The palaces are built on much the same model, and their gates are often guarded by gigantic figures carved in stone. At the door of the Hall of Audience at Bangkok are two figures made of granite. They are sixty feet in height, and represent men with the tails of fish projecting from the spine. In fact, they are almost exact reproductions of the Assyrian Dagon, as it is represented on the Nineveh sculptures.

The funeral pile on (or rather in) which is burned the body of a king or any of the royal family, is built on the same principle as the temples, and is in fact a temple, though made of combustible materials. There is before me a photograph of the funeral pile which was made for the body of the First King’s son, and another of a pile erected for the purpose of consuming the body of his wife. They are very similar in appearance, being temples made of wood and canvas, covered with gilt paper. They are about a hundred and twenty feet in height, and on the photograph, where the nature of the material is not shown, look like magnificent specimens of Siamese architecture.

The central spire, terminated with its royal emblem, rises in the centre, and round it are clustered gables, roofs, pinnacles, and pillars, in bewildering profusion.

The door is guarded by two gigantic statues, and the body lies in the centre of the building, hidden by curtains. On account of the flimsiness of the materials, to all the pinnacles are attached slight ropes, which are fastened firmly to the ground, so that they act like the “stays” of a ship’s mast. Inflammable as are the wood, paper, and canvas of which the edifice is made, they are rendered still more so by being saturated with oil, tar, and similarly combustible substances. Vast, therefore, as is the building, a very short time suffices to consume it, and the intense heat reduces the corpse to a mere heap of ashes, which are gathered together, and solemnly placed in the temple dedicated to that purpose.

CHAPTER CLIX.
ANCIENT EUROPE.
THE SWISS LAKE-DWELLERS.

DISCOVERY OF THE DWELLINGS AND RELICS — MODE OF BUILDING THE HOUSES — POPULATION OF THE LAKES — GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE RELICS.

Many of my readers may be aware of the remarkable discovery that was made in 1853-4, showing that even in Europe there lived, at one time, a race of men having exactly the same habits as the swamp-dwellers of New Guinea, or the lake-dwellers of Maracaibo on the Amazon. During the winter months of those two years, the weather in Switzerland was very dry and very cold, so that the rivers did not receive their usual supplies of water. Consequently, the water in the lakes fell far below its usual level, and this disclosed the remarkable fact that in those lakes had once been assemblages of human habitations, built upon piles driven into the bed of the lake.

These houses, appropriately called “Pfahlbauten,” or Pile-buildings, were, as their name implies, built upon piles; and it is a most interesting fact, that not only have the piles been discovered, on which the houses were built, but also fragments of the walls of those houses; many specimens of the weapons and implements of the inhabitants, their ornaments, and even their food, have been brought to light, after having been buried for centuries beneath the water.

The resemblance, not to say the identity, between many articles found under the waters of the Swiss lakes and those which are still used by savage tribes of the Western hemisphere is absolutely startling; and not the least remarkable point about the relics which have just been discovered is, that several of them are identical with inventions which we fondly deem to be modern.

The chief part of these lake-dwellings was constructed during the Stone period, i. e. a period when axes, spear-heads, etc., were made of stone, the use of fire being unknown. This is proved by the quantity of stone weapons and implements which have been found in the lakes. That various improvements have been made in the architecture is also shown by the difference in details of construction.