36 NARRATIVE OF A JOüIlNEr 



shape, formed as above^ of exactlv squared stone, 

 of forty or forty-five feet in two stages. The 

 whole maj be coniputed at seventy feet from 

 the pavement below. Th? roof is open above 

 at present, and not closed like the generalitj of 

 the small Teniples, but whether it was originaily 

 so I ani not able to say, though I am rather in- 

 clined to think it might have been designed to 

 illuminate this immense cavity, which has no 

 other light. 



Fronting the door and the south is the great 

 Altar, plainly terminated with a plain cornice^ 

 and at each end, where a flight of steps leads up, 

 decorated with an Elephant's head on one stage, 

 and that of a monster on the second. In this ap- 

 pendage ofan Altar/the Temples we observe 

 differ entirely from the Bramins, as well as in 

 the want of Anti-sacellum. On the whole 

 these general observations may be made, that 

 simplicity, chastity of stile, and an aversion to 

 superfluous ornament, distingiiish the Rites and 

 Temples of this religion, whatever it was. Here 

 we find no paltry niches for stink ing lamps, no 

 soot or vestige of oil burningand soiling the in- 

 terior. — No accumulation of doors, recesse», 

 monstroiis fiffures and obscene svmbols.— AU 

 is Uuity, Light and Truth. 



