Page:Narrative of a journey through the upper provinces of India etc. (Volume III.).djvu/100

80 ISLAND OF ELEPHANTA. the usual landing-place. It is about three times aft big as life, rudely sculptured, and very much dilar pidated by the weather. The animal on its back, which Mr. Erskine supposed to be a tyger, has no longer any distinguishable shape. From the land- ing place, a steep and narrow path, but practicable for palanquins, leads up the hill, winding prettily through woods and on the banks of precipices^ so as very much to remind me of Hawkstone. About half a mile up is the first cave, which is a sort of portico supported by two pillars and two pilasters, and seeming as if intended for the entrance to a rock temple which has not been proceeded in. A quarter of a mile farther, and two-thirds of the ascent up the higher of the two hills, is the great cavern, in a magnificent situation, and deserving all the praise which has been lavished on it. For its details I again refer to Mr. Erskine, merely noticing that, though my expectations were highly raised, the reality much exceeded them, and that both the dimensions, the proportions, and the sculp- ture, seemed to me to be of a more noble charac- ter, and a more elegant execution than I had been led to suppose. Even the statues are executed with great spirit, and are some of them of no com- mon beauty, considering their dilapidated condition and the coarseness of their material.

At the upper end of the principal cave, which is in the form of a cross, and exceedingly resembles the plan of an ancient basilica, is an enormous bust with three faces, reaching from the pavement to the ceiling of the temple. It has generdly been sup-