Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/239

Rh beauties of the fane. The stone used is trachyte, hewn and chiselled in a superior manner. Little or no cement appears to have been employed in building, and yet in many parts the stones seem quite wedged in, or dove-tailed, as carpenters term similar work in wood. Moss and ferns cling to the walls on all sides, with here and there a large shrub rooted in the recess of the windows, or over the doorways.

The principal entrance is arched over, having two niches on each side, in which are two large figures. These being altogether of disproportionate size compared with the magnitude of the building as a whole, must, I imagine, have been found elsewhere, and recently put in their present position. Above this entrance, on the outside, stares a huge face, with large round eyes, a wide mouth, regular rows of enormous teeth shaped like leaves, and numerous ornaments bedizening the head. The stone in which it is cut is freer