106 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
the walls. The apartments are spacious,, and as well 
proportioned as any in Europe. The only singularity 
that strikes at first sight is the ladders instead of 
stairs ; but the steps are broads and after a little use 
are not founfl inconvenient. The Bouteas, however, 
are not ignorant of a more eligible method of ascent ; 
for at one of the two gateways of the palace is a large 
and well-formed flight of stone steps. The pillars sup- 
porting the verandas are of wood, uniform and painted ; 
but their shape is not such as would please an eye ac- 
customed to better architecture : they swell too much 
towards the bottom, and have a capital like two long 
brackets joined together. The ornaments painted upon 
the pillars and walls are chiefly flowers and dragons 
in the Chinese taste ; and, as in China, bells are seen 
hanging from the corners of the roof. It will here occur 
to the reader that the Bouteas are of the race of Tar- 
tars who conquered and still govern China. 
“ The timber used in the palace and in the ordinary 
houses is chiefly fir. Though the beams and smaller 
parts are joined by mortise and dovetail only, with- 
out pins either of iron or wood, there appears no defi- 
ciency of strength and security in the work. Most of 
the floors in the palace are boarded; and from the 
great breadth of some of the planks, we judged the 
trees to have been of much larger size than any we had 
met with. They have also floors composed of pebbles, 
well cemented together. The walls are whitewashed, 
with a stripe of red all round, a little below the roof. 
Upon the top of every chapel, or other place where 
there is an altar and service performed, a small cylin- 
der is placed, five or six feet long, usually covered 
