prince lived here. The town was neat, and had a nice open grassy space
like a village green, on which stood a magnificent fig-tree (allied to
the Banyan of India, but more lofty), under whose shade a kind of market
is continually held, and where the inhabitants meet together to lounge
and chat. The day after my arrival, Mr. Ball drove me over to the
village of Modjo-agong, where he was building a house and premises
for the tobacco trade, which is carried on here by a system of native
cultivation and advance purchase, somewhat similar to the indigo trade
in British India. On our way we stayed to look at a fragment of the
ruins of the ancient city of Modjo-pahit, consisting of two lofty brick
masses, apparently the sides of a gateway. The extreme perfection and
beauty of the brickwork astonished me. The bricks are exceedingly fine
and hard, with sharp angles and true surfaces. They are laid with
great exactness, without visible mortar or cement, yet somehow fastened
together so that the joints are hardly perceptible, and sometimes the
two surfaces coalesce in a most incomprehensible manner.
Such admirable brickwork I have never seen before or since. There was no
sculpture here, but an abundance of bold projections and finely-worked
mouldings. Traces of buildings exist for many miles in every direction,
and almost every road and pathway shows a foundation of brickwork
beneath it--the paved roads of the old city. In the house of the Waidono
or district chief at Modjo-agong, I saw a beautiful figure carved in
high relief out of a block of lava, and which had been found buried in
the ground near the village. On my expressing a wish to obtain some
such specimen, Mr. B. asked the chief for it, and much to my surprise he
immediately gave it me. It represented the Hindu goddess Durga, called
in Java, Lora Jong-grang (the exalted virgin). She has eight arms, and
stands on the back of a kneeling bull. Her lower right hand holds the
tail of the bull, while the corresponding left hand grasps the hair of a
captive, Dewth Mahikusor, the personification of vice, who has attempted
to slay her bull. He has a cord round his waist, and crouches at her
feet in an attitude of supplication. The other hands of the goddess
hold, on her right side, a double hook or small anchor, a broad straight
sword, and a noose of thick cord; on her left, a girdle or armlet of
large beads or shells, an unstrung bow, and a standard or war flag. This
deity was a special favourite among the old Javanese, and her image is
often found in the ruined temples which abound in the eastern part of
the island.
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