MAHENDRA. 233 



tion for any body of men during a long 

 period. 



Yet on the very crest of the ridge, in 

 a position where there is scarcely room 

 to pitch a small tent, stands a shrine 

 measuring about twelve feet square at 

 its base, and about eighteen feet high, 

 composed of fourteen blocks of hewn 

 stone of cyclopean dimensions. There 

 are three courses of four stones each ; 

 the lower blocks are about nine feet long 

 and three feet cube, while the stones in 

 the second and third courses diminish 

 in length so as to contract the inner 

 space as the building rises, and admit 

 of it being closed at the top by a block 

 of stone eight feet square by three feet 

 thick, on the summit of which is 

 placed a well-carved circular crown of 



