"The funniest thing yet," said Frank. "We went through Tokio and Kioto in jinrikishas; we rode on a wheelbarrow in Shanghai; we were carried in sedan-chairs in Canton and Hong-kong; and here we are seeing the ruins of Ayuthia from the back of an elephant. Wonder what we shall do next in the way of novel travelling!"
But though greatly enjoying their ride, they did not forget that they were out for an excursion through a city, or rather through what was once a city. And the magnitude and extent of the ruins impressed them greatly, and showed what a magnificent place Ayuthia must have been in the days of its glory.
NEAR THE PALACE.
The streets and yards, and even the houses, were overgrown with tropical trees that had been undisturbed for a hundred years and more; that they had made good use of their time, was everywhere apparent in the crumbling walls and the fallen towers that rose before the eyes of the visitors wherever they were turned. In several instances the bushes and climbing plants had completely covered the towers of the temples, and made them appear more like a great mass of verdure than a structure of brick and mortar.
IN THE RUINED CITY.
At one place the party descended from their elephants and went to the top of a wing of the former palace of Ayuthia. From the summit the view was extensive, and of a character not easy to describe. Frank thought it was not greatly unlike the view from the tower of Wat Seh Kate at Bangkok, as the abundance of trees made it difficult to see much more than the spires of the pagodas; and this was the most that could be seen in Ayuthia. But as he looked directly below him, he saw that the streets and court-yards were desolate, and he missed the throng of people that made the streets of Bangkok alive. Many parts of the palace were in a good state of preservation, and it seemed a pity that the city could not be repaired and peopled as it was of old.