Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/237

smaller ones, headless and disfigured. Another very important figure, to the right of the broken altar, is that of an elephant, about six feet high, in a sitting posture, on a pedestal, round which is an ornamental circle of skulls. The head of the animal is surmounted by a conical-shaped crown, surrounded by two bands, in the centre of which are minor crowns. The feet and hands are like human ones, and from the ears, which are large and flabby, are suspended death's heads. In each hand is held a bowl beautifully chiselled, one of them partially hidden behind the long proboscis. This figure is known by the names of Siewah and Durga, and is frequently seen in Java. Whether the live elephants which served as models were imported from Sumatra by the Buddhists, or whether that island, according to the native idea, was connected with that of Java, and these animals roamed at large throughout the whole land, is subject for conjecture; but this we know for a fact, that at the