e temples in
Japan, or, indeed, anywhere, though Ceylon and India may suggest
comparisons.

What will strike the visitor as he perambulates these miles of
sculptured terraces is the complete absence of any offensive or indecent
figure. Mere nudity is not, of course, an outrage to the artistic soul;
but here there is not even a nude or grotesque figure. Each is draped in
the fine flowing robes of the East, not in monotonous regularity but
suggestive of prince and peasant, princess and maids, down even to the
jewels they wear. Strangely enough, no particularly Javanese type of
face or figure is represented--all are Hindu, Hindu-Caucasian and pure
Greek.

It is not our purpose to give elaborate details of this work of
religious art. The visitor may obtain at Djocjakarta a copy of Dr.
Groneman's learned treatise on the subject, a treatise which will teach
him something about Buddhism as well as the Boro Budur, of which Dr.
Groneman has made an exhaustive study. With his guide, the sculptures
become an open book to the visitor.

It is more archaeological than descriptive, however, and we must
acknowledge our indebtedness again to Miss Scidmore for the following
passage to show the scope of the sculptures:--

[Illustration]

"The everyday life of the seventh and eighth century is
pictured--temples, palaces, thrones and tombs, ship and houses,
all of man's constructions are portrayed. The life in courts and
palaces, in fields and villages, is all seen there. Royal folk
in wonderful jewels sit enthroned, with minions offering gifts
and burning incense before them warriors kneeling and maidens
dancing. The peasant ploughs the rice-fields with the same
wooden stick and ungainly buffalo, and carries the rice-sheaves
from the harvest field with the same shoulder poles, used in
all the farther East to-day. Women fill their water-vessels at
the tanks and bear them away on their heads as in India now, and
scores of bas-reliefs show the unchanging costumes of the East
that offer sculptors the same models in this century. Half the
wonders of that great three-mile-long gallery of sculptures
cannot be recalled. Each round disclosed some more wonderful
picture, some more eloquent story. Even the humorous fancies of
the sculptors are expressed in stone. In one relievo a
splendidly caparisoned state elephant flings its feet in
imitation of the dancing girl ne