“The altar is a wonder of dimensions and splendour--a pyramid 100 feet high, terminating in a fine spire of gold, and surrounded on every side by idols, all curious and precious, from the bijou image in sapphire to the colossal statue in plate-gold. A series of trophies these, gathered from the triumphs of Buddhism over the proudest forms of worship in the old pagan world. In the pillars that surround the temple, and the spires that taper far aloft, may be traced types and emblems borrowed from the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec, the proud fane of Diana at Ephesus, the shrines of the Delian Apollo; but the Brahminical symbols and interpretations prevail. Strange that it should be so with a sect that suffered by the slayings and the banishments of a ruthless persecution, at the hands of their Brahmin fathers, for the cause of restoring the culture of that simple and pure philosophy which flourished before Pantheism. “The floor is paved with diamond-shaped pieces of polished brass, which reflect the light of tall tapers that have burned on for more than a hundred years, so closely is the sacred fire watched. The floods of light and depths of shadow about the altar are extreme, and the effect overwhelming. “The Emerald Idol is about twelve inches high and eight in width. Into the virgin gold of which its hair and collar are composed, must have been stirred, while the metal was yet molten, crystals, topazes, sapphires, rubies, onyxes, amethysts and diamonds--the stones crude, or rudely cut, and blended in such proportions as might enhance to the utmost imaginable limit the beauty and the cost of the adored effigy. The combination is as harmonious as it is splendid. No wonder it is commonly believed that Buddha himself alighted on the spot in the form of a great emerald, and by a flash of lightning conjured the glittering edifice and altar in an instant from the earth, to be a house and a throne for him there! “On either side of the eastern entrance--called ‘The Beautiful Gate’--stands a modern statue; one of Saint Peter, with flowing mantle and sandaled feet, in an attitude of sorrow, as when ‘he turned away his face and wept;’ the other of Ceres, scattering flowers. The western entrance, which admits only ladies, is called ‘The Angel’s Gate,’ and is guarded by genii of ferocious aspect. “On a floor diamonded with polished brass sat a throng of women, the _élite_ of Siam. All were robed in pure white, with white silk scarfs drawn from the left shoulder in careful folds across the bust and back, and thrown gracefully over the right. A little apart sat their female slaves, of whom many were inferior to their mistresses only in social consideration and wordly gear, being their half sisters--children of the same father by a slave mother. [Illustration: RUINED TEMPLE AND IDOL OF BUDDHA AT AYUDIA, THE OLD CAPITAL OF SIAM.]