GEOGRAPHY, ANTIQUITIES, ETC. 401 



The style of mummification, and other accessories of burial, all 

 indicate the age of the later deposit as that of the close of the Ptole- 

 maio rule. As regards the connection between the persons who in 

 this tomb were so closely associated in death, there is no difficulty in 

 supposing the occupants of the sarcophagus and of the five pillared 

 cases to have been related by family ties ; but between the former 

 and the man, for instance, who had no more handsome coffin than 

 the plain box like a work-house shell, there appears a broad line of 

 separation ; nor does it seem that their juxtaposition can be easily 

 accounted for, except by some such supposition as the dependence of 

 the one upon the other, or upon some former member of his house. 

 That the chief of the group in the granite sarcophagus was the last 

 deposited is highly probable. The planks and rollers, even a chip 

 of coarse pottery, holding the residue of the cement which had been 

 used to fasten down the lid, all left lying upon the spot, would almost 

 indicate that no future preparations had been made for another body ; 

 otherwise, these would, in all likelihood, have been removed. Hav- 

 ing witnessed vicissitudes like these, changes still more uncontem- 

 plated by the old designers await this sepulchre. For full three 

 thousand years it has been dedicated to the departed. It will now 

 begin a new episode as a dwelling for the living. Two days had not 

 elapsed from its opening, when its possession was sought for by the 

 Arabs, and operations commenced for converting it into a habitation. 

 In its chambers, hereafter, degraded generations shall be born and 

 die content with a shelter almost among the bones of, it may be, far 

 distant ancestors. 



THE LAND OF BASHAN. 



At a recent meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, the secretary 

 read a paper communicated by Cyril C. Graham, Esq., which accom- 

 panied a number of ancient inscriptions, in an undeciphered alphabet, 

 which he had found in the great desert land, left blank upon our 

 maps, east of the Hauran, which was known to the Hebrews as the 

 Land of Bashan. Mr. Graham, being in Damascus last year, had 

 been animated with a desire to penetrate to the East by the sight of 

 the mountains visible in the distance from the high ground about the 

 city. Those mountains were known to lead to the extensive rocky 

 region called El-Safah, near which the.Arabs had reported there were 

 to be seen many ruins of ancient cities, a region similar in its fea- 

 tures to the El-Lejah, in the Hauran. He set out upon the expedi- 

 tion in the month of September ; and was lucky enough to make an 

 agreement with the Ghias tribe of Arabs in the most eastern part 

 of the Hauran (the limit of European exploration in that quarter), 

 to accompany him to the regions he wished to visit. Soon after the 

 party had quitted the Hauran, they entered upon a plain covered 

 with basivltic rocks, lying loose on the ground, but so closely packed 

 that it was with the utmost difficulty the camels could pick their way. 

 This stony tract, which extends from east to west a distance of five 

 days' journey, and from north to south two days', is called by the 

 Arabs, El-kharrah. Within it is the district called Es-Safah, a vol- 

 canic region, which he describes by conceiving a quantity of molten 

 matter confined in a vessel, stirred up by a powerful agent, and then 

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