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the miserable eyes of their women following him when he chanced to look admiringly at some of the children. The fear was upon them lest he should seize the little ones, in which case the bereaved parents would have had no choice but to submit, and the women's eyes were elo- quent of pitiful memories of the lot to which the wild tribes-folk are born.

Leaving Attopeu, de Lagrée descended the course of the Se-Kong as far as Tapak, whence he journeyed over- land to Bassak. Attopeu itself had been visited by van Wusthof in the seventeenth century, but the whole of the Se-Dom and the head waters of the Se-Kong were now explored by Europeans for the first time, as also was the country between Tapak and Bassak. Careful surveys had been made and the course of two large rivers, to- gether with much of the country lying between them, had been added to the map, an important piece of work to have been accomplished in the space of two and thirty days.

The officers left behind at Bassak, and Garnier himself after he had rejoined them, had been busy exploring the ruins of Wat Phu, a pagoda perched upon a hill, which presents most perfect and finished examples of Khmer art. It is noteworthy that parts of this building are incomplete, and that some of the more recent carving is of inferior workmanship and obviously belongs to a period after the decline of the Khmer people had begun.

During their stay at Bassak, the explorers had taken careful note of the rise and fall of the river. Its flow on December 5th, when its waters had subsided to their or-