1863. ] On the Antiquities of the Peshawur District. 3 
and the windows remaining to attest the fact. They were construct- 
ed with much care, the walls being smooth and straight, showing 
signs also of having been stuccoed or at least plastered. The build- 
ings are of various sizes; the steps leading to the upper story being 
either outside the building, or attached inside closely to the outer 
wall, the vacant space under the staircase being generally fitted up 
as a cell. The stone of which these buildings were constructed is 
found on the spot; the blocks are well hewn and carefully fitted. 
The centre of all these structures is formed by a quadrangle consist- 
ing of cells closely resembling in structure the altar in figure No. 10; 
that is, they consist of a square base, open in front, of little more 
than a man’s height; this surmounted by a coping, which in shape 
is the lower part of a paraboloidal vault; and a short cylinder con- 
nects this coping with a hemispherical cupola which is open at the 
top. (Single cells, or perhaps altars, of this kind, though much 
larger in size, are found in various spots all over the hill.) One side 
of the quadrangle has an opening as a doorway to which steps led from 
an enclosure round the quadrangle. Its centre is occupied by the ruins 
of a raised platform, whose sides were adorned with figures in stucco 
or stone. Close to this quadrangle there is what may readily be con- 
sidered a vaulted subterranean passage, though from the fact that 
the debris everywhere conceal the original level, there is great un- 
certainty as to its real depth below the original level of the ground. 
It may have been a bauli. ‘There is no water on the hill now any 
where; the Pushto word Bahai means a bauli; yet there is a possi- 
bility that Baha, the name of this hill, may be connected with the 
old Vihara. 
Another most interesting hill showing many remains of Buddhist 
tines, which I ascended, is on the Buner frontier, the nearest British 
village being that of Babuzai. It is very much higher than the hill 
of Bahai. The ascent from the Hast, from the Sudum valley, is said 
to be easy and readily performed by mules; that from the other side 
I must call toilsome and steep, for the most part, differing in this 
respect very much from the ascent of Bahai, which is easy, along a 
well-trodden path which exhibits in several places very distinet traces 
of steps cut in the rock, for great distances. A portion of the way 
up, however, led along the channel of a mountain stream, then dry 
(April 25th,) whose banks—if banks can be spoken of where rocks 
B 2 
