E. S. E. direction, constantly descending. As we got lower down, we passed into a rocky and steep defile, where the footing is extremely bad, and the passage so commanded from the sides, and intersected by huge masses of sand-stone detached and rolled down from above, that it was obvious that a very small force would be capable of holding it against a great superiority of numbers. Towards the lower extremity of this pass the path branched off two several ways; it had previously been whispered to us by our chief, that we should not seem to take any notice of it, but let the men of Wady Mousa go their way, while we should follow one of our own party, who would go forward and guide us in a different direction. When we reached the point of separation, the others not being apprized of this determination, said all they could to induce Abou Raschid to ascend to their tents, and came even to high words with him, but they could not prevail, he having sworn an oath, that neither we nor himself should eat or drink at their expense, or within the limits of their territory. Some few even followed us for a time, hoping to persuade us to turn back with them, but before we reached the valley of Wady Mousa they had all withdrawn.

Our defile brought us directly down into this place, whose name had become so familiar to

us; it is, at the point where we entered it, a stony but cultivated valley of moderate size, without much character or beauty, running in a direction from E. to W. A lesser hollow, sloping down to it from the southward, meets it at an angle; at the upper end of the latter valley is the village seen over stages of hanging fruit-grounds and gardens, which are watered by a spring. At the point of junction of these valleys a source issues from the rock and forms a brook, to which the other is contributary; to this Abou Raschid pointed, with a sneer of exultation, as we crossed it, observing, "there is the water about which there has been so much contention and dispute." It flows towards the westward, and is, in point of fact, the head of the stream which Pliny has dignified with the name of a river. We approached no nearer to the village than this point, but as the distance did not exceed a quarter of a mile, we could plainly perceive that there was nothing ancient there; that the houses were mean and ragged, and not more than forty or fifty in number. On the summit of a broad, green hill, rising above it, we could not only distinguish the large encampment to which the inhabitants had retired on the night of the twentieth, but could plainly see them collected in great numbers on the brow looking down and watching us.

Some hundred yards below this spring begin the out-skirts of the vast Necropolis of Petra. Many door-ways are visible, upon different levels, cut in the side of the mountain, which towards this part begins to assume a more rugged aspect; the most remarkable tombs stand near the road, which follows the course of the brook. The first of these is on the right hand, and is cut in a mass of whitish rock, which is in some measure insulated and detached from the general range. The centre represents the front of a square tower, with pilasters at the corner, and with several successive bands of frieze and entablature above; two low wings project from it at right angles, and present each of them a recess, in the manner of a portico, which consists of two columns whose capitals have an affinity with the Doric order, between corresponding antæ; there are, however, no triglyphs above. Three sides of a square area are thus enclosed; the fourth has been shut in by a low wall and two colossal lions on either side of the entrance, all much decayed. The interior has been a place of sepulture for several bodies. On the front are little niches and hollows cut, as if for the reception of votive offerings. Farther on, upon the left, is a wide façade of rather a low proportion, loaded with ornaments in the Roman manner, but in a bad taste, with an

infinity of broken lines and unnecessary angles and projections, and multiplied pediments and half pediments, and pedestals set upon columns that support nothing. It has more the air of a fantastical scene in a theatre than an architectural work in stone; and for unmeaning richness, and littleness of conception, Mr. Bankes seemed to think, might have been the work of Boromini himself, whose style it exactly resembles, and carries to the extreme. What is observed of this front is applicable, more or less, to every specimen of Roman design at Petra. The door-way has triglyphs over the entablature, and flowers in the metopes. The chamber within is not so large as the exterior promises; it has a broad, raised platform round three sides, on which bodies were probably disposed. Immediately over this front is another of almost equal extent, but so wholly distinct from it, that even the centres do not correspond; the door-way has the same ornaments. The rest of the body of the design is no more than a plain front, without any other decoration than a single moulding. Upon this are set, in a recess, four tall and taper pyramids; their effect is singular and surprising, but combining too little with the rest of the elevation to be good. Our attention was the more attracted by this monument, as it pre

sents, perhaps, the only existing example of pyramids so applied, though we read of them as placed in a similar manner on the summit of the tomb of the Maccabees, and of the Queen of Adiabæne, both in the neighbouring province of Palestine. The interior of the mausoleum is of moderate size, with two sepulchral recesses upon each side, and one in form of an arched alcove at the upper end; a flight of steps leads up to the narrow terrace upon which it opens. The subjoined cut may convey an idea of some of these singular excavations.

The sides of the valley were now becoming precipitous and rugged to a high degree, and approaching nearer and nearer to each other, so that it might rather deserve the name of a ravine, with high detached masses of rock standing up here and there in the open space. Of these the