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Pagodas in and near Canton.
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rods, and several piles of brick in it, covered with weeds, show where buildings once stood. The pagoda is built of brick throughout ; one beam stretches across the eighth story to support a pillar which once projected beyond the top several feet, and was intended to call down good influences from heaven. The total height is 150 feet. It would be a difficult affair to reach the top, and I suspect none of the numerous visitors whose names are cut in the walls at the lookout window have ever undertaken it.
"At the southern part of the hill is a small cave, and a solitary Budhist, in the true ascetic spirit of his faith, has taken up his abode in it with a number of gilded idols, whom he serves. The inhabitants of a small town on the southwest no doubt furnish him food and praise enough for his support and encouragement in addition to the produce of his own gardening, to make his life comfortable. Not far from his cell is a singular well or shaft sunk in the rock about forty feet, but though there is water in it, one can not be sure it was dug for a well ; perhaps this is the place where the stone-cutters 'wounded the pulse of the ground,' as the preceding account mentions.
"We returned to our boat by a path which wound around the inland slope of the hill, enjoying the varied prospect before us. The frequent presence of foreigners in this region on shooting excursions after the wild fowl which abounds in these low grounds, has rendered the in- habitants well acquainted with them, so that no one who is disposed need hesitate to refresh himself with a visit to the Second Bar Pagoda.
"As we approached Whampoa, its pagoda formed a prominent object of view, and as it is equally known by name with the other, I make a short extract from the saine topography in explanation of its erection. Like that it is built of brick in an octagonal form, but the walls are thicker, and the stairs do not ascend regularly, but are cut in alternate flights on opposite sides. The floors or timbers which mark- ed the several stories inside, and connected these stairways, have long since disappeared, so that now it is necessary to bring a stout plank to lay across from window to window as one goes up, pulling it up after him as the ascent is made. The pagoda rests upon a substantial stone plinth, each of its eight sides being marked with one of the mystical diagrams of Fuhhí-in the eyes of the builders, doubtless considered to be essential to the prosperity of the building. It is finish- ed off circularly inside instead of angularly to correspond to the outside; the height is not far from 180 feet. The native accouff
the Hai Ngu tinh nhu la e or the Whampot Pagoda is as fo
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