THE SEVEN PAGODAS. 



189 



Her upper left arm is broken off, and on the broken part a (V) 

 mark has been cut. All the figures have large round earrings. 

 Except for the sculptured panel the shrine is a small plain 

 cubical cell, without any portico or vestibule, such as most of the 

 other shrines have. It is entered on the west side by a plain 

 doorway 6' 7" X 2' 10" between square piers or pilasters assimi- 

 lating in style to the rest in this locality. A handsome and 

 very florid dwarf -mounted griffin scroll is carved in bas-relief on 

 the faQade above the doorway and also above the corresponding 

 central niches or recessed panels on the other three sides of the 

 shrine. 6 In the doorway there are two mortise holes or sockets 

 for doorposts or jambs cut in the underside of the lintel, but none 

 in the sill below to correspond. Many, if not all, of the doorways 

 or entrances to the shrines and deeper niches of the monoliths 

 here are provided with similar sockets. On each side of the door 

 is a plain rectangular niche containing a female warder or 

 archeress, standing at ease, wearing a tall topi and holding a long 

 bow in her right hand or leaning on it. These figures are a 

 rather small life-size. Close under the eaves is a frieze or string 

 course of dwarfs, but they do not bear the usual croll ornament 

 in festoons. The only cornice is the eaves or lower edge of the 

 roof which comes down thatch -fashion and projects well beyond 

 the walls of the cell. 



The four corners of this shrine are carved to represent plain 

 square pillars of the prevailing style of the place, with a deep 

 plain four-armed bracket above. On the north, east, and south 

 sides there is a single shallow niche or recess between square 

 (half) pilasters surmounted by the florid dwarf -mounted flying- 

 dragon croll 6 and containing a goddess figure in each. 



This monolithic shrine is surmounted by a square domical roof 

 of (single) convex curvature, most simple in outline like the 

 thatched roof of a square hay-stack, terminating above in a flat 

 top 2| feet square, evidently intended to have a spire-piece or 

 finial to complete it. 



6 Compare Nos. 3, 21, & 34, all of which have very similar florid scrolls 

 carved on them. 



