8 Continuation of the Route of Lieut. A. Burnes [JAn. 
dars that it is almost impossible to extricate the right one. We saw 
nothing like Greek inscriptions, but heard of many near us. A ques- 
tion readily occurs—is the material of which the idols are con- 
structed calculated to resist the impression of hundreds of years, not 
to think of a period approaching to thousands? Had I not myself 
been fully aware of the preservative nature of the climate in the Trans- 
Himalayan regions, and seen antiquity represented in mud walls, books 
and other works, which we consider perishable, I should have been 
staggered at the idea of the Bamean idols’ claim to so remote an origin. 
The aridity of the atmosphere here is pretty similar to that of upper 
Kanawar and Tibet, where a thing neither rots or decomposes, but falls to 
dust in long ages ; and the substance of the figures is of that kind which 
becomes indurated by exposure to the air, and like the mud upon the 
roofs of the houses, acquires the hardness of the surrounding kankar. 
Near this we passed a ruined fort, said to have been built in the days of 
Zohak ; the slender walls of unburnt brick were perched upon cliffs, which 
time had rendered inaccessible. Close to the Bits are the remains of 
a mud castle, about which Some curious traditions are related; but I 
omit them, lest you might think me as credulous as the people who re- 
lated them. 
Without thinking of the idols, over which superstition and un- 
determined antiquity have bestowed a false character, there never 
was a spot better appropriated for fabling the extravagancies of na- 
ture, or raising ideas of bhits and spectres. As to the kafirs, 
their domiciles yet remain: desolation is not the word for this place, 
the surface of the hills is actually dead; no vegetable trace is to be 
seen, all is parched up, and as it were baked white, and scoriated 
by the sun’s rays; such is the horrid aspect of this part of the country, 
to which the caves of the kafirs have added a savage impression. 
These are still inhabited, but their first possessors have long since dis- 
appeared ; the sides of the mountains are full of excavations, presenting 
to the approaching traveller some thing like a honey comb; whole 
families occupy these recesses, living in smoke and darkness, of which 
they seem to form a part, in their black figures.—One of the idols is 
actually tenanted, and high upon the acclivity are seen isolated nitches 
and black heads peeping forth. At night, the moving lights and yells of 
unseen people have a singularly wild effect, and one dwells in the con- 
templation of the scene, till it actually appears one of an infernal kind, 
fit only for such companions as bhits and demons. Burnes took 
sketches of the whole. 
