360 



have slabs below. Now, the question is, Have these cromlechs relics 

 of any kind beneath ? The slabs are so heavy, that it would require a 

 strong force of natives to lift them ; and I want to get up an expedi- 

 tion that shall do up the thing thoroughly. 



FROM THE REV. W. B. CAPRON. 



TiRUPUVANAM, Sept. 20, 1802. 



Mr. Washburn, Mr. Scudder, and I have just been on an antiqua- 

 rian search, from which we returned this morning. The trip was 

 originated in the discovery of buried remains in digging for the foun- 

 dations of our house in Mana Madura. But, as these remains were so 

 far underground in Mana Madura that we could dig only upon a great 

 uncertainty, I took these brethren to a place eight miles east of Mana 

 Madura, and across the river (i.e., north) from the village of Sudur, 

 where the gradual washing-away of the earth had discovered the tops 

 of the buried jars. 



There are tw.o kinds, — one with a very wide mouth (fig. 1), and 

 one with a narrower mouth. The latter is certainly the more tasteful 

 shape; and we found that the jars of this shape were used for the more 

 honorable burials. The narrow-mouthed, egg-shaped jars had not only 

 within them various little vessels (figs. 2-10) appropriated to the service 

 of the dead, but there was also a profusion of similar vessels buried on 

 the outside of the jar ; which latter, in the case of the wide-mouthed, 

 bulky jars, were wanting. This distinction was apparent to us ; but it 

 might not be found to hold, on a more extended examination. It led 

 us, however, to fancy that the better-shaped jars were for the men, 

 and the coarser kind for the women. 



I have attempted to give you a representation of these two kinds of 

 burial-jars, and of the small vessels which we found in and around 

 them. All the jars were, without doubt, originally covered in some- 

 thing like the mode represented ; though we found nothing above the 

 dotted line (see fig. 1 ) which may represent to you the present surface 

 of the ground. All the jars were, of course, full of earth. Even be- 

 fore the cover was broken, the water from the well-saturated ground 

 found its way up between the cover and the rim of the jar, and depos- 

 ited within its thin layers of mud. In the upper pai't of the jars, we 

 found coarse gravel, which came in after the cover was broken ; but 

 in the lower part only fine earth. 



These burial jars are supposed to be the work, not of the ancestors of 

 the present Hindoos, but of a race of men who were finally overcome 

 and expelled by the Brahmans four or five hundred years ago. They 

 are still found in some numbers in different parts of India; and are a 

 Avealthy sect, for a small one : but their power is gone as a priesthood ; 



