Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
two lofty brick masses, apparently the sides of a gateway. The extreme perfection and
beauty of the brickwork astonished me. The bricks are exceedingly fine and hard, with sharp
angles and true surfaces. They are laid with great exactness, without visible mortar or ce-
ment, yet somehow fastened together so that the joints are hardly perceptible, and some-
times the two surfaces coalesce in a most incomprehensible manner. Such admirable brick-
work I have never seen before or since. There was no sculpture here, but abundance of bold
projections and finely-worked mouldings. Traces of buildings exist for many miles in every
direction, and almost every road and pathway shows a foundation of brickwork beneath
it—the paved roads of the old city. In the house of the Waidono or district chief at Modjo-
agong, I saw a beautiful figure carved in high relief out of a block of lava, and which had
been found buried in the ground near the village. On my expressing a wish to obtain some
such specimen, Mr. B. asked the chief for it, and much to my surprise he immediately gave
it me. It represented the Hindoo goddess Durga, called in Java, Lora Jonggrang (the exalted
virgin). She has eight arms, and stands on the back of a kneeling bull. Her lower right hand
holds the tail of the bull, while the corresponding left hand grasps the hair of a captive,
Dewth Mahikusor, the personification of vice, who has attempted to slay her bull. He has a
cord round his waist, and crouches at her feet in an attitude of supplication. The other hands
of the goddess hold, on her right side, a double hook or small anchor, a broad straight
sword, and a noose of thick cord; on her left, a girdle or armlet of large beads or shells, an
unstrung bow, and a standard or war flag. This deity was a special favourite among the old
Javanese, and her image is often found in the ruined temples which abound in the eastern
part of the island.
