olor, as the walled
enclosure in which this remarkable edifice and its attendant structures
stand. From the center of the marble-paved courtyard rises an enormous,
cone-shaped _prachadee_, round at the bottom but tapering to a long and
slender spire said to be covered with plates of gold. It certainly
looks like a solid mass of that precious metal, and at daybreak and
nightfall, when it catches the level rays of the sun, it can be seen
from afar, shining and glittering above the gorgeously colored roofs of
the temples and the many-tinted lesser spires which surround it. Close
by the gilded _prachadee_ is the _bote_ or chapel used by the king,
surmounted by a similar spire which is overlaid with sapphire-colored
plates of glass and porcelain, while a little distance away stands the
temple itself, its gilded walls set with mosaics of emerald green.
Flanking the gateways of the temple courtyard are gigantic, grotesque
figures, fully thirty feet in height, carved and colored like the
creatures of a nightmare. They represent demons and are supposed to
guard the approaches to the temple, being so placed that they glare
down ferociously on all who enter the sacred enclosure. Other figures
in marble, bronze, wood and stone, representing dolphins, storks, cows,
camels, monkeys and the various fabulous monsters of the Hindu
mythology, are scattered in apparent confusion about the temple
courtyard, producing an effect as bizarre as it is bewildering. It is
so unreal, so incredibly fantastic, that I felt that I was looking at
the papier-mache setting for a motion picture spectacle, such as
Griffith used to produce, and that the director and the cameraman would
appear shortly and end the illusion.

The interior of the main temple is extremely lofty. The walls and
rafters are of teak and the floor is covered with a matting made of
silver wire. At the far end of this imposing room an enormous,
pyramidal shrine of gold rises almost to the roof, its dazzling
brilliancy somewhat subdued by the semi-obscurity of the interior. Wat
Phra Keo is unique amongst Siamese temples in containing objects of
real value. Everything is genuine and costly, as becomes the gifts of a
king, though it must be admitted that certain of the royal offerings
which are ranged at the foot of the shrine, such as jeweled French
clocks, figurines of Sevres and Dresden porcelain, and a large marble
statue of a Roman goddess, are of doubtful appropriateness. Ranged on