232 BETSILEO TOMBS. 



vase-shaped top ; these were connected by a transverse rail, 

 and this again was supported on each of the four sides by 

 \ipright posts which finished under the rail. All the upright 

 timbers were carved in patterns. 



2. Another kind of tomb was formed by a square structure 

 of flat stones, four or five feet high, and perhaps a dozen feet 

 square ; but on the west was a square enclosure of four 

 carved posts with the vase-shaped heads, connected by lintels, 

 and with an intermediate upright. This structure was about 

 four feet square, by seven or eight feet high, and in the centre 

 was a single carved post. 



3. A third kind of monument was a massive block of 

 granite, from eight to ten feet high, and from eighteen 

 inches to two feet square, with carved posts at the four 

 corners and touching them. On the top these were con- 

 nected by carved cross pieces, and upon these the skulls of 

 the bullocks killed at the funeral of the person commemorated 

 were placed. Many of these horned skulls remained in their 

 original positions. 



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 immense posts here. In one case 

 there was a pair of them, as if intended to form a kind of 

 gateway. 



5. Still another kind was an oblong block of dressed 

 granite, with an iron hooping round the top, in which were 

 fixed a dozen or more pairs of slender iron horns. There were 

 two of this kind of monument at this place, and we afterwards 

 saw others on the road. 



6. Besides the foregoing there were numerous specimens 

 of a smaller carved post with the vase-shaped head, and a 

 small open staging near the top, on which were fixed upright 

 sharp-pointed pieces of wood. These were for placing the 

 ox-skulls upon. 



Many of these memorials were sorely weathered and de- 

 faced, and others were falling, or had fallen, and were rotting 

 away. But there was a great variety of carving, and the 



