618 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and mark the entrance into each separate court. The houses are in- 

 habited by 8,000 Bramins, who are not all necessarily priests ; but, 

 like the tribe of Levi among the Jews, from whom the priests were 

 taken, so among the Hindoos the priests are taken from among the 

 Bramins. The others hold their shops in the temple. There are 21 

 of these gopura ; the large gopurum to the right is 300 feet. high. The 

 next view gives the gopurum more in detail, and shows it exactly as 

 it is. The lower part is of stone, the upper part of brick, and this is 

 covered with figures, representing different scenes in their holy history. 

 Sometimes these gopura are very much more ornamented than others; 

 but they are always for the same purpose, that is, to cover the entrance 

 into the different parts of the temple. 



We now come to a mundapum. A mundapum may be composed 

 of simply eight stones. Take four stones and put them upright in the 

 ground, about eight feet high ; put the other four along the top, and 

 you have got a mundapum, and such exist in thousands all over India ; 

 and, whether elaborate as this is, or perfectly plain, whether square, or 

 round, the result is the same, and you have a mundapum. In this 

 case each pillar is one single block of granite, out of which those 

 figures 15 feet high have been carved; it is covered with a flat stone 

 roof. It constitutes one of the finest mundapa in India. 



We next proceed to look at a teppa kolum, or tank, as you see 

 here. The god not only is treated in every way like a human being, 

 but he must have his excursion in the water, and his ride in the car 

 21 times he goes round that centre pavilion you see in the middle. On 

 the left and on the right you see mundapa, and the small gopurum 

 covers the entrance into the sanctuary. 



I may as well tell you that the sanctuary is nothing but an oblong 

 building, perfectly plain, dark as pitch, not the smallest glimmer of 

 light being admitted. No European is ever allowed to enter it, except 

 a prince of royal blood, and he must enter it alone; and, if any other 

 European, or heathen, or low-caste man, dares to put his foot inside 

 the sacred portals, the temple must be abandoned, or the man must die. 

 Such is the rule of the Hindoos. 



I will just show you, in passing, the interior of a mundapum that 

 is, a very plain one one of those we just saw the outside of. That 

 curious thing in the middle, called a flag-staff, was used formerly to 

 mark the distance a man was allowed to approach toward the sanctu- 

 ary. He was not allowed to pass nearer than that. But gradually it 

 has fallen into disuse, and now he may walk within three or four 

 yards of the sanctuary-door. It is so dark, though, that nothing can 

 be seen. 



Passing from Trichinopoly we here leave the railway, and have to 

 choose the way we will travel. There are three ways before us. We 

 can go on horseback, and, starting an hour before sunrise, and gallop- 

 ing all the time till the sun rises, accomplish 12 or 14 miles at the out- 



