We find also, by the sacred Scriptures[212], that the custom of worshipping _Priapus_, as the symbol of the all-creating Sun, (_Shiva_,) in subterranean temples and caverns, prevailed fourteen hundred years before the birth of Christ. Besides, a period of more than four hundred years would certainly be necessary, before a mountain which consists of massy rock, and which must have been cut with the chissel and mallet, could be hollowed out in such a manner as to exhibit so many apartments, grottos, vaults, stairs, reservoirs for water, statues, and columns, as are found in the two temples of Salsette and the island of Elephanta. Alexander and all his successors, whose dominion in general did not last above a hundred years, and whose authority extended over a very small district of land, on the sea coast, could not have been in a condition to bring all these works to a conclusion. Gemelli Careri, who carefully examined the proportions of the temple at Salsette, and who has given an accurate description of it, acknowledges that it is one of the greatest master-pieces in Asia, and that its wonderful architecture exceeds all description[213]. All travellers, such as Niebuhr, Sonnerat, Anquetil, and several Englishmen, who have seen this temple, extol it in the highest degree, and express the astonishment which it excited in their minds when they beheld it. As the shortness of my stay did not allow me to measure its different parts, and as on that account I cannot describe it properly myself, I shall here insert an extract from the description which has been given by Gemelli Careri, of a part of this temple. * * * * *