140 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



The clearings made by our unknown friends enabled 

 us to form at once a general idea of their character 

 and extent, and to move from place to place w^ith 

 comparative facility. These ruins lie in the village 

 of Bolonchen, and the first apartment we entered 

 showed the effects of this vicinity. All the smooth 

 stones of the inner wall had been picked out and 

 carried away for building purposes, and the sides 

 presented the cavities in the bed of mortar from 

 which they had been taken. The edifice was about 

 two hundred feet long. It had one apartment, per- 

 haps sixty feet long, and a grand staircase twen- 

 ty feet wide rose in the centre to the top. This 

 staircase was in a ruinous condition, but the outer 

 stones of the lower steps remained, richly ornament- 

 ed with sculpture ; and probably the whole casing 

 on each side had once possessed the same rich deco- 

 ration. 



Beyond this was another large building, square 

 and peculiar in its plan. At the extreme end the 

 whole fa9ade lay unbroken on the ground, held 

 together by the ^reat mass of mortar and stones, 

 and presenting the entire line of pillars with which 

 it had been decorated. In the doorway of an 

 inner apartment was an ornamented pillar, and 

 on the walls was the print of the mysterious red 

 hand. Turn which way we would, ruin was be- 

 fore us. At right angles with the first building 

 was a line of ruined walls, following which I 

 passed, lying on the ground, the headless trunk 



