566 



The Pillar Toivers of the British Islands. 



[No. 5, 



themselves from their enemies armed with bows and arrows and the 

 like. In the " Eistoire des decouvertes dans la Russe et la Perse" 

 there is an account of many round towers, " said by the inhabitants to 

 be the work of very remote times." At Bulgari there is around 

 Tower called Misger* according to Pallas. In the midst of the ruins 

 of Kasimof, on the Oha, which falls into the Volga, is a round and 

 elevated Tower called in the language of the country Misguir.f In 

 the Kisti and Ingushti, very ancient nations of the Caucasus, most of 

 the villages have round towers .{ 



In Rajputana there were numerous round insulated Towers, thirty or 

 forty feet in height, built on commanding eminences, 

 whence could be descried the approach of enemies 

 from a distance, and from which the garrison were 

 enabled to alarm the country. The only entrance to 

 these Towers was by a small doorway 12 or 15 feet 

 from the ground. This was reached by means of a 

 ladder, which was pulled up in times of danger, and 

 the door closed, and secured ; thus out of danger, a 

 few could repel a great many. The enemies most 

 dreaded were Pindaree horsemen ; and the Towers 

 afforded a ready and secure retreat to the husband- 

 men, who could use their matchlocks with great 

 effect from the loop-holes with which the tower was pierced. Even 

 when the door was reached and driven in, the defenders had the differ- 

 ent stages to retire to, which thus became so many successive fortresses. 

 Some of these were flanked with breastwork ; and such facility did they 

 afford for refuge, and such encouragement to continual warfare, that 

 many of them were destroyed by order of the English Government. § 



The late Colonel Stacy met with a characteristic example of the use 

 to which these Towers were often put, in his advance on Cabul from 

 Candahar; — " near the camp, within one hundred yards of the road, 

 on the slope of a hill, there was a small but high Tower, with only one 



# A corruption of Muzgi, us^* which signifies 'to make a holy fire burn 

 bright.' Bichardson. 



f G-uttorn. 



J lb. p. 145, referred to by Dr. Petric, p. 29. 



§ Cap. Western, B. E. told me he had blown up some thirty or forty, to the 

 great benefit of the inhabitants, as they were no longer required, and they had 

 become harbouring places for robbers. 



