continually held, and where the inhabitants meet together to lounge and chat.
The day after my arrival, Mr. Ball drove me over to the village of Modjo-agong,
where he was building a house and premises for the tobacco trade, which is
carried on here by a system of native cultivation and advance purchase,
somewhat similar to the indigo trade in British India. On our way we stayed to
look at a fragment of the ruins of the ancient city of Modjo-pahit, consisting of
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 cement, yet somehow fastened
together so that the joints are hardly perceptible, and sometimes the two surfaces
coalesce in a most incomprehensible manner.
Such admirable brickwork I have never seen before or since. There was no
sculpture here, but an 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 Hindu
goddess Durga, called in Java, Lora Jong-grang (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.
The specimen I had obtained was a small one, about two feet high, weighing
perhaps a hundredweight; and the next day we had it conveyed to Modjo-Kerto
to await my return to Sourabaya. Having decided to stay some time at
Wonosalem, on the lower slopes of the Arjuna Mountain, where I was informed
I should find forest and plenty of game, I had first to obtain a recommendation
from the Assistant Resident to the Regent, and then an order from the Regent to