leading out of it that had been cut in the solid rock. Soon they were obliged to go on their hands and knees, and after proceeding about thirty yards the guide came upon a human skeleton, at which he was so shocked that he refused to go any farther, and the party were obliged to return. How the skeleton came there was a mystery: some wild beast may have dragged a body to the place, or a murder may have been committed, or some person may have been trying to explore the caverns and failed to find his way out. Dra'a ought to be a rich field for excavations, because at least three cities exist there, one beneath another. The present Arab buildings and heaps of filth are, for the most part, on the top of a Greek or Roman city, as is evident from the walls which are exposed in a multitude of places, and the masons' marks which appear on them. And the Roman town appears to rest on one still older, in which bevelled stones were used. But whether there are two or three cities above ground, there is certainly a large one beneath them, entirely excavated in the rock on which the upper cities stand.
The underground dwellings at this place had been visited some years before by Dr J. G. Wetzstein, and he also was prevented from making a thorough exploration; for when his attendant's light went out he was so impressed with a sense of the danger they would be in if both lights went out together, that he thought it prudent to retreat. But he had seen a good deal. After passing a difficult passage he found himself in a broad street which had dwellings on both sides of it, and whose height and width left nothing to be desired. Farther along there were several cross streets, and soon after they came to a market-place, with numerous shops in the walls, exactly in the style of the shops that are seen in Syrian cities. After a while they turned into a side street, where a great hall attracted his attention, the roof
