Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-07-22

M
magical effect upon all three oil
us, fer although we have heard 90
much OF the national conveyance OF In
dia and Burnah, We have never yet
made personal trial OF it as we have OF
camels and elephants. Before railways
became general in these parts, however,
this bullock-cart was the recognized local
method OF transit, and / remember 10
have seen in the diary Of an English
officer of my acquaintance the successive
stages of his journey mp country through
Western India chronicled as follows: :
"Wassind to Pimpalgaum, October
16th.-Jolted to bits in bullock-cart."
"Pimpalgaum to Mallagaum, October
17th.-Jolted to bits in bullock-cart. "
Mallagaum TO Belgium, October
1sth.-Jolted TO bits in bullock-cart. "
And 80 on for another fortnight.
II is no easy matter to get down TO
tho water. edge, especially for ladies'.
Not only are the steps of the wooden
ladder that leads down to the raft ex-
trsmely ssaky and very wide apart, but
two or three OF them have fallen away
altogether, leaving gaps which can only
be passed by a haphazard leap, giving
the lsaper much better chance OF going
bcsslsns down into the river than OF
aiiehtins safe upon the hand 's-breadth
Of wet and dirty plank between. Butwe
all get safe aboard the raft at last, though
VIC can hardly be said to 90 clean into
it, and glide slowly across the broad,
swift, cofes-colored stream.
30 thickly do the dark masses OF palms
and underground bristle along the
further sbors that until we are more
than half way across the river We see
nothing OF the queerlittle nests of thstch
and bamboo, half buried in clustering
leaves, forming the Village" that over
looks this primitive ferry. On the crest
of the high bank, in front OF one OF the
largest huts, with circle of eager spec
tators around it, stands our bulleck-cart,
drawn by tive RumR-necked native oxen,
and driven BY . rnunt, piratical- looking
Burmese peasant with a very dirty hand
kerchief wound naturalization around
his shaggy black hair.
The cart being mere wooden tray on
wheels, containing nothing save a sloping
ridge OF hay covered with a reed mat,
and raissd pretty high above the ground.
we 90 through some very startling gym
nastics in serambling into it, to the I'M
disguised delight of the native beholders.
But at length we are all packed in, and
away We 20 along a seemingly end
less road of dark red clay, raised
by an en1bankment high above the
bare intending level of the great plain
on either side. Nor is this by any
means a superRuous precsution. for al
though at present the whole plain is dry
rs dust save few stray pools here and
there in the trenches at the foot OF the
smbankment, yet a few months hence,
when the ram falls in torrents, and the
swollen rivers come rushing down in
their might from the Pegu mountains,
this dusty road will rise like narrow
isthmus from the midst OF boundless
lake.
But the monotony Of this endless flat
is startlingly broken at one point by
strange and magnificent spectacle. Di-
rectly IN front OF IFS, and only 3 fewmiles
away, there start up from the intermina-
BILE plain five or six huge masses OF dark
gray rock many hundreds of feet in
height, forming kind Of irregular ridge
or wall. Their shapes are as extraOrdi-
nary as themselves. One has the form
of bishops mitre, another looks like
the head of n black giant rising slowly
out of the earth, while third displays
so perfect an imitation of the towers and
battlements Of an ancient castle that 1t
is hard to believe them wholly natures
work. To all appearances no living
thing could find footing upon the tre-
mendOus precipices which form the sides
of the cliff, and it is startling enough to
sec ms We come nearer that tree has
fastened its roots into every cleft of the
rock, and that the whole of this great
natural wall is one vast perpendicular
forest
A sudden turn TO the right few min
utes' humping and jolting of true Bur
mese quality along an uneven cross road,
and then we find ourselves close to the
base of the great precipice, which looks
more grim and tremendous than ever.
As We come up to it vast black cleft
yawns in its rugged side right in front of
us, bhTOuSu INV VI
which there looks down upon us the
dim outline of a mighty face filed with
tho sad and solemn calmness OF one who
has risen beyond the things of earth and
over whom neither pain nor pleasure
nor any human feeling has power any
more. We have seen those features too
often in Siam and elsewhere not to rec
osaizs at n glance the great teacher
whose name is still venerated by 300,
900, 0ss OF Buddhists twenty-four centu-
RES after his dsath-a fit sentinel, in
deed, for this ghostly cavern, which
might we'll be taken for a portal of the
world beyond the grave.
We entor this strange catacomb by
crumbliAg stair Onto the cracks of which
countlsss creepers have fastened their
why roots, but halt at the very entrance
TO wssder at a scene not easily matched,
e1Ypt perhaps in the reck cut temples
OF Northern India. Through the dim
and gho,tly twilight wherewith Dante's
weird Imagination filled the regions Of
the dead, scores Of images OF Buddha-
many o. which are OF colossal sizs-start
out from gloomy hollovs or stand like
phantom guards in the inches of the eter-
nal rsck. On the features OF each and
all rests that passionless psace which is
tho Eastern Asistics ideal bliss-that
",et gray life which knows neither Joy
nor sorrow, neither pleasure nor pain.
Nor is the temple itself unworthy OF
it. central figure. Few cathedrals, even
among the best of Italy or Spain, have
such columns and archwsys, such deep,
shsdowy porches, and grandly yaulted
roofs 1t is indeed "a temple not made
with hands" to which the age of the
most venerable abbey in France or Eng
land is as nothing Far down in the
dim interior the sombre beauty of
this natural architecture may be seen
stretching onward, onward still, as if it
would never end, while the few rays of
sunlight that struggle into this world OF
shadows from the dazzling brightness
outside give to the whole scene ON aspect
so weird and unearthly that it would
hardly seem unnatural were Buddha
himself TO rise before rs in bodily form,
surrounded nv fine LITTLE hand of chosen