whereby one place of worship is enabled to embrace three or four different cults, may not be altogether disinterested in its motive. For no devotee visits one of these buildings without contributing his mite towards its maintenance, and "No penny, no paternoster" is the business motto of those to whose special care the holy edifice is consigned. In putting into effect this precept those responsible for the policy naturally cast their nets as widely as possible, and in most temples, therefore, the Vishnuvite, the Buddhist, and the Lamaist find their wants supplied, and their own particular images and attributes awaiting their obeisance.
Not only is Nepalese art of an intensely religious character, but hand in hand with this it is also supremely symbolic; there is no "unmeaning ornament," almost every element in its composition being emblematic of the creed it adorns. In other words, art was utilized by the priesthood to catch the eye of the illiterate many, to put before those who could not read a visible tangible object which illustrated a legend or emphasized a dogma. And to do this it required to be
