1887.] PalaoUfMc Finds in South India. 279 



/ celts of the flat type, very commonly 

 Hornblende schist (a | ^^^ ^^ Gadigannr, elsewhere very rarely, 



very silky variety)... i | p^^^j^^ 



^ , . , C Sharpening stones, mealing-stones, beads 



I (very rarely). 



HeBmatite, jaspery, „ mealing-stones, corn-crushers. 



Jasper, red „ cores (rare). 



Haematite, earthy red... ,, pigment. 



Agate , „ cores and flakes. 



Carnelian ,, beads. 



Chert mostly of Lower | ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^.^^^^ scrapers, strikers. 



Vindhyan age ; 



Lydian stone. ... ,, flakes and scrapers. 



The bulk of the neolithic pottery is of very high class for Indian 

 pottery, for, though it will not at all compare with Etruscan and Greek 

 pottery, yet many specimens have been met with showing great elegance 

 of form with very superior quality of the clay worked. As it is impos- 

 sible to enlarge intelligibly on such subjects, unless they could be illus- 

 trated by well-executed illustrations, I will make my remarks on this 

 subject very brief, reserving a full account of my pottery finds till 

 some future time when I shall have had them built up into shape and 

 figured. The quantity of broken pottery found lying about in the old 

 settlements is very great, and affords in many cases abundant proof either 

 that the population was very large, or else that the period of residence 

 represented was of great duration. I think all the pottery collected or 

 examined by me at the different settlements was wheel-made. In point 

 of size and shape, the articles found can only be described as legion. 

 The patterns of ornament employed were also extremely numerous. I 

 have lately begun to collect fragments of sufficiently large size to show 

 the special patterns ornamenting them, and I can only express my sur- 

 prise at the great variety of patterns the old potters had invented. It 

 is the exception rather than the rule to find the same pattern used twice 

 over. Many of the patterns are so pretty as to cause very great regret 

 that they are known from fragments only. 



None of the vast number of specimens I have examined belonged 

 to angular mouthed vessels ; all without exception were round, but, with 

 that limitation, they represented all possible varieties of shape, from 

 extremely shallow plates up to rather elongated oval vessels of great 

 size and thickness of walls, and to narrow-necked bottles. 



I noticed no vessel with handles either external or internal,* but 



* The internal handles for suspending vessels over a fire without risk of the 

 flames touching the suspending ropes, such as were used by the North American 



