314 ACCOUNT OF THE PAGODA AT PERWUTTUif. 



7th. In one compartment the figure of an alliga- 

 tor, or crocodile, with its fcales and monftrous teeth 

 is feen, running open mouthed, to devour a perfon 

 lying before it ; two women are ftanding near a third 

 feated ; they are looking on a child near them. I 

 got no explanation of this. 



8th. An elephant and tyger fighting. 



The fculptures on the fouth and earl fides are in 

 good prefervation ; thofe on the weft and north are 

 more injured by the weather. The age of the firft tern-. 

 pie might perhaps he discovered from the inferiptions, 

 if a translation of them could be obtained. I could 

 gain no information on this head ; but I fufpecl 

 the building to be cf higher antiquity than the know-, 

 ledge, or, at leaft, than the ufe of gunpowder among 

 thefe people ; becaufe among fo great a variety of 

 arms as are feulptured upon the wails, fwords, bows, 

 pikes, arrows, and fhields of a round figure, the match- 

 lock is not be found, though a weapon fo much 

 in ufe among the follgars. On enquiring of the Brah- 

 meyis the meaning of thefe carvings, one of them re- 



d, " it was to (hew how the Gods lived above 5" 

 but. indeed they feem to have loft all traces of any 

 knowledge they may have formerly poffefied, and to 



funk Into the profoundeit irate of ignorance. 



XXL RE- 



