158 JAVA. [chap. vn. 



Dutch Assistant Resident as well as a Regent or native 

 Javanese prince lived here. The town was neat, and had 

 a nice open grassy space like a village green, on which 

 stood a magnificent fig-tree (allied to the Banyan of India, 

 but more lofty), under whose shade a kind of market is 

 continually held, and where the inhabitants meet together 

 to lounge and chat. The day after my arrival, Mr. Ball 

 drove me over to the village of Modjo-agong, where he was 

 building a house and premises for the tobacco trade, which 

 is carried on here by a system of native cultivation and 

 advance purchase, somewhat similar to the indigo trade in 

 British India. On our way we stayed to look at a frag- 

 ment of the ruins of the ancient city of Modjo-pahit, con- 

 sisting of two lofty brick masses, apparently the sides of a 

 gateway. The extreme perfection and beauty of the brick- 

 work astonished me. The bricks are exceedingly fine and 

 hard, with sharp angles and true surfaces. They are laid 

 with great exactness, without visible mortar or cement, yet 

 somehow fastened together so that the joints are hardly 

 perceptible, and sometimes the two surfaces coalesce in a 

 most incomprehensible manner. Such admirable brick- 

 work I have never seen before or since. There was no 

 scidpture here, but abundance of bold projections and 

 finely-worked mouldings. Traces of buildings exist for 

 many miles in every direction, and almost every road and 

 pathway shows a foundation of brickwork beneath it — the 



