The voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe; with a historical review of previous journeys along the north coast of the Old World . bo containeda large number of wooden images and paintings of gods, or menof more than human size. Most of them stood upright like aguard round a sitting Buddha. I could not observe any dislikeon the part of the priests to take the foreigner round theirtemples. The key, however, was sometimes wanting to somerepository, whose contents they were perhaps unwilling todesecrate by showing them to the unbeliever. This was, forinstance, the case with the press which cont
The voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe; with a historical review of previous journeys along the north coast of the Old World . bo containeda large number of wooden images and paintings of gods, or menof more than human size. Most of them stood upright like aguard round a sitting Buddha. I could not observe any dislikeon the part of the priests to take the foreigner round theirtemples. The key, however, was sometimes wanting to somerepository, whose contents they were perhaps unwilling todesecrate by showing them to the unbeliever. This was, forinstance, the case with the press which contained the devils 716 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. bow and arrows, in the temple at Ratnapoora. The templevessels besides were exceedingly ugly, tasteless, and ill-kept. Iseldom saw anything that showed any sign of taste, art, andorderliness. How different from Japan, where all the swords,lacquer work, braziers,-teacups, &c., kept in the better templeswould deserve a place in some of the art museums of Europe. In the sketch of the first voyage from Novaya Zemlya toCeylon, a countryman of Lidner can scarcely avoid giving a. STATUES IN A TEMPLE IN CEYLON. picture of Ceylons burned up vales. In this respect thefollowing extract from a letter from Dr. Almquist, sketching hisjourney to the interior of the island may be instructive :— Three hours after our arrival at Point de Galle I sat properlystowed away in the mail-coach en route for Colombo. Astravelling companions I had a European and two it was already pretty dusk in the evening there was not muchof the surrounding landscape visible. We went on the whole XIX.] DK. ALMQUISTS EXCURSION. 717 night through a forest of tall coco-nut trees whose dark topswere visible far up in the air against the somewhat lighter was peculiar to see the number of fire-flies flying in everydirection, and at every wing-stroke emiting a bright flash. Thenight air had the warm moistness which is so agreeable in thetropics. Now an
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