times who had navigated the Indus, was stimu- | the party took their seats in the open arcade, or semiana, lated by a desire to extend his travels beyond that before described; the principal personages being seated river, a design which received the most liberal under a canopy, the richness of which is utterly indeencouragement from the governor-general of In- scribable. It consisted of one mass of jewels, of diadia. Being joined by Mr. James Gerard, of the monds, pearls, rubies, emeralds, interwoven in various Bengal army, on the 2d of January, 1832, he left patterns so thickly, that the texture of the cloth or silk on which they were worked was quite indistinguishable. Lodiana, having previously solicited Runjeet "The regiment of amazons soon made their appearSing to permit his again entering and passing ance, on this occasion armed with bows and arrows, and through his territories. On the frontier they headed by their commander-in-chief, the favourite of the were met by a sirdar or chief, who welcomed day, who was distinguished by a crimson dress, and them in the name of the maharaja. On their white plume in her turban. There were three subordiarrival at Lahore, Runjeet received them with nate commandants, each distinguished by a white plume. all kindness-detained them near a month, enter- After exhibiting their dancing for some time, the mahataining them with hunting, hawking, and feasting, raja ordered one of them to sing the song of the Hoolee, in the most splendid style. Although we have and a tray of round silver bowls, filled with gold dust already given some specimens of the finery of the and silver leaf pulverised, having been placed on a foutmaharaja's establishment, we cannot omit the stool before his highness, the sport and the song commenced. The dancer and the maharaja opened the camdescription of the old chief's bed-room. paign by pelting one another most vigorously with gold "In one end of the room stood a camp-bedstead, which dust. Neither the governor-general nor Lady William merits a description. Its frame-work, posts, and legs, escaped, and the engagement soon became general, and were entirely covered with gold, and the canopy was one ceased only when three silver bowls were exhausted, and massy sheet of the same precious metal. It stood on the whole party were covered from head to foot with the footstools, raised about ten inches from the ground, and glittering powder. The maharaja suffered the most which were also of gold. The curtains were of Cash- severely, for during his contest with the amazon, the latmere shawls. Near it stood a round chair of gold; and ter contrived to throw a handful straight into his sound in one of the upper rooms of the palace we saw the coun-eye, which nearly extinguished the luminary, and he did terpart of these costly ornaments. The candles that not completely recover from the wound during the rest lighted up the apartment were held in branch sticks of of the evening." gold. The little room in which we sat was superbly gilded; and the side which was next the court was closed by a screen of yellow silk. Here we enjoyed the society of our royal entertainer, who freely circulated the wine, filled our glasses himself, and gave every encouragement by his own example.”—Vol. i. pp. 29, 30. Mr. Burnes, on leaving Lahore, determined to cast off the garb of an Englishman, and adopt the costume of an humble Asiatic : "It now became necessary to divest ourselves almost of every thing which belonged to us, and discontinue But the splendour of the Seik soldier, as dis- many habits and practices which had become a second nature; but the success of our enterprise depended upon played at Lahore, sinks into obscurity when com- these sacrifices. We threw away all our European pared with the magnificence which this old chief clothes, and adopted, without reserve, the costume of the exhibited in the tented field, when Lord William Asiatic. We exchanged our tight dress for the flowing Bentinck paid him a week's visit on the banks of robe of the Afghans, girt on swords, and 'kummur. the Sutlege, in the interval between the two mis-bunds' (sashes); and, with our heads shaved, and groansions of Mr. Burnes. The display of elephants ing under ponderous turbans, we strutted about slipshod; with their rich houdas, the long line of troops, and had now to uncover the feet instead of the head. cavalry, infantry, and artillery, all in dresses of We gave away our tents, beds, and boxes, and broke our yellow silk, presented a most brilliant spectacle; tables and chairs. A hut, or the ground, we knew must but we must content ourselves with a short ex-be our shelter, and a coarse carpet or mat our bed. A tract from the account of one of the spectators