VALLEY OF THE DIENG. 215
looked down on the valley of the Dieng, about a hundred feet below us.
To our left, before making the steep descent into the valley, I saw that the mountain side in one part was embanked, and flagged with large slabs of granite, in which ste])S had been cut. Whether these stones were the remains of walls of protection, which had fallen back and become im- bedded by time in the earth, or whether they had been placed there to prevent the slipping of sand and stone into the valley, I was unable to learn; though, from the fact of this having been once a place of importance to the Buddhists, the former supposition may ])robably be the most correct.
As the day was well-nigh spent, and rain again fell in torrents, we took shelter in the large, cold I'assangrahan, in which we were to ])ass the night, and from it we looked out on the dreary view before us. The valky Iji'low covers an area of about a mile in circiunferi'nce, a ciiain of hills, shaped
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