FORESTERS’ LIFE IN BURMA 191 
permit the use of corrugated iron sheeting in the 
repairs of this or indeed in any of the ancient 
and inimitable monuments of Burma Under the 
influences of a utilitarian policy, stucco and sheet- 
iron shrines are springing up to replace the beauti- 
fully designed and decorated works of former years, 
and the Buddhist of to-day expresses his devotion 
in a cheque given to a contractor from Hindustan, 
where his ancestors, collecting the most expert of 
workmen, spent years in directing their labours to 
his liking. If the money spent on new buildings 
were devoted to the restoration of the old, many 
vanishing works of art would yet be saved to the 
country ; or if even more of the beautiful carvings, 
now rotting in deserted monasteries in silent jungles, 
were collected where they could be seen of the 
people, and so serve to recall more frequently the 
‘art of the past to their memory, it would perhaps 
help to show that their conquerors appreciate skill 
and talent, and that, although at present fully 
occupied with public works designed to serve only 
material purposes, they have not lost sight of the 
spiritual needs of those they rule. 
The interest enforced by Lord Curzon in the 
protection of the archzological monuments of India 
was surely one of the most important features of his 
viceroyalty. Though in practice the work is always 
hampered by the insurmountable difficulty of obtain- 
ing workmen possessing the spirit and the leisure 
of the past, and though the restorations must there- 
fore be but makeshifts evident to all who in- 
spect them, yet they connote an attitude infinitely 
preferable to the desecration of neglect or to the 
