There are many small temples on the areas of both terraces, which are neglected, and suffered to fall into decay. Numberless images of Gaudma lie indiscriminately scattered. A pious Birman who purchases an idol, first procures the ceremony of consecration to be performed by the Rhabaans; he then takes his purchase to whatever sacred building is most convenient, and there places it in the shelter of a kioum, or on the open ground before the temple; nor does he ever again seem to have any anxiety about its preservation, but leaves the divinity to shift for itself. Some of those idols are made of marble that is found in the neighbourhood of the capital of the Birman dominions, and admits of a very fine polish; many are formed of wood, and gilded, and a few are of silver; the latter, however, are not usually exposed and neglected like the others. Silver and gold is rarely used, except in the composition of household gods. On both the terraces are a number of white cylindrical flags, raised on bamboo poles; these flags are peculiar to the Rhahaans, and are considered as emblematical of purity, and of their sacred function. On the top of the staff there is a henza, or goose, the symbol both of the Birman and Pegu nations. THE COLOSSAL FIGURE OF JUPITER PLUVIUS, OR STATUE OF FATHER APPENINE, AT PRATOLINO, IN ITALY. [See Plate, No. 74.] STATUES above the ordinary size, were named by the ancients, Colossi, from a Greek word which signifies 'Members.' That at Rhodes was the most famous, executed by Carelus, a pupil of Lysippus. There were several at Rome; the most considerable was that of Vespasian, in the amphitheatre, that bore the name of Colisaa. Claudius caused a colossal statue of himself to be raised on a rock exposed to the sea waves, in front of the port of Ostium. Nero had his person and figure painted on a linen cloth, 120 feet in height. In the Court of the Capitol, and in the Place Farnesi, &c. are colossi, either entire or mutilated. The space in which stands this enormous statue, is planted round, on all sides, with lofty fir and beech trees, the trunks of which are hid by a wood of laurel, wherein nitude is best shewn by comparison with the groupes promenading about the water, and which in comparison, at a certain distance, resemble pigmies. A nearer approach exhibits a truly striking proportion of the limbs. A number of apartments have been fabricated in the interior, and within the head is a beautiful belvidere, wherein the eye-balls serve for windows. The extremities are of stone; the trunk is of bricks overlaid with a mortar or cement that has contracted the hardness of marble, and which, when fresh, it was easy to model in due forms. It is related in the life of John of Bologna, that several of his pupils, unaccustomed to work with hand, while engaged in this work, forgot the correct standard of dimensions, both as to the eye and hand, and that Father Appenine and his enormous muscles made them spoil a number of statues. The greatest difficulty in the workmanship was to impress on the mass, the character of monumental durability. The artist has succeeded in uniting the rules of the statuary with those of construction, in combining the beauty of the one with the solidity of the other. All the parts refer to a common centre of gravity, and the members are arranged so as to serve for a scaffolding to the body, without impairing its dignity or magnitude. The colossal statues of the ancients may have suggested the idea of this configuration, or, as before hinted, the artist may have aimed to represent the Jupiter Pluvius. However, it seems probable that Poussin, in his painting of the Plains of Sicily, has, from this, formed his Polyphemus, seated on the summit of a lofty rock. From the beauty of its proportions, and skill in the execution, all artists who have to work on colossal figures, ought to cherish the preservation of this, as an imposing object, that cannot be too profoundly studied. THE HANGING TOWER OF PISA, IN TUSCANY. THIS celebrated tower, likewise called CAMPANILE, on account of its having been erected for the purpose of containing bells, stands in a square close to the cathedral of Pisa. It is built entirely of white marble, and is a beautiful cylinder of eight stories, each adorned with a round of |