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 stories, which go up to make the pagoda form. The roof of the highest of these is plated with copper-gilt, and the whole is crowned by a gilt finial and umbrella. The individuals who subscribe to the support of the temple or shrine seem to vie with one another in their donations of artistic accessories, and it is not unusual to see in very richly endowed edifices one dragon or banner placed in front of another in the order in which these objects have been received by the custodian of the building. A very attractive addition to the gilded roof of the pagoda is a kind of pendant escutcheon of embossed metal hanging from the pinnacle over the cave, and which can only be described as bearing a strong resemblance to an ancient watch-fob of giant proportions. But the effect of this conception, bearing in its centre a medallion with the particular divinity worshipped at the shrine, hammered out in high relief, is opulent in the extreme.

Although the pagoda is embellished with much decoration that is pre-eminently symbolic, it does not appear that the general