A TRIP TO PROB0LINGOO. 
56 i 
The representation of this temple given at page 51 of Raffles 2d, 
vol, of the history of Java, still answers correctly to the original, 
except that the regular dome is now broken up, and from the ground 
appears a ruined heap ; the gorgon’s head over the doorway was 
also gone, leaving a vacant niche. As a building it thus remains 
pretty perfect, though the wear of centuries has not left it unscath¬ 
ed. The north eastern angle, the side next the sea, has suffered 
most from dilapidation ; here many bricks have fallen away, leav¬ 
ing others loose and crumbling. This is the point at which the 
building will eventually tumble, but as the whole is so compact and 
solid, this calamity may still be delayed for many a year. In the 
course of time, the earth appears to have worn and washed away 
from about the edifice to the depth of at least 17 inches, that being 
the height of the lowest ornamental border to the ground, the in¬ 
termediate space being occupied by eight courses of plain smooth 
brick. From this we may infer that none of the neighbourhing vol¬ 
canoes have, during the last five or six centuries, spread much tufa- 
ceous matter or ashes over this part of the country, and on the same 
grounds conclude that no very violent earthquake or disruption of 
strata has occurred, since Jabon still stands free of rents. The 
safety valves in the Ringgit, Lamongan, Semeru andBromo may 
account for this. 
As already observed, the temple of Jabon is a brick edifice; the 
only exception to this, besides the lintels and thresholds of the door¬ 
way, are lintel pieces lying over each of the false portals on the north, 
east and south. These are all composed of a kind of pudding stone, 
hewn into shape for the purpose, and which already are crumbling 
on the surface with age, whereas the greater part of the neigh¬ 
bouring bricks are fresh and firm. The bricks are of the same large 
size as those found about the ruins of Majapahit, measuring 14 inches 
long by inches broad and fully 2 inches thick. In the broken wall, 
I observed that the side of some of these bricks bore the marks of 
three fingers drawn along them when in a soft state, as is usual at 
this end of Java till the present day. The object which now a days 
is assigned for making these grooves, is to give the mortar better 
hold of the brick. As in all other ancient buildings in Java, so also 
at Jabon, no mortar or visible cement has been used is the building ; 
the bricks all fit smoothly and evenly to each other, so that in most 
instances, the point of a penknife cannot be inserted between them. 
Whether any adhesive gum, glue or paste was originally used, re- 
