SCO 
A TRIP TO PROBOIJNGGO. 
for hidden treasures has led to this rude excavation in recent times, 
the solid brick work having clearly been dug out with iron crow bars. 
Behind the supposed altar is now found an opening through the 
thick wall, into which I could just creep and look out at the 
eastern facade. If there was originally an opening here, it must 
have been much smaller than at present, as the sides are now rug¬ 
ged and uneven from the brick work having been pulled out. There 
are holes and marks which show that the doorway was once fitted 
with an appropriate means of closing it. 
In the centre of the lower part of the building, and thus nearly 
perpendicularly under the temple above described, is a quadrangu¬ 
lar chamber 5 feet 8 in. square and 9 feet in height, in the midst of 
the thick brick work, to which, when the temple was in its perfect 
state, there can have been no admittance. The same inquisitiveness 
which caused the floor of the temple to be quarried out, has led to 
an aperture being made, at the level of the ground, from the east¬ 
ern fac£, to this hidden chamber. The jagged opening was just 
large enough to allow me to creep into the dark recess, which I 
found tenanted by bats. The thickness of the brick work, from the 
outside, to this chamber is 11 feet 4 inches, and it must have been 
at a guess that the depredators broke into the place. 
The building has been originally covered with ornamental devices, 
images and tracery cut into the brick.—These now are mostly oblite¬ 
rated and worn away, but in their place you can still detect figures of 
the co w and of human beings ; and round the lower part runs a border, 
upwards of a foot broad, representing tigers and fanciful flower work. 
It is my impression and belief that the whole building has been ori¬ 
ginally covered, both inside and out, with fine plaster. We know with 
what perfection the natives of India, even at this day, prepare and 
lay on their Chunam plaster, polishing it till it rivalshhe smoothness 
of marble. In the native provinces on the temples built of hewn 
trachyte rock may yet be found traces of their having been plastered 
over, more particularly at Chandi Sari near Kambanan ; how much 
more likely then is it, that the buildings of brick should have been 
similarly treated. On close examination I found, both inside the 
temple and out, small particles of plaster still adhering to the walls, 
and which I proved to he such by detatching it with the point of 
a penknife, lliese bits of plaster on the outside I discovered on 
the southern face, on some of the figures of men and beasts, where 
the insertion of the limbs formed sheltered crevices. 
