562 
A TRIP TO PROBOLINGGO. 
mains now a mystery and conjecture. The arrangement of the bricks 
is not always attended to with equal care; in the interior you may 
often observe the joinings continuous and in one line through three 
or four courses. 
The temple of Jabon stands in the garden ground of the villagers, 
and at the distance of about 500 feet to the south west is found a 
smaller and apparently subordinate Chung kup, built also ornamen¬ 
tally of brick, but containing - no internal temple or apartment, being 
as far as can be seen a solid monument. It is the same as repre¬ 
sented in Raffles 5 vignette at page 63 and is about 20 feet high. It 
was reported to us that some brick remains existed a short wav due 
west from the greater buildings, as well as some brick ruins of trifling 
importance a short distance to the southward ; night and rain how¬ 
ever coming on, we were obliged to make our retreat. 
To the origin or history of Jabon I could get no clew. There 
the edifice stands, the wonder of the present generation of men ! a 
monument of the skill and industry of a race, the memory of whom 
has long since passed into oblivion !—a dumb but lasting testimony 
of stirring scenes, and stirring beings, who have long slumbered the 
death of forgotten greatness 1 The appearance of the place leads to 
the supposition that it has been used for some religious purpose. 
Perhaps the lower and secret closed chamber, was the depository 
of some sacred relic, to which, however fantastic and trifling, we 
know that the Hindus, more particularly the Budhists, attached great 
importance. The small but nearly perfect temple at Singo Sari and 
the pyramidal building at Boro Bodur, both contain similar secret 
cells, and probably others may exist elsewhere, unknown to us. To 
what form of worship exactly Jabon was dedicated, it is now impossible 
to say, in the absence of all images. A species of Siwaism, however, 
appears to have prevailed in the latter days of paganism in Java. 
In this uncertainty, any attempt to trace an origin in the derivation 
of a name must he made with great diffidence, the more so as in 
this case the place is as often pronounced Jabong as Jabon. 1 will 
however venture to suggest that “ Ja” (Clough 203) has the mean¬ 
ing of birth, production, and as such is allegorically one of the nu¬ 
merous names of Siwa and of Vishnu—“ Bhu” is a place of being or 
abode, also the earth; these with the addition of the idiomatic Poly¬ 
nesian an, would contract into “ Jabhon”—Siwa or Vishnu’s abode. 
It was reported to me, by Mr. Barnevcld, that there existed in some 
of the cane fields in the neighbourhood, a large stone image, appa- 
