The first thing I noticed was that the walls were covered with
sculptures in bas-relief, of a sort, pictorially speaking, similar to
those that I have described upon the vases;--love-scenes principally,
then hunting pictures, pictures of executions, and the torture of
criminals by the placing of a, presumably, red-hot pot upon the head,
showing whence our hosts had derived this pleasant practice. There
were very few battle-pieces, though many of duels, and men running and
wrestling, and from this fact I am led to believe that this people were
not much subject to attack by exterior foes, either on account of the
isolation of their position or because of their great strength. Between
the pictures were columns of stone characters of a formation absolutely
new to me; at any rate, they were neither Greek nor Egyptian, nor
Hebrew, nor Assyrian--that I am sure of. They looked more like Chinese
writings than any other that I am acquainted with. Near to the entrance
of the cave both pictures and writings were worn away, but further in
they were in many cases absolutely fresh and perfect as the day on which
the sculptor had ceased work on them.

The regiment of guards did not come further than the entrance to the
cave, where they formed up to let us pass through. On entering the place
itself we were, however, met by a man robed in white, who bowed humbly,
but said nothing, which, as it afterwards appeared that he was a deaf
mute, was not very wonderful.

Running at right angles to the great cave, at a distance of some twenty
feet from the entrance, was a smaller cave or wide gallery, that was
pierced into the rock both to the right and to the left of the main
cavern. In front of the gallery to our left stood two guards, from which
circumstance I argued that it was the entrance to the apartments of
_She_ herself. The mouth of the right-hand gallery was unguarded, and