Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 2.djvu/40

8 dars that it is almost impossible to extricate the right one. We saw nothing like Greek inscriptions, but heard of many near us. A question readily occurs — is the material of which the idols are constructed calculated to resist the impression of hundreds of years, not to think of a period approaching to thousands ? Had I not myself been fully aware of the preservative nature of the climate in the TransHimalayan regions, and seen antiquity represented in mud walls, books and other works, which we consider perishable, I should have been staggered at the idea of the Bamean idols' claim to so remote an origin. The aridity of the atmosphere here is pretty similar to that of upper Kanawar and Tibet, where a thing neither rots or decomposes, but falls to dust in long ages ; and the substance of the figures is of that kind which becomes indurated by exposure to the air, and like the mud upon the roofs of the houses, acquires the hardness of the surrounding kankar. Near this we passed a ruined fort, said to have been built in the days of Zohak ; the slender walls of unburnt brick were perched upon cliffs, which time had rendered inaccessible. Close to the Biits are the remains of a mud castle, about which some curious traditions are related ; but I omit them, lest you might think me as credulous as the people who related them.

Without thinking of the idols, over which superstition and undetermined antiquity have bestowed a false character, there never was a spot better appropriated for fabling the extravagancies of nature, or raising ideas of bhiits and spectres. As to the kafirs, their domiciles yet remain : desolation is not the word for this place, the surface of the hills is actually dead ; no vegetable trace is to be seen, all is parched up, and as it were baked white, and scoriated by the sun's rays ; such is the horrid aspect of this part of the country, to which the caves of the kafirs have added a savage impression. These are still inhabited, but their first possessors have long since dis- appeared ; the sides of the mountains are full of excavations, presenting to the approaching traveller some thing like a honey comb ; whole families occupy these recesses, living in smoke and darkness, of which they seem to form a part, in their black figures. — One of the idols is actually tenanted, and high upon the acclivity are seen isolated nitches and black heads peeping forth. At night, the moving lights and yells of unseen people have a singularly wild effect, and one dwells in the contemplation of the scene, till it actually appears one of an infernal kind, fit only for such companions as bhuts and demons. Burnes took sketches of the whole.