noon
Thus , then , they entered the river , which many might have feared to do at night , and , although once or twice the water rose to their saddles and the mules were stubborn in the swift stream , in the end gained the further bank in safety . Thence they pursued their path through mountains till at length the sun rose and they found themselves in a lonely land where no one was to be seen . Here they halted in a grove of oaks , off-saddled their animals , tethered and fed them with barley which they had brought upon a mule , and ate of the food that Masouda had provided . Then , having secured the beasts , they lay down to sleep , all three of them , since Masouda said that here there was nothing to fear ; and being weary , slept on till the heat of noon was past , when once more they fed the horses and mules , and having dined themselves , set forward upon their way . Now their road -- if road it could be called , for they could see none -- ran ever upwards through rough , mountainous country , where seemed to dwell neither man nor beast . At sunset they halted again , and at moonrise went forward till the night turned towards morning , when they came to a place where was a little cave . Before they reached this spot of a sudden the silence of those lonely hills was broken by a sound of roaring , not very near to them , but so loud and so long that it echoed and reechoed from the cliff .