TOWERS, WOOD-CARVINGS ETC. OF LOU-LAN. 643
At the distance of 68 m. S. 42° W. from the house D there is another similar palisade, 13.1 m. long, and south-west of that again yet three others like it; the last of these had evidently been a small hut.
Fig. 294.
The little rectangular house B is especially interesting. As usual it stands upon a clay platform, and its foundations consist of four powerful beams. It was in this house that we found not only the greatest quantity, but also the most beautiful, of the wood-carvings in the entire area of the ruins. The devices consist for the most part of round lotus leaves and graceful floral arabesques of a conventional pattern. Besides these, we also discovered latticed windows of different geometrical patterns and figures, turned spirals and pinnacles; these no doubt once adorned the roof of the little house, which can hardly have been anything but a temple. Amongst the objects I brought away from this place is the wooden image of a man, which I took to be an image of Buddha, though Mr. Himly doubts this. It was probably only the frame-work, or rather the core, of a figure which was cased with some other material and painted. A few faint traces of red and white on some of the planks point to their having been painted as well. From the geographical point of view it was particularly interesting to find in two pieces of carving representations of fish interwoven amongst the floral arabesques; possibly these last may
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