of blanket, or 'kummul,' served to cover the native saddle, and to sleep under during night: and the greater portion scenes that outdid any thing in the "Thousand of my now limited wardrobe found a place in the * koorand One Nights :" jeen,' or saddle-bags, which were thrown across the horse's quarter. A single mule for each of us carried the whole of our baggage, with my books and instruments; and a servant likewise found a seat upon the animal. A pony carried the surveyor, Mohammed Ali; and the Hindoo lad had the same allowance. These arrange. ments took some time and consideration; and we burned, gave away, and destroyed whole mule-loads of baggage -a propitiatory offering, as I called it, to those immortal demons, the Rhyberecs, who have from time immemorial plundered the traveller across the Indus.”—Vol. i. pp. 40, 41. "The tents were pitched on a rising bank, within a hundred yards of the river, and the lands around it were metamorphosed, by the skill of the gardeners of Lahore, into verdant parterres, in which wheat, having been sown some days previous, now presented groups of green and growing figures of elephants, horses, deer, birds, &c. This garden was brilliantly illuminated, and decorated with artificial flowers, trees, golden cypresses, &c., tastefully arranged. The interior of the pavilion, however, presented a scene of riches and splendour surpassing the descriptions of the palace of Haroon al Raschid, or of The "tope," or mound of masonry, of ManiSolomon in all his glory. The floor was spread with cloth of gold; and within the gorgeous little pavilion be-kyala attracted the attention of Mr. Burnes. Mr. as like Grecian fore described, were placed three circular seats or thrones, Elphinstone had pronounced it sheeted with gold, curiously worked. The centre was architecture as any building which Europeans, in destined for the maharaja, and one on either side for the governor-general and Lady William Bentinck. Behind remote parts of the country, could now construct these thrones was a golden bedstead, inlaid with dia- by the hands of unpractised native builders." monds, emeralds, rubies, &c., in profusion. The tent M. Ventura, a general in Runjeet Sing's service, was illuminated with golden candelabras. After inspect opened it, and descended down a central shaft, at ing this chef-d'œuvre of oriental taste and magnificence, the bottom of which he found various coins and medals, and a nest of three cylindrical boxes, one rus's battle correspond with the part of the Hyof iron, one of tin, and the innermost of gold, con- daspes where he crossed, that several gentlemen taining a black, dirty substance, half liquid, and of the mission, who read the passage on the spot, mixed with glass or amber. Though the coins were persuaded that it referred to the very spot were much posterior to the Greeks, M. Ventura before their eyes." Non nostri est tantas compothinks this must have been the site of Bucephalia, nere lites; but we wish, here and elsewhere, that as the word Manikyala means, when interpreted, Mr. Burnes had carried with him, not only his "the City of the Horse;" but Mr. Burnes is of Curtius and Arrian, but the late clear and able opinion that it corresponds more nearly to Ar-"History of Alexander," by Archdeacon Wilrian's position of Taxilla. The latter found here liams. That learned writer's conjectures have, two antiques and seventy copper coins. A simi- as it is, in several remarkable instances, derived lar "tope" was visited at Belur, and many others new strength from Mr. Burnes's facts. were heard of in the neighbourhood of the moun- On the 14th March our travellers forded the tains. "I am inclined to a belief," says Mr. Indus about five miles above Attock, where the Burnes, "that in these 'topes' we have the tombs stream was divided into three branches. Two of a race of princes who once reigned in Upper hundred Seik horsemen conducted them over. India, and that they are either the sepulchres of With the exception of one man and two horses, the Bactrian kings, or their Indo-Scythic succes-that were carried down the stream and drowned, sors." they arrived safe on the opposite bank. At Pind Dadun Khan, the capital of a small They were now in the country of the Afghans, district, with a population of six thousand souls, and delivered themselves over to the Khuttucks, the travellers crossed the Hydaspes. The river a lawless tribe, whose chief expressed his dishere turns round a point of the vast salt range satisfaction at their having purchased some triwhich stretches from the Hydaspes to a consider- fling articles in the bazaar, as if it was a reflection able distance beyond the Indus, an extent nearly on his hospitality. On taking leave, however, he