these temples, 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 grand 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 does 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
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