Report of a fouriiey Around the World. 167 



I cannot say, but the visible ones are very extensive. The bas- 

 reliefs, of which there are bands on both sides of the galleries, 

 represent scenes or myths in the life of Buddha and his disciples, 

 some of which have been explained (not a few by the late King of 

 Siam when visiting the ruins in 1896"), but many are puzzliug and 

 might mean various things. The execution is very unequal, some 

 reliefs being excellent, others mere pot-boilers; most of them are 

 discolored by calcareous solutions, apparently from the inner 

 mound. We followed around as go the hands of the clock, that 

 we might never turn the left shoulder to the excellent Buddha 

 whose stony forms gaze placidly from so many niches — once from 

 so many more. 



The monkeys were well done, so were the elephants, and the fish 

 in a dried pond which the divine Indra saved by sending rains at the 

 prayer of a righteous Buddhist. Much time and study has been 

 spent on these pictures, more, far, than we could spare, and we went 

 on around and up the steep steps from gallery to gallery, not so 

 devoutly as did some of the ancient worshippers, studying the les- 

 sons of truth and love these were intended to impart. It was some- 

 what the Romish idea of the "Stations of the Cross", until at last 

 we came to the top platform (Fig. 127), where are the curious 

 bells of stone network covering other white Buddhas. Many of 

 these bells are entirely new, and in their midst is the domelike 



1 Monumental Java, by J. F. Scheltema, A.M. London, 191 2 ( Macmillan ). 



This vastly interesting book should be read by every educated traveler to 

 Java, if possible before going to that delightful island, but the author's 

 righteous indignation at the apparent neglect of what certainly should be 

 saved, seems to blind him to the real work that the Dutch Government has 

 'lone, as shown in the two illustrations of the Chandi Mendoet. No one can 

 excuse the plunder of the Boroboedoer by the late Kingof Siam under Govern- 

 ment assent, when eight cartloads of what he considered the most interesting 

 sculptures were carried to Siam and exhibited as spoils of Java. Neither is it 

 pleasant to see that images and sculptured stones from this quarry abound in 

 all the neighboring gardens and on their walls; but let us consider that with- 

 out the Government restorations and protection the traveler of today would 

 Little enough of all these wonderful buildings. 



See also G. den Efamer, De Tjandi Mendoet vbbr de Restauraliei Batavia- 

 <i 1I1 Genootschap, 1903;. 



Raffles, History of Java, London, 1 s 1 7 . 2 vols. .|to. Shows many <.i tin 



ruins covered with vegetation, of which the roots wen often the earlier 

 dilapidators, but the main structure was in none of these illustrations, so 

 utterly ruined as they wen befon th< 1 nii.li Government began the repara 

 tion. Much of the ruin by human hands seems chargeable t<> the last quarter 

 of the last century. [315] 



