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interstices, by which means a good deal of labour was saved. 
One cavern is completely covered with blocks which have not 
been removed in this manner—but the walls of others shew 
frequent traces of them. The caverns are certainly not earlier 
than the Christian era, as there are numerous crosses and figures 
and Cufic inscriptions, the last apparently not earlier than the 
4th or 5th century. One of these inscriptions is a personal 
prayer for the writer as one of the labourers in the cave. Nor 
could these inscriptions have been done at any ‘other time than 
during the construction of the chamber. That just mentioned 
for instance is at a height of 30 feet, and on the arch of the 
domed roof, so that it could not have been written from a ladder 
(even if such a thing could have been obtained, and even now 
tall ladders are unknown in native oriental building), for the 
writer would have been leaning back in an impossible position, 
and had to stretch out and carve with mason’s tools a distance 
of 3 or 4 feet on either side. Nor could a scaffold have been 
used, as it would have been impossible to sling it from the 
walls, and it must therefore have been built up from the ground, 
which is absurd for such a mere private and idle inscription. 
The figures and some of the crosses, especially the geometrical 
figure (which is done with mason’s compasses), imply the same 
difficulties and, as well as the inscription just mentioned, would 
require hours of idle work; just such as might have been done 
while the steps were still remaining. The inscriptions on the 
unfinished and finished parts are of the same date and character. 
The inscriptions consist of formule like those of Islam, but 
without mention of Mohammed; there is, however, no reason 
to suppose that the well-known formule of Mohammed were 
other than borrowed from older rites. The Cufic, although 
posterior to Christianity, is probably anterior to Islam for 
paleographic reasons, as for instance the word gpul, |, the 
form > being found for the affixed pronoun as in the Hi- 
myaritic writing. The cave in the flat-topped hill is not of any 
