where these countries borrowed they also returned, and both China and Tibet reciprocated by an interchange of artistic ideas. A curious example of this may be observed on a temple in the city of Patan, where a conventional representation of a bat occupies a prominent position in the doorway. It had no significance to the Newars, but in China it is a punning emblem of happiness. This, however, is only one incident, although an interesting one, but to the students of the arts of the Orient, the work of the Newars may be said to illustrate an incomplete story, the missing chapters of which await their scribe.
The highest forms of Nepalese art are represented by two different methods of expression—painted pictures and metal statuary. In the Valley itself, for reasons which are not quite clear, specimens of the former craft are not numerous, although the State Library at Katmandu possesses a small collection which is most instructive. It demonstrates that in the art of picture-painting the old artist-priests of the Valley produced work of a very fine order, and this was no doubt the foundation
