364 



very ancient one too. No one now can tell any tiling of the origin of 

 tlie jars. The jjeople say that formerly there was a caste that did not 

 die ; and that such people were placed alive in these jars, with a little 

 rice and water in the cups. Thirty years ago, there was a forest over 

 this spot, of large trees. 



FROM THE REV. D. C. SCUDDER. 



Periakulam, Nov. 3, 1802. 

 I have been quite excited to-day. You know that I have been a 

 good deal interested in old stones and mud, and have been making ex- 

 plorations in different quarters. Mr. Webb is to excavate in Dindigal, 

 and Mr. Washburn writes that old cairns have turned up somewhere 

 in his station. But I have them nearer home, and shall not have to go 

 to Dindigal or Mana Madura to pursue antiquarian researches. The 

 other day I found an old mud fort, and near it a lot of circles of rough 

 stones, corresponding precisely to those found in Dindigal. I inquired 

 about them, and found the people had all sorts of notions as to what 

 they were. I inquired of Pastor Seymour, and he knew of others, 

 and told me what the people thought of them. We are eighty miles 

 from Mana Madura ; yet the same stories are current here that we 

 heard there, — that formerly the people lived to a great age, and had 

 to be buried alive in these big pots. They were giants too. Well, I 

 sent Seymour to explore, this morning, in a place where there were 

 said to be some of these pots. He came back about two o'clock, 

 bringing me a piece of iron looking much like a cleaver, only very 

 much rust-eaten. He said he had found jjots as tall as his head, and 

 that one of our church-members had ploughed up this year a piece of 

 iron like a sword, and had seen many of these big pots ; but they 

 were broken now. He said, too, that circles of stones, similar to those 

 found near here, were there ; that there were cromlechs like those on 

 the hills ; and that, in a small stone house, the man had found a pot- 

 tery horse of very neat pattern, much above the style common now. 

 The whole story has quite woke me up : so to-morrow morning, early, 

 I propose to go to the spot, close to the foot of the hills, on the road to 

 the tope, and see for myself. They say that they find the skull in a 

 basin, and the bones arranged around it. The iron instrument which 

 was brought me is the first thing of the kind found, and I hope may 

 add something to what we know of such matters. 



Nov. 7. 



I have spent the day in a cromlech ! So you must have some 



account of it. Some days ago, I was attracted by the sight of some 



circles of stone along the side of a road which we frequently travel 



on. I suspected there was something within, and had our gardener 



