hills are lit by the sunshine, free to roam over them;
and the colouring is as tender as that of the hills beyond
Florence as Turner saw them on a spring day from
Fiesole. Eastwards, in the direction of the ancient city
° u hare Kettaya— l°ng dead— spreads a lowland country
rich with groves of tamarind and drooping palms, and
rice-fields flooded with the rain.
The pagoda itself is a mass o f gold, and the foursquare
platform, with an area of 12,000 feet, is set
about with chapels richly carved, in' which are countless
figures of the Buddha in the three attitudes in which the
great teacher is depicted. His features run the gamut
of a face in contemplation, from sensual lips and the
coarse profile that come from India, to the idealised
being conceived by the artistic soul of the people.
There are rows of bells, slung from wooden crossbeams
and inscribed with pious texts and the names of those
who gave them; there are masses of gold mosaic which
coruscate in the sun, trees of red-gold bearing green and
purple fruit, and at the eight points of the compass the
symbols of the planets, depicted in gold on scarlet
pillars.
An old blind beggar, crouching on the flagstones
of the platform, looks up at the pagoda, and asks an
alms with astonishing fervour and energy. You would
not know that he was doing so, for he appears to be
addressing the golden bulb before him. Protruding
mobile lips, concentrated air, furrowed brow, stentorious.
voice— surely a very singular figure.
Worshippers passing by clang the bells with deer-
274
horns ; in a remote side-chapel a woman and her pretty
daughter, holding flowers in their hands, pray alone
before a company of colossal Buddhas. The last rays
of the setting sun fall on the red-gold fabric, wrapping
it in a haze of glory ; the fresh, rain-clear air blows
amongst the little bells ; trays of delicate pink flowers
MAN IPU R I ASTROLOGERS
on altars exhale faint odours ; all is serene and strangely
beautiful, here on this noble summit under the spaces
of heaven.
It is little wonder they come up here to worship.
Little wonder that they do not wish to change their
faith, and all it means to them, for any other on earth.
As the stars come out, and the dusk of evening- .O