its 



together in the rudest manner : the outer one is eighteen hundred 

 and sixty-eight feet in length. There is a space of three hundred 

 and twenty feet in breadth between this and the second wall, 

 which is thirteen feet high by sixteen broad below, and eight at the 

 top ; it is formed of sharp irregular stones, almost like cheveau de 

 freize, which present a sloping face on both sides ; its whole length 

 is a thousand and eighty freet. A distance of two hundred and 

 forty feet separates this from the third and inmost wall, which is 

 nineteen feet six inches high, fifteen feet thick at bottom, and eleven 

 at the top. ifi>a fvuji«v4 -Sit oi^^i^---'^ i-'- • 



The space enclcwed by this inner boundary is an hundred and 

 fifty one feet to the edge of the cliff, and across an hundred and 

 tlurty-two feet ; in the middle of the wall is a narrow entrance, 

 opposite to which, and in the centre of the chord, is a large low 

 altar, placed immediately upon the edge of the cliff; this great 

 stone is two feet six inches high, thirty-nine feet long, and thirty- 

 three broad. In each of the two outer walls there is a narrow 

 entrance, but obliquely placed, not in a direct line with the altar, 

 as the inner entrance. Here this gigantic altar-stone at once ex- 

 plains the. object of the whole structure to have been sacrifice;* 

 and a more awfully sublime place of worship can scarcely be ima- 

 gined—the glorious sun above, the boundless ocean below. 



Some illustration of this may be derived from the fact, that the 



Ceylonese Gentoos assemble annually at Swamy rock, a cliff which 



rises perpendicularly from the sea to a height of three hundred feet, 



to perform sacrifice ; here close to the edge of this dreadful preci- 



, ni h'i . 



* On the mountains of Elwund and Morgaub, in Persia, are large flat stone altars to the sun. 

 They are frequent on rocity eminences, and are always pointed out as the Ghebre Altars to the 

 Sub. The sun altars are invariably flat-stones. — Ker Porter's Travels, vol. II. pp. 116 — 318.^ 



