'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎294] (403/496)

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serai, or Khan* of the same name, received us as its tenants for some days
to come. Its murky vaults, redolent of every effluvium, smoke-begrimed
and covered with pendant bats, afford a striking contrast to the marble
hall and fountained apartment of our abode of yesterday: and yet, after
all, this is the life that charms. The real traveller, indeed, knows neither
inconvenience nor discomfort; he sits down to his scanty fare of an
onion, cheese, and pure water, with more zest than awaits the epicure at
a sumptuous repast. So long as he keeps his health,—which is certain
unless in a very noxious climate,—he suffers neither indigestion or ennui,
and enjoys that quiet sleep which is only experienced after a day of
active exercise both of the mind and body.*(*
The afternoon of this day was devoted to cleaning the sculptures and
inscriptions preparatory to Major Kawlinson’s revising his former labors.
The ladders had been carefully fixed, and the requisite ropes for assisting
the ascent up the steep face of the lower portion of the scarp properly
adjusted, beforehand. In about a quarter of an hour, not without
sundry scratches and bruises, the platform at the base of the tablet was
gained, and operations commenced accordingly. From this time until
the 11th of the month we remained in this vicinity. The Major con
stantly and indefatigably employed himself, from daylight to dark,
revising, restoring, and adding to, his former materials. This was a work
of great irksomeness and labor in the confined space he was compelled
to stand in, with his body in close proximity to the heated rock and
under a broiling September sun. A series of astronomical observations
were daily made in the forenoons, and the afternoons were devoted to
sketching the various objects of interest in the locality, and in taking the
dimensions of the magnificent rock before us. To continue the journal,
then, during the period of our stay here, would be both uninteresting and
tedious. I will therefore attempt to describe the relics of antiquity that
have of late so much occupied the attention of the Orientalist and
Pal Geographer (Maj. Bawdinson, in his Notes on a March into Khuzistan,
published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, has sufficient
ly established the identity of this place with the Baghistan of Diodorus
* The Khan of Behistan stands in latitude 34° 22' 35" N., and is 2° 55' 33" R
of Baghdad. The variation of the Needle in 1844, was 3° 44 r west.
t The incidents and danger at times attending the traveller in the East, couple
with the chase of the grisly boar or the timid hare,—a stray shot at the nuniero
wild fowl that infest the streams, or at partridge, which abound on the moun a
slopes,—lend excitement to the otherwise tedious duration of the day s journey