Evening star., 1924-10-26


for 80 many pieces OF cloth.
Such was Angkor- once. OF all its
| splendor, only gray ruins buried in a
! lonely jungle are left. OF tho Royal
Palace but d wall or two remaina.
a broken gate or two. where biack
velvet butterflies hide from tho noon
day heat The Elephant Terrace. with
its supporting wall sculptured with a
long procession OF life like elephants.
! and the Terrace OF the Leper King
so-called. are oYergrown with trees
and brush. few temples rise here
and there in the northern part OF the
! city. Now and then / came sn
crumbled tower or yawning gate,
! leading only from the forest into the
forest.
1t must have been on some day
| when the too gay and careless, city
was observing one Of it's countless
holidays. when the watch-towers on
| the walls were empty of guards and
the guards at the gates had deserted
| their posts to join in the festivities.
! that word came of the enemy march
ing upon Angkor Thom.
Weakened by d century of warning
| with the CHAINS, the khmers could
not resist this new invasion of Siam
| ese and That's. They fed precipitantly
away, to establish some lesser capital
! for short time in the south, but
! for the modern Cambodians are a diff
! ferent people.
On their heels the Siamese took
! possession of the royal city and III
wanton destruction pulled down many
! Of the khmer monuments. One Sculp-
| tured relief on the walls Of the RayOn
| shows the method of using elephants
| to this end. Two elephants are break
ing the arms of the statue Of a god
(1Sc Ia al
! with axes
After the wrack of war came pill
| lage. Treasure hunters carried of
| everything they could lay hands on
The khmers had strengthened their
buildings at points where pressure
was exerted, by iron clamps, soldered
| into holes in the stone Thieves
systematically pulled everything down
| for the sake of the metal. At last, as
| the population of the whole territory
| died out, Angkor was left unmolested
| and the jungle came in and finished
| the work of destruction.
| On one of the days when I was a.
Angkor. the delegate at Siem-Reap
t sent UP two elephants and d Cambo-
| dian guide who spoke French, SO thai
y! ! might visit some of the moro re
mote ruins outside Angkor Thom
| The guide explained that one of the
| elephants was the aunt and the other
| the niece.
RY means of a high platform /
| ~ climbed into the howdah on the
. back of the aunt, who was recon-
| mended as having the smoother gait
The guide and Tick, my Cambodian
body-guard and cook, rode the niece.
\ driver was perched on the head of
each elephant. armed with a short
pick with an iron hook, exactly like
the picks of the elephant drivers
carved on the walls Of the Bayon.
With this pick my driver KEPT
probing the elephant along and push
ing her trunk down whenever she
took il into her head to scratch her
ears. For as We passed slowly down
the road from the bungalow, through
the city and then out through the
northern gate. the mosquitoes made
her life miserable.
Presently We turned off the road
into path leading through a dense
tropical forest. and at the end of an
hour reached the outskirts of Prah
Khan. the temple of the sacred sword
of sovereignty and the royal residence
| before the building of Angkor Thorn.
! Giant trees shot up for more than a
hundred feet, and here the whole
forest was interlaced with sprawl
| ing lianas and heavy vines. Orchids
Win riOlOuS sprays OF blossom cl0nS
to the high branches.
Damp moss and creepers trailed
under foot. The driver slid down the
| elephants trunk and brought a lad
der and placed it against her side. 4
very faint path took us into the midst
of unutterable disaster. All the stones
were buried deep in moss. Monster
trees grew through the doors and
covered the whole chaos Of walls and
| do
the dark passages huge bats flew
hurriedly past on leathern wings.
Here. too, ] found the same cary
| ings of sacred dancers, the same
great faces of Brahma and all the
beautiful and luxuriant ornamentation
to the fashioning of which the khmer
Scu'ptors gave themselves with unrc-
mittins labor through many centur-
les. But Prah Khan lies in its grave.
The task of eXtricating these vast
! ruins from the jungle which has
grown up about them is beyond hu-
man accomplishment.
The next day was my last at Ane-
kor, and on that day a deluge fell
)ut of the sky. l saw tropical ma
ture. terrible and strong, and man
pitifully weak. The five towers of
Angkor Wat were wiSps of shadow.
In the sunlight the great ruins of
Angkor have mournful beauty. They
| seem. then, to have attained the
peace of eternity. But in the rain
they become like graves washed
open
One should see them only in the
fierce sunlight or on such night as
that of which Pierre Lott wrote: In
the depths of the forests and Siam,
I have seen the evening star rise
over the ruins of mysterious Angkor"
Copyright 1924