■ • IN JAVA. 357 



mt>^ern alphabet, which wants initial vowels, Nuyueyacarta'. it is fingular 

 to trace the corruption which ■words are doomed to undergo; the 

 S arifc r it ^ovd Ayudya becomes in Eng/i/h 0\xdQ, iq, J^iyjanefe Nayugya, 

 and \n Z)xf^<:/^ still more barbarouHy Djoyu, The temples oi Prambanan 

 are builtof aJiard dark and heavy fpecies of bafalt called by minera- 

 logists trap» This I am told by Do6^or Horse? ihld is the chief compo* 

 nentpart of the mountains of Java, In the fouindations and coarf:'r 

 parts of the buildings an inferior material, a kind of whke foft land 

 slone in various degrees of aggregation is to be found. The black hard 

 stone is ufaallyhewo into fquare blocks of various fizes. The refpec- 

 tive furface of the stones vi^hich lie on each other ia the biiilding, have 

 grooves and projections adapted to each other ; they are regularly arraog'? 

 edin the building in fuch a manneras to enfure £he greatest strength 

 and folidity in the strudure, and no mortar is Q.nY where had recourfe 

 to. as, a cement. With materials of fuch cxsellence the construction of 

 the temples of Prambancm, cannot be contemplated as a talk of very 

 extraordinary difficulty, for there is neither boldnefs nor grandeur in the 

 defign. There is nothing here upon a great fcale, nothing but what 

 feems within the reach of the most obvious mechanical contrivance^ 

 the most ordinary efforts of common ingenuityo What we. are chiefly 

 struck with is the minute laboriou^fnefs of the execution. Its fuccefs is 

 alfo calculated to excitfe our admiration, though no doubt the effect is 

 hightened by the comparifon which we are apt to make between thefe 

 ruins, and the rude eEFe6ts -of the .modern art of the Javanefe bv which 

 wcare furroundedo 



Upon the whole there is neither grandeur nor fublimity in the tem- 

 ples of Prambanan, The want of pillars conveys a difagreeable im- 

 preffion of heavinefs aad inelegance 5 the buildings are therafclves too 



5 Y 



