earn spiritual merit, by adding something to the national
pagoda, should be denied, and that the sum now paid
for permission to erect one of these little shrines is a
valuable addition to the resources of the pagoda.
As one walks round the face of the edifice one is
struck by the variety of strange creatures that ornament
it. Here there are sphinxes and leogryphs, which hark
back in their origin to Nineveh ; dragons with large
eyeballs and pointed tongues ; and elephants that kneel
in attitudes of - adoration. There are trees of gold
with crystal fruit, begging bowls of glass mosaic, stone
umbrellas of great antiquity, and altars upon which
the floral offerings of the pious exhale strange perfumes
into the air. Astronomical lore is manifested in the
tall vermilion posts, inscribed in gold with the names
and symbols of the sun, the moon, and the planets; and
at intervals there are square tanks of masonry, into
which the drainage of the pagoda charged with golden
dust is borne. Hundreds of pounds’ worth of gold are
recovered from the residue of mire that remains in
them each year when the waters have run off
At each of the cardinal points, with their backs to
the pagoda and their faces set towards the four
approaches to the shrine, there stand, open to the visits
of the devout, tazoungs, or chapels, with multiple tapering
roofs, supported on lofty pillars of mosaic and gold.
Within, there are seated images of the Buddha, some
of them so charged with gold that all trace of features
has been obliterated. Within the gloom of these
chapels, countless tapers flicker, lighting up the marbie,
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FROM TH E WEST