450 
then unknown; manuscripts were perishing, but the rock was per- 
manent. On an adamantine rock, therefore, did the pious prince 
wish that his words might be engraved, the characters filled up 
with lead, and remain indelible for ever! All this must certainly 
allude to a custom then known; most probably the written moun- 
tains in Arabia, the very country in which they lived, were extant 
at the time, and familiar to his hearers. 
Engraving on stones was generally practised in Egypt: their 
hieroglyphics were cut in the hardest granite; the obelisks were 
sculptured in intaglio, filled with cement of various colours; which 
is probably what our translators have meant by lead. These me- 
morials brought into Europe by the Roman emperors, the remains 
of excavated hills and sculptured rocks still extant in Egypt, 
united with the accounts of the Greek historians, undoubtedly 
prove the antiquity of works similar to those in India. The 
written mountains of Arabia appear to be a strong confirmation 
that such memorials were not uncommon in those early ages The 
characters engraved on the portals of the excavated mountains in 
Hindostan, and the adjacent rocks, have very lately been deci- 
phered : I copied several lines from the entrance of the caves of 
Canara, which were then pronounced obsolete, and past finding 
out: Mr. Wilford has proved the contrary. Possibly, in this en- 
lightened age, the characters on the Arabian mountains may yet 
be explained. 
In the bishop of Cloghers account of the written mountains 
in Arabia, he says, “ the Prefetto of Egypt writes in his journal, 
that after disengaging ourselves from the mountains of Earan, 
we came to a large plain, surrounded by high hills; at the foot of 