equal to two hundred miles. About one hundred assured them they might consider themselves "as persons were employed digging blocks of salt out secure as eggs under a hen." Being now in the of an excavation in the hill. Mr. Burnes says of land "where covetousness of a neighbour's goods these poor creatures that their cadaverous looks is the ruling passion," it was found necessary to and stifled breathing excited the utmost compas-secrete their money and valuables in the best sion. He distributed to each a rupee, which was manner they could contrive. On approaching about equal to the earnings for extracting a ton of salt. The range is stated to rise about eight hundred feet above the plains of the Punjab, and about two thousand feet above the sea, and exceeds five miles in breadth. From this source Runjeet Sing derives a vast revenue. the plain of Peshawur they were met by an escort, and the son of the chief, who conducted them to his father, by whom they were received with the greatest kindness. Of this chief Mr. Burnes says "Sooltan Mahomed Khan was not the illiterate Af ghan whom I expected to find, but an educated, well-bred Mr. Elphinstone crossed this salt range a little beyond the town of Calla baugh, the houses of which, he says, actually overhang the road, being built on the steep face of the hill, the streets ris ing like steps one above another. Here the Indus was compressed between two mountains into a deep channel, only three hundred and fifty yards broad; along the face of one of these, a road has been cut for upwards of two miles, mostly out of solid salt, the cliffs rising sometimes to the height of more than a hundred feet above the level of the river; the mineral is described as hard, clear, and nearly pure, but streaked and tinged in parts with red. "The earth," "As we passed the suburbs of the city we discovered a Elphinstone, "is almost blood-red, and this, with crowd of people, and, on a nearer approach, saw the manthe strange and beautiful spectacle of the salt led bodies of a man and woman, the former not quite rocks, and the Indus flowing in a deep and clear rounded the chief and our party, and one person stepped dead, lying on a dunghill. The crowd instantly surstream through lofty mountains, past this extra-forward and represented, in a trembling attitude, to Soolordinary town, presented such a scene of wonder as is seldom to be witnessed." We should say, not to be witnessed in any other part of the known globe. says Mr. The scene of Alexander's battle with Porus has been conjectured to lie at Julalpoor, but Mr. Burnes seems to prefer Jelum, which is about twenty-five miles higher up the Hydaspes, chiefly because the great road from Tartary passes this place, and appears to have been the one followed by Alexander. Mr. Elphinstone, however, is not likely to give up Julalpoor: "So precisely does Quintus Curtius's description of the scene of Po tan Mahomed Khan, that he had discovered his wife in an act of infidelity, and had put both parties to death; he held the bloody sword in his hands, and described how he had committed the deed. His wife was pregnant, and already the mother of three children. The chief asked a few questions, which did not occupy him three minutes; he then said, in a loud voice, You have acted the part of He then moved on, and the crowd cried out Bravo!' a good Mahomedan, and performed a justifiable act.' (Afreen!") The man was immediately set at liberty."Vol. i. pp. 93, 94. Mr. Burnes is naturally much shocked with this incident; but his expressions on the occasion are too severe; he might have known, or remem- | Gundamuk clover and white daisies clothed the bered, that an injured husband in his own country fields, and the mountains were covered with will, under similar circumstances, be held by forests of pines, rising to within a thousand feet judge and jury to have "performed a justifiable of perpetual snow. Here, too, is the garden of Neemla, celebrated as the field of battle in which Shooja-ool-Moolk lost his crown in 1809. act." "Of the town of Peshawur," says Mr. Burnes, "I shall say nothing, since the graphic and accurate descriptions of Mr. Elphinstone require no addition." A great revolution, however, has occurred since Mr. Elphinstone's time. Instead of its remaining a monarchy, the Afghan country has been broken up into four chiefships-Peshawur, Cabool, Herat, and Candahar, by the misfortunes that befel the two sons of Timour Shah, Zemaun Shah and Shooja-ool-Moolk, now both at Lodiana, and the former, as observed by Mr. Elphinstone, blind, dethroned, and exiled, in a country which he had twice subdued. The present ruler of Peshawur is described as a very excellent character, and his courtiers exhibited more