THE SEVEN PAGODAS. 



159 



except on the west side or front, it is broken into parts, each 

 embracing a pair of the pilasters and brackets. 



Immediately above the cornice, which is ornamented as usual 

 with the hooded medallions or horse-shoe facets each containing 

 a human face or mask capped by the curved bargeboards with 

 flat spike or horn, is the first terrace of domical cell ornaments, 

 which are square at the angles, and oblong or waggon-roofed 

 between, with the usual covered passage joining them. 



The row of (simulated) cells over the portico is rather lower than 

 those round the other three sides of the shrine. The ornamenta- 

 tion of the lower part of the row of cells somewhat resembles 

 a continuous railing or balustrade with griffins' heads in pairs 

 facing one another in front of the cells, and diamond or lozenge 

 ornaments on the intermediate parts of the railing before the 

 corridors or covered passage. In places a pair of elephants have 

 been carved with their trunks intertwined, and a pair of birds 

 with their bills locked together. The ornamental carving is by 

 no means complete, but a great deal has been designed and a 

 considerable amount accomplished. 



The scroll work on the roof and on the domical cells is very 

 florid, especially on the lower end of the bargeboards; their 

 upper parts are ornamented with rosettes and garlands. 



The walls of the upper storey (first floor) are divided by pairs 

 of rectangular pilasters into narrow panels and wide inter- 

 mediate spaces ; all of them quite plain, but probably designed 

 to contain ornamental sculpture, such for instance as the corre- 

 sponding narrow niches contain under the roof -dormers of the 

 great waggon-roofed monolith (No. 42). The upper cornice and 

 the floor above it (the second terrace), with its simulated cells, 

 pilasters, panels, &c, is just like the last only smaller, and instead 

 of the oblong cell in the centre of the north and south facades 

 below, the upper terrace above it is occupied by the semi-circular 

 corniced and domed shaft under its £nVw£-capped canopy already 

 described. The round-topped niches separated by griffin-headed 

 baluster-brackets of the fac,ade immediately under the projecting 

 eaves of the waggon-roof exactly resemble those of Bhlma's 

 Batha (No= 42 ) : A closer and longer inspection of this gem of 



