GROTTOES.
Quitting this hill, we proceeded to another, like it an extinct volcano or upheaved crater. Here are four or five grottoes, two of which are of surprising extent, and extremely picturesque. A painting which represented them faithfully would be supposed the offspring of a fertile imagination; no one would believe it to be natural. The rocks, long in a state of fusion, have taken, in cooling, those singular forms peculiar to scoria and basalt. Then, after the sea had retreated—for all these rocks have risen from the bottom of the water—owing to the moisture continually dripping through the damp soil, they have taken the richest and most harmonious colours. These grottoes, moreover, are adorned by such splendid stalactites, which, like columns, seem to sustain the walls and roofs, that one might fancy oneself present at one of the beautiful fairy scenes represented at Christmas in the London theatres.
If the taste of the architect of the king’s palace has failed in the design of its interior, here, at least, he has made the best of all the advantages offered to him by nature. A hammer touching the walls would have disfigured them; he had only to level the ground, and to make staircases to aid the descent into the grottoes, and enable the visitor to see them in all their beauty.
Drawn by M. Bocourt, from a Photograph.
GROTTO AT PECHABURI.
The largest and most picturesque of the caverns has been made into a temple. All along the sides are rows of idols, one of superior size, representing Buddha asleep, being gilt.
We came down from the mountain just at the moment of the king’s arrival. Although his stay was not intended to exceed two days, he was preceded by a hundred slaves carrying an immense number of coffers, boxes, baskets, &c. A disorderly troop of soldiers marched both in front and behind, dressed in the most singular and ridiculous costumes imaginable. The emperor Soulouque himself would have laughed, for certainly his old guard must have made a better appearance than that of his East Indian brother. Nothing could give a better idea of this set of tatterdemalions than the dressed-up monkeys which dance upon the organs of the little Savoyards. Their apparel of coarse red cloth upper garments, which left a part of the body exposed, in every case either too large or too small, too long or too short, with white shakos, and pantaloons of various colours; as for shoes, they were a luxury enjoyed by few.
A few chiefs, whose appearance was quite in keeping with that of their men, were on horseback, leading this band of warriors, whilst the king, attended by slaves, slowly advanced in a little open carriage drawn by a pony.
PLAGUE OF MOSQUITOES.