The same outline is found in the crowning members of the pagodas of Bangkok, but they are covered with an elaboration of detail and exuberance of coloured ornament that has seldom been surpassed, nor is it desirable it should be, for it is here carried to an extent truly barbarous ([Woodcut No. 360]).
Notwithstanding the bad taste which they display, these Bangkok pagodas are interesting in the history of architecture as exemplifying the instinctive mode in which some races build, and the innate and irrepressible love of architecture they display. But it also shows how easily these higher aspirations degenerate into something very
360. The Great Tower of the Pagoda Wat-ching at Bangkok. (From Mouhot.)
like vulgarity, when exercised by a people in so low a stage of civilization as the modern Siamese.
361. Hall of Audience at Bangkok. (From Mouhot.)