J 6 TEMPLES OF BLEETA. 



professes to be a great sportsman. He showed me his guns, 

 and amongst them a very nice rifle ; he also made his people 

 bring the legs of a banting which had been killed the day 

 before by one of his men with a spear ; the man went into the 

 jungle to cut wood when he saw something move just ahead 

 of him, he threw his spear at it, and much to his astonish- 

 ment, found he had killed a full grown cow banting, the 

 spear having, fortunately for him, severed the spinal marrow. 



I was anxious to visit a curious temple lately discovered 

 near the foot of the Kluti, and started soon after sunrise with 

 Mr. La Rona for Bleeta. On the road we saw the immense 

 amount of devastation caused by the ashes which fell during 

 the eruption. 



The Bleeta temple, the original shape of which I 

 cannot determine, is now a square mass of ruin with 

 three terraces or platforms, the walls of which are most 

 superbly carved in high relief, portraying different ceremonies 

 and processions. Each tablet is separated from the next by 

 a circular ornament, in the centre of which is some animal 

 exquisitely carved. I noticed nearly every animal common to 

 Java, as well as carvings of the elephant, the camel and 

 the cassowary ; in all the figures the proportions were very 

 correct. It was remarkable how very curiously the roots of 

 the trees have eaten up as it were some of the smaller temples 

 or gateways, and what was still more curious, the trees and 

 roots had in some instances put on the form of the temples 

 they had destroyed. Some rascally Mohamedan fanatics 

 have mutilated every human figure in the temples by cutting 

 off the noses. I believe this is universal. In all the temples 

 in Java there is hardly a single figure with a perfect nose. 

 The monsters ! I should like to have the grinding of their 

 noses. 



