16 The Remains at Pagan. [No. 1. 



be in every case the same, viz. what we call in India kucha pukka 

 work, that is to say, brick cemented with mud only. Mr. Crawfurd 

 supposed the temples to be of brick and lime mortar. But I 

 satisfied myself that this is not the case, and that the penetration 

 of the plaster, which had been applied to the walls and corridors, 

 into some of the joints had misled him.* We are not indeed ac- 

 customed in India to conceive of kucha pukka edifices two hundred 

 feet in height. Of these it is to be said that they are so massive 

 as to be practically almost solid ; so that the vaults and corridors 

 rather resemble excavations in the mass than structural interiors. 

 It is also to be said, however, that they are built with a care and 

 elaboration which I never saw bestowed on a kucha pukka structure 

 in India, and which the Burmans of the present day seem remotely 

 incapable of in brickwork of any kind. On the outside at least, 

 in the better buildings, every brick has been cut and rubbed to 

 fit with such nicety that it is difficult, and sometimes not possible, 

 to insert the blade of a knife between the joints. The arches 

 and semi-arches are carefully formed of bricks moulded in the 

 radiating form of voussoirs. The peculiarity of these arches is 

 that in general the bricks are laid edge to edge in the curve of the 

 arch, instead of being laid parallel with its axis as among other 

 nations. The exterior archfaces of the smaller doors and windows 

 are, however, laid in the European way, with the bricks cheek to 

 cheek. 



The bricks are usually about 14 inches by 7, (I here speak 

 from memory,) and well moulded, but they are not very well burnt. 



Such being the substance of the structure, all the ornamental 

 finish is consequently executed in the plaster, which, even without 

 view to ornament, would have been essential to the preservation 

 of the buildings. 



Where the plaster has been kept in repair, the buildings remain 

 apparently perfect. Where the original plaster has decayed, and 

 has not been renewed, the temples are in ruins. But it is in the 

 latter only that we can learn to do justice to the spirit of art that 



mortar. 



Mr. Oldham notes his impression that the Bauddhi temple is built with lime 



