DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4651#0430
IN THE BURMHAN EMPIRE. 417
of air and light at different heights. To get to
the second story, it was necessary to creep along
a cornice, ahout fourteen feet above the pavement,
and only sixteen inches broad, a risk which neither
our devotion or curiosity could tempt us to en-
counter. I have only to add, that the avenues to
the inner cloister, had great folding grated gates ;
but the only precautions used, are seemingly in-
tended to keep out cattle. We were permitted to
traverse and examine every thing without moles-
tation ; a few persons, who, I suppose, were slaves
to the pagoda, attending us out of curiosity. How-
ever, to reconcile them to our measuring, <^c, I
told them we had nothing of the kind in our coun-
try ; and if I was not particular in writing down
the length, breadth. <^c, the people there would
not believe that there was such a building in the
world. In the two galleries of the lower story, I
think there are at least 2,000 images in the niches,
of stone and wood gilt, the carving tolerable ; and
in little compartments on the outside of the sur-
base, were figures in relief, of green varnished
pottery, and also on the frieze of the cornice.
The prince of Pcgaam has a house here; or, as
it is called in the language of the country, a
palace, surrounded by a mat enclosure : but we
were not permitted to examine it. Near the
river, are a number of betel gardens, covered
over as in Hindostan, and apparently diligently
of air and light at different heights. To get to
the second story, it was necessary to creep along
a cornice, ahout fourteen feet above the pavement,
and only sixteen inches broad, a risk which neither
our devotion or curiosity could tempt us to en-
counter. I have only to add, that the avenues to
the inner cloister, had great folding grated gates ;
but the only precautions used, are seemingly in-
tended to keep out cattle. We were permitted to
traverse and examine every thing without moles-
tation ; a few persons, who, I suppose, were slaves
to the pagoda, attending us out of curiosity. How-
ever, to reconcile them to our measuring, <^c, I
told them we had nothing of the kind in our coun-
try ; and if I was not particular in writing down
the length, breadth. <^c, the people there would
not believe that there was such a building in the
world. In the two galleries of the lower story, I
think there are at least 2,000 images in the niches,
of stone and wood gilt, the carving tolerable ; and
in little compartments on the outside of the sur-
base, were figures in relief, of green varnished
pottery, and also on the frieze of the cornice.
The prince of Pcgaam has a house here; or, as
it is called in the language of the country, a
palace, surrounded by a mat enclosure : but we
were not permitted to examine it. Near the
river, are a number of betel gardens, covered
over as in Hindostan, and apparently diligently