H'2 Account of a Journey to Beylah. QMarch, 



form distinct liouses, most of which are uninjured by time; they con- 

 sist in general of a room fifteen feet square, forming a kind of open 

 veranda, with an interior chamber of the same dimensions, to which 

 you gain admittance by a door; there are niches for lamps in many, 

 and a place built up and covered in, apparently intended to hold 

 grain. Most of them had once been plastered with clay, and in 

 a few, when the form of the rock allowed of its being done, the 

 interior apartment is lighted by small windows. The houses at 

 the summit of the cliffs are now inaccessible, from the narrow pre- 

 cipitous paths by which they were approached having been worn 

 away ; and those at the base appear to have been occupied by the 

 poorer class of inhabitants, for many of them are merely irregular 

 shaped holes, with a rudely constructed door. The rock in which these 

 excavations have been made, is what I believe is called by geologists 

 Conglomerate, being composed of a mass of rounded stones of almost 

 every variety of rock, embedded in hard clay ; it contains a large quan- 

 tity of salt (I think natron), which is seen in a thin film on the walls 

 of all the chambers, and at two or three spots in the upper part of the 

 ravine, where water drops from the overhanging crags. 



It would be singular if such a place as Shuhr Roghan existed 

 amongst a people so superstitious as the Noomrees without a legend of 

 some kind being attached to it, and they accordingly relate the follow- 

 ing story : In the reign of Solomon the excavated city was governed 

 by a king celebrated all over the East for his wisdom, and the great 

 beauty of his only daughter Buddul Tumaul ; she was beloved by 

 seven young men, who from the great friendship existing among 

 them, were called by way of distinction " the seven friends," but they 

 perished one after the other in defending the object of their adoration 

 from the designs of half a dozen demons, who, attracted by her surpass- 

 ing beauty, made repeated attempts to carry her off. At this interesting 

 period of her history Syful Mullik, son of the king of Egypt, arrived at 

 Shuhr Roghan, who being the handsomest man of his time, and 

 as brave as he was handsome, had been dispatched by his father on 

 his travels, in the hope that by the way he might conquer a few king- 

 doms for himself. The princess, as a matter of course, fell in love 

 with him ; the demon lovers were in despair, and made a desperate 

 effort to carry her off when at her devotions, but were all slain 

 in the attempt by the prince. The father of the fair princess 

 rewarded him for his gallantry with the hand of his daughter, and the 

 happy couple lived to reign for many years in peace and security over 

 the excavated city. Such was the tale related to me by my attend- 

 ants, which forms the groundwork of a story written in the Persian 



