The most considerable temple is Wat Pha Keo, the royal pagoda. Its timber façade, delicately wrought, and sparkling with those plates of glass which the Laotians and the Siamese cunningly mingle with their gilding in order to produce a greater effect of brilliancy, shines forth in the midst of the forest, gracefully framed with blooming lianas, and profusely garlanded with foliage. Gold has been unsparingly lavished on the sides of the square columns which supported the half-shattered roof; and a Byzantine style of decoration, very remarkable in effect, has at one time covered every inch of space. Though this mode of ornamentation is by no means lasting, it is very charming; and the numerous pagodas in Vien Chan thus embellished produced, at a distance, a wonderful impression of dazzling magnificence. ~WAT SISAKET.~ ~A BUDDHIST MONASTERY.~ To the north, in the midst of the forest, is situated a smaller pagoda, which has undergone but little dilapidation,--that of Wat Sisaket. In its interior a number of small statues of Buddha are enshrined in gilded niches, which cover the wall from floor to ceiling, rivalling the terraces of Boro Bodor, the celebrated Buddhist monument of Java. Before the altar was elevated a candelabrum, remarkable for its originality of design and exquisite finish of workmanship. A few paces distant from the pagoda was situated the library, an indispensable appendage of all the temples of Laos; it was partly destroyed. As no native was near, the French explorers clambered up the worm-eaten pillars which supported and isolated from the soil the flooring of this literary tabernacle: in the interior some sacred books were scattered about; they were composed of long narrow strips cut from the leaves of a particular species of palm, gilded on the edges, and stitched together in books. Each contained seven or eight lines of that rounded writing peculiar to the peoples of the Indo-Chinese peninsula; which differs, as is recognized at the first glance, from the writing of India properly so-called, though derived from it. Finally, attached directly to the pagoda, the travellers found a rectangular gallery, opening internally on a court,--its walls covered, like those of the temple itself, with small niches containing Buddha statues. This was the vihara (_chon-khon_ in Laotian), or monastery, which served as the residence of the priests ministering in Wat Sisaket. [Illustration: MONASTERY OF WAT SISAKET.] * * * * * ~A DANGEROUS PASS.~