COLOSSAL STATUES AT BAMEEAN, 
75 
it occupies a front of seventy feet, and the niche in 
which it is excavated extends about that depth into 
the hill. This idol is mutilated, both legs having been 
fractured by cannon, and the countenance above the 
mouth is destroyed. The lips are very large, the ears 
long and pendent, and there appears to have been a 
tiara upon the head. The figure is covered by a 
mantle, which hangs over it in all parts, and has 
been formed of a kind of plaster, the image having 
been studded with wooden pins in various places to 
assist in fixing it. The figure itself is without sym- 
metry, nor is there much elegance in the drapery. 
The hands, which held out the mantle, have been both 
broken. The female figure is more perfect than the 
male, and has been dressed in the same manner. It 
is cut in the same hill, at a distance of two hundred 
yards, and is about half the size. It was not to be 
discovered whether the smaller idol was a brother or 
son of the colossus, but from the information of the 
natives. 
“ I have now to note the most remarkable curiosity 
in the idols of Bameean. The niches of both have 
been at one time plastered and ornamented with 
paintings of human figures, which have now disap- 
peared from all parts but that immediately over the 
heads of the idols ; here the colours are as vivid and 
the paintings as distinct as in the Egyptian tombs. 
There is little variety in the design of these figures, 
which represent the bust of a woman, with a knob of 
hair on the head, and a plaid thrown half over the 
chest ; the whole surrounded by a halo, and the head 
again by another halo. In one part I could trace a 
