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125.
seem to be unknown to the ichonography of Northern Buddhism, are executed in a peculiarly free manner of which I can find few parallels in Chinese art.  The most striking work of a similar sort is to be found in the relief figures on the base of a carved stone votive tablet now owned privately in America but shown during the Spring of 1913 at the special exhibition at the Musée Municipal Cernuschi in Paris, and illustrated in [[underline]]Ars Asiatica.[[/underline]] (1) The winged demons armed with cocks spurs, and with bows and arrows were of a type unfamiliar to me. In drawing they suggested the rubbing of a relief which Chavannes publishes (2) but of which he has been unable to discover the provenance or date. 
Not less interesting than the lesser divinities and demons are the musicians carved on certain of the dados. They are spirited and highly decorative, and their instruments are all prototypes of those in use to-day in China and Japan. 
Much of the carving in these grottos was evidently prepared in such manner that the finishing details were done in plaster or color.  In the case of certain of the bolder reliefs, now destroyed, the heads and free arms had been originally fixed to the rock, as is demonstrated by the dowel holes visible in many places.  The portions thus added may have been of wood or plaster, but it is equally possible that they were of stone, for the dowelling method was used in no case where the 
(1) Six Monuments de la Sculpture Chinoise, by Ed. Chavannes and Raphael Petrucci.
(2) Chavannes: Plate C, No. 191; from the stylistic evidence contained in all four panels I should unhesitatingly pronounce the original North Wei.