144 VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 



and was hollowed out ; some of the hemp growmg- here, about 

 a fing-er's thickness, had been put into it, by means of which 

 there fell a drop of water every three minutes on the pith of the 

 stem. This is the way in which they revive old trees here, the 

 crown of which is dead. After they have dug- up the tree from 

 the ground in which it grew, they cutoff all branches down to the 

 root, and plant this root in a pot, leaving about half a foot in 

 width. I saw this way of treatment successfully used with 

 some pomegranate and Chinese box trees. 



In the afternoon I went ag'ain to the town and saw its 

 west-eastern part. I found it to be a vast desert, having many 

 swampy places, these latter swampy places had surely been 

 cultivated formerly, now there was nothing more to be recog- 

 nised than a narrow path ; it lay somewhat higher, and was 

 bordered with stones of one and a half foot length, the narrow 

 side of which was turned upwards. This path, however, must 

 also have been very narrow; it runs along the wall, and at one 

 place there was a large trench. All about this place elephants 

 were grazing, many of them being still very young. I was 

 warned to beware of the big elephants, specially when nobody 

 was with them. They are enraged because it was the time of their 

 coupling-time, and at times I heard the male elephants roar very 

 loudly. The number of elephants which are kept in this ruined 

 town are commonly supposed to be 500. All buildings I came 

 across this afternoon were ruined temples, and as I could conclude 

 from the stones lying about, the houses of the inhabitants must 

 have been very primitive. The temples, however, showed the 

 greatest extravagance of Indian splendour, by much gold and 

 many carvings, which must have been intermixed with small pieces 

 of convex mirrors of many colours. In one place I saw some 

 double spade-like figures on a pedestal, which were about three 

 feet high and four to five inches thick. They were gilt on the 

 outer side, and on the inner side they were painted red with car- 

 mine. The number of the temples in the town must have been 

 very great, and they now offer a terrible spectacle, because so 

 many of the vaulted roofs and high columns are all overgrown 

 with trees and shrubs, so densely intermixed with climbing- plants 

 that there is a general belief that the town was filled with tigers. 

 However, I did not discover any trace of such animals, but on the 

 other hand these parts could offer refuge to more than 100 rob- 



