Page:Picturesque Nepal.djvu/278

 brass or carved wood, is in cases boldly executed in burnt clay with the details sharply modelled in this plastic material. Niches with figures, dragons, and foliage, running borders of snakes, finials of crowing cocks, and all the ornamental additions characteristic of a brick architecture are to be observed, while one curious accessory to many of the temples, also in terra-cotta, smacks not a little of Celestial influence. This is a small figure of an elephant, spiritedly modelled in clay, and usually placed in a position occupied by a flower-pot, for out of a hole in its broad back sprout bulbous plants, displaying a most quaint effect. Terra-cotta is sometimes used in place of wood or metal for the sake of economy, and in place of the metal lamp hanging in front of a building, this takes the form of a similar article in burnt clay, exactly the same design being followed by the potter in his material as employed by the metalworker in producing his brass casting.

Except in a few instances, the stone-carving of the Newar craftsman is not quite of the high quality as shown in his wood and metal