LABOURS ON THE PLATFORM. 
679 
channels through the body of the platform to the cistern, (y) 
and diverging thence again, supplied the buildings on the several 
terraces. The directions of these aqueducts may be seen in the 
plan, by the dotted lines. As I looked from side to side, and 
up the rocks, to objects now beyond my compass, I felt the 
deepest regret in being obliged to abandon my labours. My 
fever increased rapidly upon me, and I found it absolutely 
necessary to seek some place where I might be ill within reach 
of medical assistance, and near comforts not in the power of a 
poor village, or a horde of wandering Eelauts, however kind, to 
afford me. Shiraz was to be our object; and, however reluctantly, 
I gave orders to prepare our immediate departure. In collecting 
the produce of my many days’ sojourn on this most interesting 
spot, I had the satisfaction of finding that I had drawn nearly 
every bas-relief of consequence, had taken a faithful plan of the 
place, and copied several of the cuneiform inscriptions. Those 
on Plates LV., LVI. in four compartments are complete, all but 
a very few lines of the last, which the state of my disorder would 
not allow me to finish. My own circumstances in this respect, 
may be that of many future travellers curious in ancient in¬ 
scriptions, and, to spare them more than necessary exposure to 
the sun, which is here reflected to an almost insufferable heat 
by the rock and the mountain, I mention the inscriptions that 
yet remain uncopied. Twelve small tablets covered with arrow- 
headed characters, which are seen over the colossal animals on 
the two great portals immediately after ascending the platform 
stair-case from the plain. Also the lines round the niches, in 
the edifice behind the Chehel-minar, and the much mutilated 
writing on the stair-case (e) to the east of the building (N) on 
Plate XXXII. 