general knowledge than could have been expected in this remote region. The Khan spoke without reserve of Runjeet Sing, and sighed to be released from the disgrace of being obliged to pay him tribute and having his son a hostage at Lahore. Mr. Burnes observed that every one seemed to maintain an air of equality with the chief-even the meanest servant addressed him without ceremony. After a month's feasting and entertainments, and rambles about the city and its environs, where the climate, the gardens, and the landscape, are said to delight the senses, they took their departure for Cabool. Being now near the close of April, they had no longer to dread the snows of Cabool and Hindoo Coosh: the thermometer had risen from 60° at noon on their first arrival to 87°; the mulberries | had ripened, and the snow had entirely disappeared from the hither range. The party had scarcely entered Cabool before they heard of the misfortunes of Mr. Wolff, the Jewish missionary, who was then detained in a neighbouring village, and lost no time in despatching assistance to him. The situation of this eccentric fanatic excited the sympathy of our travellers, though mainly owing to his own imprudence; having assumed the character of a hadjee, he was soon discovered, and then, of course, beaten and plundered. Our travellers were received most kindly into the house of Nawab Jubbar Khan, the amiable brother of the chief of Cabool. Mr. Burnes says "Never was a man more modest and more beloved; he will permit but a single attendant to follow him; and the people on the high and by ways stop to bless him; the politicians assail him at home to enter into intrigues, and yet he possesses the respect of the whole community, and has, at the present moment, a greater moral influence than any of the Barukzye family in Afghanistan. His manners are remarkably mild and pleasing; and from his dress one would not imagine him to be an influential member of a warlike family. It is delightful to be in his society, to witness his acts, and hear his conmakes every one of them his guest who enters Cabool. versation. He is particularly partial to Europeans, and All the French officers in the Punjab lived with him, and keep up a friendly intercourse. Such is the patriarch of Cabool; he is now about fifty years of age; and such the master of the house in which we were so fortunate as to dwell."—Vol. i. p. 134. The chief himself, Dost Mahomed Khan, apThe river of Cabool was crossed on a raft sup- pears to be a man of a very superior mind: his ported on inflated skins; it was only two hundred general knowledge and intelligence far beyond and fifty yards wide, but ran with such rapidity unbounded. In short, his friendly reception of what could have been expected; his curiosity that they were carried more than a mile before the travellers, and his accomplished address, gaining the opposite bank. The precipices of the ravine, down which the river fell with great imagined that the great wealth of England was quite charmed them. Like most Asiatics, he had impetuosity, had now risen to the height of two thousand feet, and the stream was again to be drawn from her Eastern empire; but when set crossed. Its rapidity, formed into eddies, wheeled right on this point, he observed, "This satisfacthem round, and they had the agreeable satisfac- have left much of its wealth to the native princes; torily accounts for the subjection of India. You tion of being told that, if carried some way down, there was a whirlpool, round which, if once en-you have not had to encounter their despair, and closed in its circle, they might revolve, in hun-you are just in your courts." With two such ger and giddiness, for a whole day. This re-in no immediate danger of internal convulsions. men as the governor and the patriarch, Cabool is minds us of the two padres who were found by The capital is a bustling city, with a population Condamine in an eddy of the Amazons, where they had been spinning round and round in their little skiff for a couple of days. Julalabad, the residence of a Mahomedan chief, lies between two parallel mountains, clothed in snow, in the higher part of which it never melts, and this would give an elevation of about 15,000 feet. It is described as a small filthy town, with a bazaar of fifty shops, and a population of about two thousand souls. At Bala-bagh, rich gardens, producing the famous pomegranates without seed, and vines creeping up trees to the height of eighty feet from the ground, ascended up the steep close under the Snowy Mountains. Near of 60,000. "In the evening, each shop is lighted up by a lamp suspended in front, which gives the city an appearance of being illuminated. The number of shops for the sale of dried fruits is remarkable, and their arrangement tasteful. Every trade has its separate bazaar, and all of them seem busy. There are booksellers and venders of paper, much of which is Russian, and of a blue colour. Around the bakers' shops crowds of people may be seen, waiting for their bread. 