Fellows, Charles: Travels and researches in Asia Minor, more particularly in the province of Lycia (London, 1852)

278

CAEIA.

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Another of the monuments still existing at Mylasa is a
tomb of a very imposing form, and may, from its high state
of preservation, explain the former use of some I have noticed
at Alinda, which now appear as mere pedestals or stoas. A

hole in the floor of this upper apartment or temple is said by
one writer to have been for the pouring down libations to the
manes in the vault beneath. There being no visible means for
the friends of the deceased to reach the platform for this holy
purpose, I listened to the explanation of the Turk who acted
as cicerone: he says the building was a treasury, and that the
lower room was filled with gold, which had been dropped down
the hole above, and that many such buildings had existed.

I have never heard a Turk relate any anecdote of " old
castles," as he calls them, without some reference to hidden
treasure; he believes that every inscription tells of treasure,
if he could understand it, and every cavern leads to some
ancient store of accumulated gold; but these stories, like
the tales of children, have each their characteristic moral;
they tell you that whoever enters wishing to carry away
wealth, finds himself a prisoner, lost in the dark vaults,



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