138 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1905 
are sepulchral. He regards them as merely memorials of 
the dead, and he points to the custom of the Kurumbas of 
Madras and the Kols of Chota-Nagpur putting perishable 
offerings in such places. It may be difficult to draw a 
clear line of distinction between a tomb, an ossuary, and a 
memorial. All we can say at present is that the “open” 
dolmens were apparently used for one or other or all 
these purposes. 
What are called “holed” dolmens (Plate V., fig. 2) are 
found in large numbers in the Deccan and Southern India. 
Many explanations of the meaning of these holes in the 
door-stone have been given—that they are intended as a 
means of exit for the ghost when it feels disposed to leave 
its home; that they are a means of passing in offerings of 
food or other articles for the comfort of the ghost; that 
they illustrate the habit of creeping through an orifice or 
narrow entrance to a cave or structure of the kind, which 
is supposed to be efficacious for the cure of disease." Mr 
Walhouse’ describes some of these holes as only large 
enough to admit an arm: others which would allow of a 
child being passed into the inner chamber. Ancestor 
worship prevails widely in India, and the place occupied 
by the sainted dead would naturally be held sacred, and 
food would be supplied for the nourishment of the ghost. 
It is quite reasonable to suppose that the kindly ghost 
may be able to cure an injured limb, or restore an ailing 
child to health, and the “ holed” dolmen may have served 
one or other or both these objects. 
From the dolmen and kistvaen we pass to ‘the circle. 
We have already seen the improbability of Fergusson’s 
theory which would derive it from the Buddhist rail. In 
its more primitive form the circle is the line of stones sur- 
rounding a tumulus, intended to support the base of the 
1 Borlase, Of. cét., ii. 626 ff; Crooke, “ Popular Religion and Folk-lore of N. India,” 
ii., 165 ff. ; 
2 “Indian Antiquary,” iii. 277. 
