Page:Picturesque Nepal.djvu/125

 sordid streets and mean dwellings, with here and there a lattice window, carved doorway,  or quaint hanging lamp, holding out a promise  of better things. At a cross street a shrine comes into view, with crimson draperies,  bright brass entrance, glittering metal pinnacle,  painted woodwork, brackets of caryatid  deities bristling with arms, and a large bronze  bell supported by rampant dragons. This is the first introduction to the real Bhatgaon,  the ancient seat of the Newar kings. From this one passes through winding streets of old  wood and brick houses, each dwelling displaying some different form of ornate carving  in window or doorway, and each placed at  an apparently fortuitous angle. Gradually the buildings become larger and more important,  and the decoration more profuse as the centre  of the city is reached. Then a whole street of overhanging balconies and wooden colonnades  comes into view, with doorways crowned by  heavily carved tympanums of deities and  devils, and lattice windows with peacocks  cunningly carved posing in the centres, until  we suddenly debouch into the durbar square