292 EXCAVATION OF BUDDHIST SHRINES CHAP. XVIII.
terror. The representation of the thick hair by elaborately worked spiral tufts strongly reminded me of the treatment of the hair in many a sculpture of Greco-Buddhist type familiar to me from the Lahore Museum. The body appears. to have been painted dark blue, but owing to the low position of this relievo the stucco retained little of the original coating of colour. The standing figure probably represents one of the Yakshas, or divine " guardians of the gate " popular in Buddhist mythology.
The cella wall immediately adjoining this relievo group revealed a series of small fresco paintings which, by their unconventional subjects and their spirited drawing, at once attracted my attention. The one to the left of the mail-clad statue shows a woman bathing in a square tank of water, enclosed by a tesselated pavement and filled with floating lotuses. The figure is nude, except for a large red headdress resembling an Indian Pagri and profuse ornaments round the neck, arms and wrists, and is drawn with remarkable verve in simple yet graceful outlines. The right hand with its shapely fingers rests against the breasts, while the left arm is curved down towards the middle of the waist. Fourfold strings of small bells are shown hanging around the hips, just as seen in representations of dancing-girls in early Hindu sculpture ; while, curiously enough, an elaborate vine-leaf appears where post-classical convention would place its fig-leaf. The face of the bather is turned to her proper right, down towards a small male figure, apparently a boy, who is shown as if trying to rise from the water by holding to her side.
The delineation of the lotus-flowers which rise from the tank in a variety of forms, closed or half-open, as well as their colours,
ranging from dark blue to deep purple, seemed remarkably true to
nature, and distinctly suggested that these sacred flowers were familiar to the painter from personal observation. I remembered
the splendid tank of lotuses I had seen at the Tao-tai's Yamen in Kashgar which had been grown from seed imported from China. in view of this pictorial representation I feel convinced that already ancient Khotan had known the graceful plant dear to the
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