Page:Picturesque Nepal.djvu/125

sordid streets and mean dwellings, with here and there a lattice window, carved doorway, or quaint hanging lamp, holding out a promise of better things. At a cross street a shrine comes into view, with crimson draperies, bright brass entrance, glittering metal pinnacle, painted woodwork, brackets of caryatid deities bristling with arms, and a large bronze bell supported by rampant dragons. This is the first introduction to the real Bhatgaon, the ancient seat of the Newar kings. From this one passes through winding streets of old wood and brick houses, each dwelling displaying some different form of ornate carving in window or doorway, and each placed at an apparently fortuitous angle. Gradually the buildings become larger and more important, and the decoration more profuse as the centre of the city is reached. Then a whole street of overhanging balconies and wooden colonnades comes into view, with doorways crowned by heavily carved tympanums of deities and devils, and lattice windows with peacocks cunningly carved posing in the centres, until we suddenly debouch into the durbar square