ORNAMENTAL TOMBS 231 



to form a kind of stage. Each face of the post was elaborately 

 carved with different patterns arranged in squares. Some of 

 these were concentric circles, a large one in the centre, with 

 smaller ones filling up the angles ; others had a circle with a 

 number of little bosses on them ; others had a kind of leaf 

 ornament, and in others parallel lines were arranged in different 

 directions. The narrow spaces dividing these squares from each 

 other had in some cases an ornament like the Norman cheiron, 

 and in others, something similar to the Greek wave-like scroll. 

 The whole erection with its ornamentation bore a strong 

 resemblance to the old runic stones, or the manorial crosses of 

 Ireland and the Scottish highlands. 



A day or two's journey farther south brought us to a tract 

 of country where there was a profusion of carved memorials 

 scattered along the roadside, and in all directions visible on 

 either hand. And on reaching a rounded green hill west of the 

 road, the old and deserted village of Ikangara, we saw that there 

 was a large number of tombs and memorial posts close together, 

 so we went to inspect them more minutely. Within a short 

 distance were some forty or fifty tombs, and on further examina- 

 tion there appeared to be at least half-a-dozen different kinds : 



(1) The largest tombs there were two of them were of 

 small flat stones, built in a square of some twenty to twenty-five 

 feet, and about five feet high. But all around them was a railing 

 of posts and rails, all elaborately carved with the patterns just 

 described. 



(2) Another kind of tomb was formed by a square stone 

 structure, about twelve feet each way and four or five feet high, 

 but on the top was an enclosure of carved posts and lintels about 

 eight feet high, with a single carved post in the centre. 



(3) A third kind of monument was a massive block of granite 

 about ten feet high, with carved posts at the corners and touch- 

 ing them, and connected by cross-pieces ; on these the skulls 

 and horns of the bullocks killed at the funeral of the person 

 commemorated were fixed. 



(4) Another kind of memorial was a massive square post of 

 wood, about twenty feet high and fifteen inches square, carved 

 on all four sides from top to bottom. There were four or five 

 of these enormous posts here ; and in one case there was a pair 

 of them, as if to form a kind of gateway. 



