&ROH RHODES TO THE GtfLfcH OF GLAlTCtTS. 
I Ah 
Near the mins of this edifice are other remains, and, among 
them, one of a nature too remarkable to be passed without no¬ 
tice. At pressent it exhibits a lofty and very spacious vaulted 
apartment, open in front, cut in the solid substance of a rock* 
beneath the declivity on which the theatre is situated, and close 
to the sea. The sides of it are of the natural fetone ; but the 
back part is of masonary, stuccoed with so much art, that it pre¬ 
sents a close imitation of the appearance presented by the rock 
itself. It evidently served as a screen to conceal a hollow re¬ 
cess, of the same height and breadth as that side of the vault 
In this recess was probably secreted one of those soothsayers 
for which Telmessus was anciently renownedso that when 
persons entered the vault to consult the oracle, a voice apparent¬ 
ly supernatural, might answer where no person was visible* 
Similar means of deception, employed by heathen priests, are 
exhibited by their remains at Argos in Peloponnesus, as will 
hereafter appear. But concerning the Telmessensian Cave, it 
is difficult to explain the manner in which the person who de¬ 
livered the oracular sayings, obtained an entrance to the recess* 
We could observe neither hole nor crevice; nor would the 
place have been discovered, if some persons had not, either by 
accident or design, broken a small aperture through the artifi¬ 
cial wall, about four feet from the floor of the vault. A flight 
of steps conducted from the shore to this remarkable cave ; and 
as it was open in front toward the sea, it does not appear t© 
have served for a place of sepulture. We may therefore con¬ 
clude that it presents a curious reiique of that juggling augury 
for w hich this city was particularly famous. 
The w r a!ls of the theatre of Telmessus furnished materials 
for building the pier of the present town. The sculptured 
stones, already noticed upon the exterior of that sumptuous 
edifice, may now be discerned in the later masonry of this 
work. Ail the maibie used by the Turkish inhabitants of the 
place, in their cemetery, mosque, and public fountains, was 
taken from the remains of the -Grecian city, and afterward 
* Telmessus was so renowned for the art of divination, that Croesus, icing of Lydia* 
sent to consult its soothsayers on an occasion mentioned by Herodotus. The famoirt 
Harmpex of Alexander the Great was Aristander of Telmessus Arrian (Epod. lib. ii. 
ed. Grono?;,) says-of the people, ETvgh *yoLp tout T*\pu crersaj etcofpouf r.a Of'a iZnyWxrfyai, 
xa a(picnv airo yhovs fefocrGai -ckhioTs xa] <yuvcu£i *ai naic. rrjV jxavrsiav,' It may be ob* 
served here, that the name of the city, in the text of Arrian, and in Gtonovius’s com* 
mentary, is written Tdmissus. Our inscriptions copied there prove the word to be a- 
written in the following passage of Cicero; “ Tchnessus in Carla cst: qua in wfe-es* 
mlit haruspicumMisciplina.” “Cic-e-ro de Divinations r i 
