noon
Now in this city of Kaloon it was our weary destiny to dwell for three long months , one of the most hateful times , perhaps , that we ever passed in all our lives . Indeed , compared to it our endless wanderings amid the Central Asia snows and deserts were but pleasure pilgrimages , and our stay at the monastery beyond the mountains a sojourn in Paradise . To set out its record in full would be both tedious and useless , so I will only tell briefly of our principal adventures . On the morrow of our arrival the Khania Atene sent us two beautiful white horses of pure and ancient blood , and at noon we mounted them and went out to ride with her accompanied by a guard of soldiers . First she led us to the kennels where the death-hounds were kept , great flagged courts surrounded by iron bars , in which were narrow , locked gates . Never had I seen brutes so large and fierce ; the mastiffs of Thibet were but as lap-dogs compared to them . They were red and black , smooth-coated and with a blood-hound head , and the moment they saw us they came ravening and leaping at the bars as an angry wave leaps against a rock .