476 Verification of the Itinerary of Hwan Thsang [June, 



by coolies who have been in those places, so far as separate apartments, 

 remains of musical instruments, arms, &c. having been found in them, 

 but from the way in which those tombs are opened, generally by a 

 narrow shaft from the top, and the hurried way in which they have 

 been explored, the foul air preventing them from being searched far 

 from the opening of the shaft, it is very difficult to gain any correct 

 information regarding the interior. In my rough sketch I have 

 assumed the space occupied by the elephant to be lO^.V, and for the 

 horse Wy&', with a partition wall of 2 feet, which would give a square 

 apartment of lO^lO 7 inside, and allowing the outer rooms to have 

 been all of one size, the partition walls 2 feet thick and the outer walls 

 3', the outside dimensions of the whole building would be a square of 

 88 feet, and the size of the mound said to contain the tomb of Rajah 

 Gadhadarra Sing at the Chereeai or Seereai Diew, is sufficient to cover 

 a building of much larger dimensions ; this however I need scarcely 

 say is at present little better than supposition. 



Some system of embalming is said to have been practised for the 

 royal family ; but if so, it must have been a very imperfect one, as I 

 have ascertained that nothing more than scraps of bones have ever been 

 found in any of the tombs, although I have met with several men who 

 have asserted that the remains of more than one human being have 

 been found in them. 



I trust that you will kindly excuse my having trespassed so very far 

 on your patience with what I am aware must for the most part be 

 already more correctly known to you ; but I have been induced to do so 

 in hope that some apparently trifling matter might serve as a clue or 

 connecting link to more important information previously in your 

 possession. 



Verification of the Itinerary of Hwan Thsang through Ariana and 

 India, with reference to Major Anderson's hypothesis of its modem 

 compilation. By Capt. Alex. Cunningham, Bengal Engineers. 



The Itinerary of Hwan Thsang* is the most valuable document 

 that we possess for the history and geography of Ariana and India 



* See Appendix to the Fol-kue-ki. 



