574 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES IN MALAYSIA AND ASIA, 



empire, and this was probably a temple dedicated to Siva. 

 Contemporary annals give enigmatical memorial woi'ds for the 

 date of these buildings. Thus the years a.d. 896, 964, and 1,360 

 have been variously assigned. The prevalent opinion is that they 

 may not be more ancient than the 1 3th century. 



It is strange that though ruins of ancient stone temples abound 

 in the island, there are few of palaces or towns except very 

 modern. From this we may infer that the Javanese have always 

 built houses of wood as they do now. Between Malang and 

 LaAvang a great battle was fought, and in the year 1400 Majapahit, 

 a fortified place of great splendour near Surabaya, was then 

 destroyed. The remains of this city are still traceable. 



It has often been remarked that the Mahometanism of the 

 Javanese is very lax, and we saw here singular instances of it. 

 When we came to the statue of Ganesha we found some Javanese 

 women prostrate before it and making offerings of flowers. All 

 the idols were covered more or less with fresh-gathered blossoms, 

 and we were informed that these temples are resorted to from afar 

 by the Javanese. Now, considering how Islamism reprobates 

 pictures or figures of any kind, even for the purposes of art, this 

 kind of devotion is very extraordinary. I took some of the flowers 

 from off an idol to examine them, when one of the Javanese 

 women burst into tears. Our guide told us that she had placed 

 them there and looked upon my removing them as an unpropitious 

 sign. Women not blessed with children make pilgrimages to 

 these temples to obtain the gift of fertility. 



The neighbourhood of Malang is very rich with ruins, and many 

 of them have been removed. One of the principal pei'sons who took 

 an interest in the matter was a Dutch resident at Samarang named 

 Engelhard, who had a good number of idols and inscribed stones 

 removed and sent to Holland. Some of the best of them were 

 also removed to the residency at Malang, for I saw a great number 

 in the garden there. There were amongst them many upright 

 slabs covered with Sanskrit inscriptions. The locality was no 

 longer used as the residency, so that the whole of these valuable 



