ON MOUNT CAUCASUS. 467 lO 469 



pie, the dimenfions of which, they could not defcribe 

 othcrwife, than by faying, that it could eafily hold the 

 camp equipage and baggage of Zeman-shah, and of 

 his whole army. It is remarkable only for its extraor- 

 dinary dimenfions: it is dark and gloomy; and there are 

 a few niches, with the remains of fome figures in alto-re- 

 lievo. At the entrance are ftationed a few wretched 

 Banyans, who fell provifion to travellers. The greateft 

 part of the Samajes in Tdgd'vi Bd?myan are fiill inhabit- 

 ed by Mufulmans, who live promifcuoufly with their cat- 

 tle. I have been informed, that there are no other lla- 

 tues, than thefe three; but, from the numerous frag- 

 m.ents, which are feen through the Tdgdvis^ there muft 

 have been feveral hundreds of them. They fliew to 

 this day the Samadfh^ in which the famous Vya'sa 

 compofed the Vedas ; and others, where divers holy men 

 gave themfelves up to meditation, and the contempla- 

 tion of the Supreme Being. 



Perjian authors are conflantly confounding Bdmiyan 

 and Bdklac together; the firft they call Bd'lkh-Bdtniyan^ 

 and the fecond Bdlkh Bokhara ; when they fpeak of the 

 metropolis of the fire worfhippers, it is to be underilood 

 oS. Bdniiyaii z\.OT>t^ according to the followers of Bud- 

 dha, and the author of the Buddha-dharmachdrva Sind^ 

 hu. According to Fjr/tan authors, Bdmiyan mud have 

 exifted before the flood; but the followers of Buddha 

 innft, that it was built by a mod religious man called 

 Shama, who appears from particular circumftances to 

 be the fame with the famous patriarch Shem; and that 

 his pofterity lived there for feveral generations. Hence 

 Bdlkh -Bdmiyan is faid to have been originally the place 

 of abode of Abraham*, who, according to fcripture, 

 and the Hi?idu facred books, removed with his father ta 

 diftant countries to the weftward. 



* Tff, Hyde, p. 29 and 494. 



H h 2 According 



