After breakfast we rambled through the city, about half of which was covered with the remains of fifty-three temples, and of monasteries and pagodas in their grounds. The seeds of the pipal tree, _Ficus religiosa_, had been dropped by birds into the interstices of the brick masonry of the pagodas, and grown into large trees. The roots of the trees, after shattering the masonry, had prevented it from falling, by clasping it in their strangling embrace. Splendid bronze images of Gaudama, generally in a good state of preservation, were scattered about in every direction, and often half buried in the _débris_ of the fallen buildings. [Illustration: _The great bend of the Meh Kong from Kiang Hsen._ ] The images varied from 6 inches to 7 feet in height, and one known as Taung-lan-ten is an object of pilgrimage to hundreds of worshippers from the British and Siamese Shan States. This image, which is about 5 feet in height, has a legend attached to it, which relates that, when the great bronze image, now at Ava, known as the Aracan Buddha, was cast, a fabulous bird, called a galoon, alighted at the site, and fanned the furnace with its wings; and a _naga_, or dragon, came and blew the fire up with its breath. As their reward for these meritorious acts, Gaudama resolved that in their next birth they should be born men, and the galoon should cast a similar image at Kiang Hsen, and the _naga_ one at Zimmé. A bamboo and thatched shed had recently been erected over the image as a temporary shelter, in place of the handsome building, with pillars and tiled roof, whose remains lay shattered around it. [Illustration: _Ruins at Kiang Hsen._ ] What struck me most in the ruins of the temples was the vast number of the images, the excellence of the plaster which still adhered to the remains of the massive brick walls and pillars, and the beauty of the ornamental decorations. The people of the city in olden times must have been numerous, wealthy, and highly skilled in the arts, to account for the number of the monasteries, and the workmanship displayed in the images and buildings.