THE DOLMENS OF ASIA 



uprights outside the pierced stone, thus forming 

 a sort of portico to the dolmen. Near Chittore in 

 North Arcot there is said to be a square mile of 

 ground covered with these monuments. In them 

 were found human remains in sarcophagi, and 

 fragments of black pottery. Several of the Indian 

 dolmens are said to have contained objects of 

 iron. Occasionally the dolmen is surrounded by 

 a double circle of stones or covered with a cairn. 

 The Deccan, in addition to its numerous dolmens, 

 possesses also megalithic monuments of another 

 type. They consist each of two rows, each of 

 thirteen unworked stones set as close together as 

 possible, in front of which is a row of three stones, 

 each about 4 feet high, not let into the ground. 

 The planted stones were whitewashed, and each 

 was marked with a large spot of red paint with 

 black in the centre. These stones seem to have 

 been in use in modern times. Colonel Forbes 

 Leslie thinks that a cock had been sacrificed on 

 one of the three stones which lie in front of the 

 double row, but there seems to be no certain 

 evidence for this. It is, however, very probable 

 that these alignements had some religious signi- 

 fication, and the same is no doubt true of certain 

 small circles of small stones, also found in the 

 Deccan. 



The modern inhabitants of the Khasi Hills in 

 India still make use of megalithic monuments. 

 They set up a group of an odd number of menhirs, 



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