ges,
combined with the incapacity of our brown driver, eventually land us at
Mendoet, on the wrong side of the turbid stream--the Jordan which
divides the weary traveller from his Land of Promise. Evening draws on,
the clear sky flushes pink above the darkness of the palm-woods, and
hope sinks apace, for the surging flood shows no sign of abatement.
Suddenly the apathetic driver rouses himself from what proves a
profitable meditation, and, with folded hands, breathes the magic word
_pasteur_, whipping up his sorry steeds to fresh exertions. We draw up
at a white bungalow on the roadside, close to a rustic church, and find
a friend in an English-speaking Dutch priest, who, after giving us tea
on his verandah, suggests inspection of Mendoet's little moated
temple, on the edge of the forest. An ever-growing tangle of lianas and
vines buried this ancient shrine through the lapse of ages, until
accident revealed the entombed sanctuary about eighty years ago. A
processional terrace surrounds the walled pavement supporting the grey
edifice, and the sculptured bas-reliefs denote the transitional stage
of Buddhist faith, as it materialised through Jainism into the Puranic
mythology of Hindu creed. The central chapel contains the famous
picture in stone known as "The Tree of Knowledge," and represents the
Buddha beneath the sacred Bo-Tree of Gaya. A fluted _pajong_, propped
against the boughs, canopies his head, one hand being raised in
benediction over kneeling converts, offering rice and incense.
Listening angels hover overhead, birds peep out from nests among the
leaves, and kids lean with necks outstretched over fretted crags,
magnetised by the mystic attraction of the inspired Teacher. Long-eared
statues show Nepalese influence, even the Buddhist images being girt
with the sacred cord of Brahma. A controversy exists as to their
identification with the Hindu Trinity, but as Eastern cults frequently
bestow Divine attributes on mortals, the mysterious figures may
possibly represent the murdered wives of the Rajah who founded the
Mendoet temple in expiation of his crime. Another legend suggests the
petrification of a princely family, as a punishment for marrying
within the forbidden degrees, but myth grows apace in this haunted
land, and every century offers fresh variations of old-world stories,
until original form is lost beneath a weight of accretion, like the
thick moss blurring the chiselled outlines of some carven monument.