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TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 185 
now resort to the same practices. The most common kind are circles of rough 
stones placed close to each other, in which are deposited one, or sometimes two or 
three terra-cotta vessels containing burnt bones and beads or metal utensils. 
Others of greater pretension are formed by four large stone slabs inclosing a 
square space, and covered by a fifth slab forming a lid. The front stone, in some 
cases, has a circular hole in the centre or at the upper edge, which the country 
people believe to be an entrance to the dwellings of an aboriginal race of dwarfs. 
Sometimes the structures, which pass under the general name of Pandu-kulis, are 
oblong, and consist of two slabs on each side and two covering stones. These are 
occasionally divided by an internal slab into two chambers. The Pandu-hulis are 
for the most part above ground, but some have been found below the surface and 
covered with earth. Another sort is peculiar to the Malabar or Western Coast 
and the table-land above it. They consist of a subterranean chamber, excavated 
to receive an earthen vessel 4 or 5 feet deep and 3 or 4 in diameter, like a Roman 
amphora, containing the relics, the whole covered by a large discoid stone, which, 
from its resemblance to a native kodi or umbrella, has received the name of Kodi- 
kal. Similar convex slabs, propped on three or four upright stones, occur with 
them, and bear the name of Yopr-kals or *‘ cap-stones ;” but no remains have been 
found under them. 
The structures on the Nilagiri Mountains in Southern India, which formed the 
more immediate subject of the paper, differ from all these. Some, crowning the 
summits of the hills or elevated ridges are circular walls, constructed of rough 
stones, having much the appearance of the old-fashioned draw-well. Others are 
formed of tall, unhewn stones set on end, and inclosing a circular space. A third 
kind are excavated and lined with similar upright slabs, from which the earth 
outside slopes down on all sides. A fourth description are conical earthen mounds. 
In all these, however much they differ in form, the internal arrangement is the 
same. On digging out the soil from the inner circle one or more horizontal nar- 
row slabs are discovered, always lying N.H. & 8.W., the intervals between which 
and the external boundary are filled with broken pottery of a peculiar character, 
being the remains of tall cylindrical vases, without feet or handles, formed of a 
succession of rings, as if turned on a lathe, with lids surmounted by grotesque 
figures of men or animals, and sometimes by monstrous shapes, the products of the 
potter’s fancy. Underneath each horizontal stone is a flat vessel of finer pottery 
containing the deposits, generally consisting of fragments of burnt bone, gold 
ornaments, metal cups and tazzas, iron (or more rarely, bronze) implements, as 
knives, spear-heads, sickles, razors, &c., mixed with a little fine black or brown 
mould. 
The paper then went on to describe minutely the excavation of two of the more 
remarkable deposits, with the articles found in each, and concluded by an inquiry 
into the people who had formed them. These were.traced to a race called Cu- 
rumbars, formerly the dominant inhabitants of the Dekhan. They professed the 
Buddhist faith, were eminent for the culture of literature and the arts, but were 
destroyed utterly in a religious persecution headed by a Chola iting of Tanjore, in 
the sixth century. This would give the tombs an antiquity of from 1600 to 2000 
years. The cera so assumed is supported by the fact of a number of irregular- 
shaped silver punch-coins having been found in a kodi-kal tomb in Coimbatore, 
which were exactly similar to another deposit discovered in the same district, among 
which was a denarius of Augustus—by no means a rare occurrence, a large number 
of Roman coins having been dug up from time to time not only in Coimbatore, 
but in other parts of Southern India. 
On the Peninsula of Sina, and its Geographical Bearings on the History of 
the Exodus. By the Rev. F. W. Hortanp. 
The author had twice wandered through the Peninsula of Sinai on foot,tracing its 
wadys, chiefly with a view to ascertain the route of the Israelites. The author 
discussed, in the first place, the evidence for fixing the position of Mount Sinai 
itself. The long range of Jebel Tih, forming a remarkable barrier across the pe- 
ninsula, enables us to decide that the Mount must lie to the south of thisline; and 