1 observed that they baked it by plastering it to the sides of the oven. Cabool is famed for its kabobs, or cooked meats, which are in great request: few cook at home. Rhuwash' was the dainty of the May season in Cabool. It is merely blanched rhubarb, which is reared under a careful protection from the sun, | thing can be said. We must equally pause as to and grows up rankly under the hills in the neighbour- the numerous claims to a Grecian pedigree set up hood. Its flavour is delicious. Shabash rhuwash! by certain chiefs in the valley of the Oxus and Bravo rhuwash!' is the cry in the streets; and every one in Badackshan. Marco Polo is the first traveller buys it. In the most crowded parts of the city there are who heard of such a tradition. Mr. Elphinstone story-tellers amusing the idlers, or dervises proclaiming the glories and deeds of the prophet."-Vol. i. pp. 145, was informed that the chief of Durwaz drew his lineage from Alexander, and Mr. Burnes found claiming a like descent. six other personages, to the north of the Oxus, 146. Though Cabool is more than six thousand feet above the level of the sea, the number and va Mr. Burnes now commenced preparations for a riety of the fruit trees are quite remarkable. Mr. journey over the Hindoo Koosh, or Snowy MounBurnes enumerates peaches, plums, apricots, pears, tains, and he found no difficulty in obtaining moapples, quinces, cherries, walnuts, mulberries, pomegranates and vines, all growing in one garden. Lodiana or Delhi; "a gratifying proof," he obney on a letter of credit on the public treasury of Vines are so plentiful, that for three months in the year the grapes are given to the cattle. They serves," have we here of the high character of make a wine not unlike Madeira. The mulber-our nation, to find the bills of those who almost ries of Cabool are as much celebrated as are the appeared as beggars, cashed without hesitation in a foreign and far-distant capital." The road which pears of Peshawur; the apricot also is much esteemed, and they have fourteen different ways of they had to pursue from Cabool to Balkh led preserving it. In short, fruit is more plentiful along the valley of the Cabool river, and here the towering range of mountains often seemed to overhang the path. The sources of the river, at the head of the valley, are in two large ponds formfed them with bread, which disappeared in a moed into preserves for fish. Mr. Burnes says, "we than bread, and is considered one of the necessaries of life. In the gardens are also plenty of nightingales, blackbirds, thrushes, doves, and magpies, which, with the fruits, reminded our travellers of England. The nawab sent Mr. Burnes, in a cage surrounded with cloth, a "Bool-ment, torn from our hands by some thousands of bool i huzar dastan," or nightingale of a thousand tales, which, he says, became so noisy a companion throughout the night, that he was obliged to send it away before he could sleep. lieved that a curse rests on the head of an inthem; they are molested by no one, since it is betruder." The following succinct account will convey some idea of this western tail of the range of the vast Himalaya mountains :— "We crossed the stupendous chain of mountains by It has been for some time past a current opinion in the East, that the offspring of the lost tribes of Israel survive among the Afghans. This sub-six successive passes; and, after a journey of about 260 ject did not escape the inquisitive mind of Mr. Burnes. He goes through the genealogies, as current in the country, from the days of Nebuchadnezzar downwards, and adds, miles, and thirteen days, debouched, on the valley of the Oxus, at Khooloom, which is forty miles eastward of the ancient city of Balk. The first three passes lie between Cabool and Bameean, and two of them were so deeply covered with snow in the end of May, that we could only "I can see no good reason for discrediting them, travel in the morning, when it was frozen, and would though there be some anachronisms, and the dates do bear our horses. The three remaining passes north of not exactly correspond with those of the Old Testament. Bamcean were of lesser altitude, and free from snow. In the histories of Greece and Rome we find similar We commenced our journey at an elevation of 6600 feet, corruptions, as well as in the later works of the Arab which is the height of the city of Cabool from the sea. and Mahomedan writers. The Afghans look like We then