Page:Randolph, Paschal Beverly; Eulis! the history of love.djvu/201

196 peculiar to the 'initiated.' The pagoda of Juthia is more celebrated for its sacredness than its size, or the splendor of its architecture. It is, nevertheless, a building of some very striking features. It is situated without the city, upon a broad and commanding terrace, elevated considerably above the level of the river-plains. It is approached from the city by a long, brick-paved avenue, wide, straight, and imposing.

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"Soondatch and Woun-Tajac, each holding me by an arm, now directed me toward one of the doorways of the temple. It was guarded by two men, with drawn swords, and very fierce aspect, who stood in front of a heavy drapery of red cloth that concealed the interior of the temple from outside eyes. At a triple password these men admitted my companions, but crossed their swords before my breast. Soondatch whispered in the ear of the elder of the two; he started, gazed at me intently, but did not withdraw his barrier. Woun showed him a signet. He took it, and reverently placed it upon his forehead; yet still he refused to admit me. There was a controversy between the doorkeeper and my companions; and, at last, the elder guardian whistled shrilly upon a bone-pipe tied about his neck with a strand of silk. A tall man suddenly appeared, I could not see from whence. He was middle-aged, athletic, and had a most peculiar, cunning, self-possessed look of person and intelligence.

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exclaimed both of my companions at once; but the man, who was naked, except for a breech-clout, took no notice of them. He put his band heavily, but not unkindly, upon my breast, gave me a piercing, long look, and said in excellent French, 'Are you a brave man?'—'Try me!' I said. Instantly, without another word, he bandaged my eyes with a part of the long white robe I wore; he snapped his fingers suddenly, whispering in my ears, 'Not a word, for your life!' and the next moment I found myself seized in the hands of several strong men, and borne some distance along a devious way, ascending and descending several times. At last I was put down; the bandage was quietly removed; and I found myself squatted on a stone-floor, between Soondatch and Woun-Tajac, who, with bowed heads, and faces partly shrouded in their white robes, squatted like statues of Buddha, their knees and shins close to the ground, their haunches resting upon their heels, their hands spread palms downward upon their knees, their eyes deflected, and a look of devout reverence and abstracted meditation in their countenances. The light was dim to my unaccustomed eyes, but all around, as far as I could see, were white-robed worshippers crouched in the same attitude of silent reverence.

"By degrees, as my eyes grew used to the dim gloom, I began to look about me. The place was a square vault, so lofty that I could not see the ceiling, and I should say not less than a hundred paces long and wide. All around the sides rose gigantic columns, carved into images of Buddha always, yet with a thousand variations from the central plan, a thousand freaks of fancy, a thousand grotesqueries, through which shone, the more effectively for the departures, the eternal calm, the stagnant, imperturbed ecstasy of apathy of Buddha's remarkable face, with the great pendant ears, and the eyes looking out beyond you into the supreme wistlessness of Nieban—a face that once seen can never be forgotten. By degrees I came to see the plan of this evidently subterranean vault, and to look with wonder upon the simple grandeur of its massive architecture, which was severely plain, except so far as the carving of the great columns went. At the farthest end of the hall, resting against the columns, was a raised dais or platform, covered with red cloth. This stage was raised between three and four feet above the floor of the vault, and was about thirty-five or forty feet deep and one hundred and fifty broad. Behind it a curtain of red cloth hung down from the capitals of the towering columns. In front of the stage, just about the spot