xciv Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [June, 
On the descent from the Palu Kotal to Bémidn, and at about 
Cup-marks in sy 
Bamién. from the small scarp above the 
road, and lie at the side of the footpath. Both of these are covered 
with cup-marks on the side next the path. On the top of 
each block is a heap of pebbles and several of the cups contain 
small stones. Many of the marks are quite fresh and show signs 
of recent excavation. It is therefore clear that the present Ma- 
hommedan inhabitants still continue to hollow them out as they 
pass by. 
The local people appear to have no idea as to the true meaning 
of these cup-marks, and when asked pmricha d sy ae the place is 
“gi 
was unable to photo; grap 
It is interesting to find customs of this kind surviving in 
Mahommedan community so strictly orthodox and so bigoted as 
that of Afghanistan, but this is by no means the only instance of 
the kind. Throughout the hill-country of Bamidn and Saighén it 
is quite usual to find the hill-tops and passes crowned by cairns in 
which one is tempted to see a survival of the Buddhist ‘“1a-tse” 
as inhabit passes and mountain-tops. As in .Tibet, too, solitary 
trees beside the mountain-streams are hung with flags and their 
branches adorned with horns, and alt ough more rigid enquiries 
than I was able to make might elicit a story of some legendary 
saint, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the devout Mahom- 
medan, who strokes his beard as he passes by, is unwittingly doing 
homage to the tutelary deity whose simple shrine has survived the 
iconoclasm that destroyed the more pretentious monuments erected 
to the founder of Buddhism and defaced the magnificent carvings 
in the valley of Bamian. 
These carvings are well known and were aoe ae 
by Masson (Journ. A engal, v, 
he nee én 707, 1836), but with the exception of an 
Convines illustration of the la argest statue pub- 
lished in Dr. J, A. Gray’s “‘ Life at the Court of the Amir,” and 
Griffith’s figure (‘‘ Posthumous papers, Journal, Calcutta, 1847, 
facing p. sei no reproductions of them have, I believe, ati 
published. Photographs 3 to 8 show the sites of most of the carv 

