After crossing the high and wild pass of Karakotul (10,500 feet), these
travellers reached the romantic glen of the Doaub, which lies at the
foot of the pass, and is surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains.
Here they were hospitably entertained by Shah Pursund Khan, the chief of
the small territory, and their curiosity was roused by the account
given by an old moollah of a cavern seven miles off, which the Shah
strongly advised them not to attempt to visit, for the Sheitan (the
devil), whose ordinary place of abode it was, never allowed a stranger
to return from its recesses. The moollah, however, scouted this idea, on
the ground that it was much too cold for such an inhabitant; and the
Shah eventually agreed to accompany them to the cave with a band of his
followers.
As they rode through long and rich grass, following the course of a
gentle stream, and tormented by swarms of forest flies, or
blood-suckers, the Shah informed them that he had once endeavoured to
explore the cave, and had already penetrated to a considerable
distance, when he came upon the fresh prints of a naked foot, with an
extraordinary impression by their side, which he suspected to be the
foot of Sheitan himself, and so he beat a precipitate retreat.
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