222 THE ETTINS OF BORO BTTDTTR IN JATA. 



their collections. It is even said that a troop of Hussars, who were 

 encamped in these parts during the Javanese war, used to try the 

 edge and the temper of their sabres upon the statues, and that 

 they cut off the heads of more than one of them. 



I will conclude this paper, which has already exceeded the li- 

 mits I originally proposed to myself, by quoting from M. Wilsen 

 the following account of a most curious and interesting fact, viz., 

 that the statues of Boro Budur are to this day objects of reverence 

 to the Javanese. He says : " Persons come every day from long dis- 

 tances bringing offerings of flowers and incense to one or other of the 

 statues of the Buddha upon the higher terraces. These pious pil- 

 grims place their flowers on a banana leaf before one of the two 

 Buddhas of the first circular terrace to the right of the eastern 

 entrance, or by the side of the huge statue of the great Dagob in 

 the middle, and burn incense before the statues. They often bring 

 with them some of the yellow powder called ' bore bore ' to cover 

 the statue of the Buddha with, just as newly married people cover 

 their bodies with the same powder. They pay this offering of de- 

 votion in cases of sickness, after a marriage, after an easy and for- 

 tunate childbirth, and on occasion of many other of the events of 

 daily life. It is also said that women who aspire to the honours of 

 maternity try to pass their fingers through the openings in the 

 latticed cupolas, in order to touch the Buddha concealed within ; and 

 that they sometimes pass a whole night in one of the galleries or 

 on one of the higher terraces. The Chinese too imitate the Java- 

 nese in some of these acts of devotion, and assemble once a year 

 on new year's day at the ruins of Boro Budur. The ancient shrine 

 then becomes the object of a general pilgrimage, the scene of 

 joyous merry-making, accompanied by many sacrifices, by fire- 

 works, and public amusements of all kinds. "We dare not assert 

 positively that the ancient purptose of Boro Budur is the reason 

 why these strangers from the celestial empire (so far as they pro- 

 fess the doctrine of Fo or Buddha) attribute to it still a sacred 

 character. The thing, however, is not improbable ; and the very 

 nature of the homage that is now offered, might thus have put us 

 in the way of understanding the end which the founders of the 

 sanctuary proposed to themselves, even if we had not the advantage 

 of being better informed on the subject by the character of the 



