}847.| Some account of the " Kuh'rn Mvsjeed." 579 



they yield, in defraying the expenses of the mosque, in conformity with 

 a practice prevailing to this day. The apartments along the walls are 

 accessible by doors raised one step above the ground j those in the 

 towers by passages from the neighbouring rooms. The upper story 

 will be described hereafter. The mosque is built of the materials 

 which appear to have been generally in use at the time of its construc- 

 tion, viz. the common quartzose sandstone found in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Dehli. This stone which is in masses of various 

 sizes, some, especially those towards the foundation, being of consider- 

 able dimensions, is unhewn, and cemented by chunam of the best 

 quality, indeed so excellent that the strength of the domed roof seems 

 to depend entirely on its adhesive properties, there being no attempt 

 at placing the stones of which it is constructed throughout, into any 

 thing like the arrangement now adopted in the building of arches and 

 domes, crowned by a centre or keystone. This cementing chunam, in 

 this, and it is believed in all other buildings of the period, with a view 

 probably of saving the expenditure of lime, is mixed with a great 

 proportion of brick soorkee, of which many pieces are upwards of an 

 inch in diameter. It will be curious to elucidate, by a series of obser- 

 vations, whether the bricks of which this soorkee was prepared, were 

 made at the time, solely for the purpose of being mixed with the 

 mortar, or whether they were remains of what had been used as the 

 principal material in buildings of older date, and been discarded on 

 the introduction, by the western people, of the use of tougher and less 

 costly material, procurable in the neighbouring hills. The whole of 

 the edifice, both inside and outside, has been plastered over with 

 chunam of the best description, to judge by what remains ; and parts 

 about the doorway show that the outside has been at some time or 

 other coloured of that peculiar blue-black produced by the ground 

 charcoal of cocoanuts, and other similar substances. Very little, how- 

 ever of the plastering remains, except in the body of the mosque, where 

 some care appears to have been taken for its preservation, (by repeated 

 whitewashing,) and on the roof and domes which its durability has 

 preserved from destruction. The whole is in a very fair state of 

 preservation, and where, here and there, stones have fallen out, espe- 

 cially at the base of the towers and walls, they have been carefully 

 replaced by brick masonry. The steps leading up to the entrance 