followed the river of Cabool, which falls at the Jews; they say they are descended from Jews; and the rate of fifty feet a mile, and reached its source at an eleyounger brother marries the widow of the elder, accord-vation of 8,600 feet, where the snow was first encountering to the law of Moses. The Afghans entertain strong ed in the valley. We attained our greatest height at the prejudices against the Jewish nation; which would, at passes called Hajecguk and Kaloo, which were respecleast show that they had no desire to claim, without atively 12,400 and 13,000 feet high, and covered with just cause, a descent from them." [They do not claim a descent from them.] "Since some of the tribes of Israel came to the east, why should we not admit that the Afghans are their descendants, converted to Mahomcdanism? I am aware that I am differing from a high authority; but I trust that I have made it appear on reasonable grounds.'—Vol. i. P. 164. snow. None of the other passes exceed an altitude of 9000 feet; and from the last of them, called Kara Koottul, we descended the bed of a river, at the rate of sixty feet a mile, until we reached the plains of Toorkistan, where we had yet an elevation of 2000 feet above the sea. ."-Vol. ii. p. 240. He adds, that the peaks of Koh-i-baba are coMr. Elphinstone (the authority alluded to) de-vered with eternal snow for a considerable disclined the investigation of this curious subject, tance beneath their summits, the altitude of which but at the same time did not conceal his opinion he estimates at about 18,000 feet. But the true that their own accounts of their origin appeared mountain of Hindoo Koosh, we are told, lies about to him fabulous. Carey and Marshman lean the a degree to the eastward of the present route. other way, and have discovered that the Pushtoo or Afghan language contains more Hebrew words than that of any nation of India. Of this we think not much; but what seems more important, they quote also a learned Afghan, who says, "his nation are beni Israel, but not Yahood,"-sons of Israel, but not Jews. Until some profound and liberal scholar investigates the whole matter, no "This great peak is visible from Cabool, and entirely enveloped in milk-white snow. I saw it also from Koondooz, on the north, at a distance of 150 miles. Its altitude must be considerable, for the travellers complain of the difficulty of breathing, and carry sugar and mulberries with them to ease their respiration; and the strongest of men suffer from giddiness and vomiting. Thousands of birds are also found dead on the snow: it is believed that they are 120 feet high. It occupies a front of seventy feet; and the niche in which it is excavated extends about that depth into the hill. The female figure is cut in the same hill, at a distance of 200 yards, and is about half the size."-Vol. i. pp. 183-186. It is further stated that the niches of both these unable to fly from the violence of the winds; but it is more probable that they are prevented by the rarity of the atmosphere; yet birds are used to higher elevations than men and quadrupeds. They often attempt to walk across, and numbers of them are ensnared. The greatest silence is preserved in crossing Hindoo Koosh; and no one speaks loud, or fires a gun, lest the reverberation cause a fall of snow. But the most singular phenomenon idols have been, at one time, plastered and ornaon Hindoo Koosh appears to be the snow-worm, which mented with paintings of human figures, but is described to resemble the silk-worm in its mature these antique limnings now only appear over the state. This insect is only found in the regions of perpe-heads of the idols, where the colours are as vivid, tual congelation, and dies on being removed from the snow. I do not suppose that the existence of the creature will be doubted, because I have not seen it, since I speak on the united testimony of many who have passed Hindoo Koosh."-Vol. ii. pp. 247, 248. and the lines as distinct, as any in the Egyptian tombs. These figures, Mr. Burnes says, are described in Sherif-o-deen's history of Tamerlane, and he adds, that they are considered to be the Lat and Munat of the Koran. His engravings of them are worth a hundred descriptions. The Afghans are described as a sober, simple, steady people; a nation of children, who quarrel for trifles; fight and become friends; prone to idleness; will sit a whole day stupidly staring at each other; delight in sauntering about in their beautiful gardens in the evenings; dress well, and have the appearance of health and happiness: the chubby red cheeks of their children are re In the lower parts of these mountains, and on the hills, were seen vast flocks of the broad-tailed sheep, and numerous goats, browsing