four flights of stone steps were made up the mountain
from opposite directions, each flight consisting of more
than a thousand steps. Traces of nearly four hundred
temples have been found here, and many (perhaps all)
were decorated with rich and delicate sculptures. The
whole country between this and Brambanam, a distance
of sixty miles, abounds with ruins ; so that fine, sculptured
images may be seen lying in the ditches, or built into
the walls of enclosures.
In the eastern part of Java, at Kediri and in Malang,
there are equally abundant traces of antiquity, but the
buildings themselves have been mostly destroyed. Sculptured
figures, however, abound; and the ruins of forts,
palaces, baths, aqueducts, and temples, can be everywhere
traced. It is altogether contrary to the plan of this book
to describe what I have not myself seen; but, having been
led to mention them, I felt bound to do something to call
attention to these marvellous works of art. One is overwhelmed
by the contemplation of these innumerable
sculptures, worked with delicacy and artistic feeling in
a hard, intractable, trachytic rock, and all found in one
tropical island. What could have been the state of society,
what the amount of population, what the means of subsistence
which rendered such gigantic works possible, will,
perhaps, ever remain a mystery; and it is a wonderful
example of the power of religious ideas in social life, that
in the very country where, five hundred, years ago, these
errand works were being yearly executed, the inhabitants
now only build rude houses of bamboo and thatch, and
look upon these relics of their forefathers with ignorant
amazement, as the undoubted productions of giants or of
demons. It is much to be regretted that the Dutch
Government do not take vigorous steps for the preservation
of these ruins from the destroying agency of tropical
vegetation ; and for the collection of the fine sculptures
which are everywhere scattered over the land.
Wonosalem is situated about a thousand feet above the
sea, but unfortunately it is at a distance from the forest,
and is surrounded by coffee-plantations, thickets of bamboo,
and coarse grasses. It was too far to walk back daily to the
forest, and in other directions I could find no collecting
ground for insects. The place was, however, famous for
peacocks, and my boy soon shot several of these magnificent
birds, whose flesh we found to be tender, white, and
delicate, and similar to that of a turkey. The Java
peacock is a different species from that of India, the neck
being covered with scale-like green feathers, and the crest
of a different form ; but. the eyed train is equally large and
equally beautiful. It is a singular fact in geographical
distribution that the peacock should not be found in
Sumatra or Borneo, while the superb Argus, Fire-backed,