542 REPORT— 1892. 



used as a cattle kraal by the petty chief on the hill. This building was 

 anciently the temple of the fortress, and was luckily not so much dis- 

 turbed as the one below. The aspect was the same, namely, south-east, 

 and the outer decoration, the pointed or edgeways pattern, ran around 

 the same portion of the building as on the round one below. Tliis 

 temple among the granite boulders was supported by a very elaborately 

 constructed system of under- walls filled up with large stones, on which 

 the cement floor rested, as was the case in the raised platform below. The 

 temple was approached by a narrow passage and a staircase of consider- 

 able architectural merit, which we laid bare ; the steps are formed by a 

 continuation of the rounded courses of the outer walls, and have the 

 effect of two miniature amphitheatres opposite to each other which acted 

 as steps from the passage below to the level of the temple itself. 



The outer wall of this temple was decorated with birds carved on the 

 summit of soapstone beams five or six feet in height. Of the six we have 

 all are different, and all archaic in design ; only one is perfect, and from 

 its beak we can easily see that it is intended to repi'esent a vulture. Two 

 have decorations down the back and round the neck, and one has four 

 circles cut on it, two on the wings and two below, presumably to repre- 

 sent incubation and fertility. Egyptian archa?ology teaches us something 

 of the attributes anciently supposed to pertain to the vulture. Amongst 

 other things Horapollo tells us (i., ii.) that it was emblematic ' of Urania, 

 a year, or mother.' ^lian goes so far as to suppose that all vultures 

 were females, to account for their character as emblems of maternity. This 

 is a curious confirmation of the statement of Herodotus, that the Arabians 

 only worshipped Dio7iysus and Urania. We have seen how the attributes 

 of Dionysus were worshipped in the tower below ; here we have Urania 

 as the presiding deity. In the soil of the temple we found numerous 

 soapstone objects corresponding to the Lingams of India, and a tiny bird 

 on a pedestal, the miniature representative of the larger emblems. 



An altar stood in the centre of the temple on the cement floor, which 

 unfortunately fell to pieces after the earth which supported it had been 

 a short time removed. Supporting walls gradually led up in steps to the 

 boulders, and of two gullies between these boulders at the back of the 

 temple one led to another enclosure with two huge monoliths in the 

 centre, and a terrace above overlooking the temple, and the other led 

 through into the native kraal on the other side of the wall of rock. 



Adjoining the temple, and approached by a flight of steps, was a space 

 shut in by boulders, and walled in with great care at tiae extremities. 

 Two caves ran beneath the boulders, and in these we found most of our 

 treasures. 



Of these the most attractive are the numerous fragments of soapstone 

 bowls, perhaps used in temple service and when broken cast out hither. 

 One represents a hunting scene, in which a man, rather of a Hottentot 

 type, with an arrow, is in pursuit of a herd of zebras ; behind him he 

 drags a dog with a leash, which has turned round to growl at two hippo- 

 potami. There is a bird, too, rather rudely executed, but this is the 

 character of all the bowls with figures on them. The workmanship of the 

 bowls themselves is excellent, and made with the chisel ; geometric patterns 

 also are executed with great cai'e, but the figures are rather grotesque. 

 Another bowl gives us a portion of a procession ; another is decorated 

 with a row of bulls. Different animals and different patterns were found 

 on all the fragments, no two fragments of the same bowl ever occur- 

 ring. Several of the best finished bowls were perfectly plain, notably one 