on the furze and dry grass, and the aromatic plants which grow among the rocks, and scent the air. Among these may be reckoned the asafoetida plant (ferula asafætida), which was found flourishing in great luxuriance at an elevation of 7000 feet. The sheep are particularly fond of this plant; and it is eaten raw and much relished by the inhabit-markable. ants, though the smell is nearly as strong in its fresh state, as in our shops as a drug. In the passes of these mountains, Mr. Burnes observed abundance of apricot trees, blackberry bushes, sweet briars, and hawthorn. The fuel used by the inhabitants is the dry stunted furze. Neither cedars, nor firs, nor trees of any kind, adorn the mountains of Hindoo Koosh. Before the party had reached the village of Bameean, they had already surmounted the "everlasting snows," which, however, by the existing maps, were still half a degree of latitude beyond them. "Bamecan is celebrated for its colossal idols and innumerable excavations, which are to be seen in all parts of the valley, for about eight miles, and still form the residence of the greater part of the population. They are called "Soomuch" by the people. A detached hill in the middle of the valley is quite honeycombed by them, and brings to our recollection the Troglodites of Alexander's historians. It is called the city of Ghoolghoola, and consists of a continued succession of caves in every direction, which are said to have been the work of a king named Julal. The hills are formed of indurated clay and pebbles, which renders their excavation a matter of little difficulty; but the great extent to which it has been carried excites attention. Some of them are finished in the shape of a dome, and have a carved frieze below the point from which the cupola springs. The inhabitants tell many remarkable tales of the caves of Bameean; one in particular-that a mother had lost her child among them, and recovered it after a lapse of twelve years! The tale need not be believed; but it will convey an idea of the extent of the works. There are excavations on all sides of the idols; and below the larger one-half a regiment might find quarters. Bameean is perhaps the city which Alexander founded at the base of Paropamisus, before entering Bactria. The country, indeed, from Cabool to Balkh, is yet styled 'Bakhtur Zumeen,' or Bakhtur country. "There are no relics of Asiatic antiquity which have roused the curiosity of the learned more than the gigantic idols of Bameean. They consist of two figures, a male and a female; the one named Silsal, the other Shahmama. The figures are cut in alto relievo on the face of the hill. The male is the larger of the two, and about Their amusements are hunting, hawking, and quail-fighting. The Afghans, however, differ very much in the different tribes or clans into which they are divided, and violent feuds exist among them. Here At Bameean the territory of Cabool ends, and at Syghan that of Mahomet Ali Beg, also an Usbek, begins, who however is alternately subject to Cabool and Koondooz, as the chiefs of these states happen to preponderate in power. there was a stricter attention paid to matters of religion than on the southern side of the mountains; and the travellers were particularly cautionThe last pass of the Indian Caucasus they had to ed not to sleep with their feet towards Mecca. cross was the Kara Koottul, or Black Pass, but they had yet a journey of ninety-five miles before they entirely cleared the mountains. The last march in the mountains brought the travellers to Khooloom, from whence they had a noble view of the country to the northward, sloping down to the Oxus. Since leaving Cabool, Mr. Burnes says they had slept in their clothes, halted among mud, waded through rivers, tumbled among snow, and now were sunned by heat; but these he considers only as the petty inconveniences of a traveller. From Khooloom it was intended to proceed northerly to Balkh, but, to their surprise and mortification, the officers of the customs had despatched a messenger to report their arrival to the chief of Koondooz, and receive his instructions for their disposal. In two days he returned, bringing a summons for the strangers to repair to Koondooz, about sixty miles to the eastward. Mr. Burnes lost no time in proceeding thither, to make his appearance before Meer Moorad Beg, the chief of the Usbeks. He found him seated on a tiger skin, and stretching out his legs covered with huge boots, in contempt of all Eastern rules of decorum. He was tall in stature, his features harsh, his eyes small to deformity, his forehead broad and frowning, the whole cast of his countenance most repulsive, and he wanted the beard which adorns the countenance of most Oriental |