snow. Thanks be to God!' exclaimed the young man, aloud; 'behold it-it is mine!' and forgetting his precarious situation, he darted desperately forward to seize it. A fearful cry arose from below-his footing failed him, and at the same mo ment the enormous mass of ice and snow which rose above him, bent forwards for an instant, then crashing downwards, bore with it the shrieking youth into the awful gulf below! His head reeled, but ere his senses quite fled, a mild benignant voice whispered, in tones which were heard in spite of the hideous din,- Well done, brave and virtuous youth! thou hast fought the good fight, and thousands will bless thy name.' "How long Gregoor remained insensible, or what may have occurred to him during his swoon, he never could tell. But, strange to say, agas, when he recovered his senses, it was neither upon the summit nor among the eternal snows of Agri-Daugh, nor in the fearful gulf below it, but just in the very cavern from whence he had set forth that morning-upon the same bed of leaves on which he had cast himself the preceding night; and over him was standing the recluse himself, in the identical sheepskin tunic which he had worn in the morning of this eventful day! "The youth gazed long upon the hermit, rubbed his eyes, shook himself heartily, lay still, and reflecting for some moments, shuddered at the recollections which dawned upon him, and then turning again to the recluse, who stood patiently bending over him, stared with a bewildered air, and exclaimed,- In the name of God and St Gregory! what has happened-and where am I?- In safe quarters, my son, by the favour of God, who has dealt with thee in great mercy,' replied the recluse, with solemnity. And how came I here? Surely surely and again he shuddered. My son,' said the recluse, thou art here by the will of God-let that content thee; be thankful for thy safety, and seek no farther. It is time thou wert on thy journey-up, and be going.'And whither must I go, father?How can I return?-Ah! I thought ་ I believed, that all was well-that I had done my duty-that voice declared so.' And that voice was right, my son-mistrust it not-return whence thou camest, without delay or doubt. Boldly present thyself, and claim the promised reward. Fear not that it will be denied thee; but, in thy own prosperity, forget |