'l'6'l Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Sept. 



the same pattern, were all carefully placed in symmetrical order and 

 position in a chamber purposely excavated below the surface. (See 

 the valuable paper by Mr. Babington ' On the Pandoo Coolies in 

 Malabar,' in the Trans. Literary Soc. Bombay, iii. 324). This is also 

 interesting from the evident separation of the smaller earthen vessels 

 from the larger. In one of these repositories of the ashes of the dead, 

 Mr. Babington found a chamber covered over by a very large block 

 of stone ; the one represented was from 6 to 8 feet in diameter, and 

 from 2 to 3 feet thick in the centre, thinning off to the edges where 

 it was not more than 6 to 8 inches. This formed the capping to a 

 regularly excavated chamber, the rock (laterite) being cut down so as 

 to form a ledge or shelf all round : below this level again, the rock 

 was excavated forming a semi-oval conical cavity in the centre of which 

 was placed a huge earthenware pot or chatty. This was covered, pre- 

 cisely in the same way as was the centre chamber at the top, by a 

 mushroom shaped stone. In this large chatty, were placed other small 

 ones, in which were deposited beads, bones, &c. Smaller earthen 

 vessels were also ranged on the shelf, or ledge of the rock, with some 

 iron instruments, and other things. 



The large central chatty or earthen vessel which Mr. Babington 

 found, in the cave or chamber he opened, was more than five feet high, 

 and four feet in diameter, while some of the smaller ones were quite 

 as miniature as those now in the table. It is vastly to be regretted 

 that having examined this in place, and extracted from it the beads, small 

 vases, &c.,Mr. Babington, simply to facilitate his further research,had it 

 broken up and removed in pieces. It proved to have been only half 

 baked, the centre being black and gritty. Indeed to bake an earthen 

 pot of that size, equally and well, would be by no means an easy task 

 even now. 



I have alluded in some detail to these researches of Mr. Babington, be- 

 cause it is by no means clear that the ground ' excavated' by Captain 

 Cole was in its original state, or that some such chamber had not 

 originally existed and been crushed in. If in his researches, Mr. 

 Babington had been content to excavate only as far as the ledge of 

 rock, he would have found nothing, but small earthen vessels also, and 

 he might have been led to suppose that they were all in miniature. 

 My first impression on hearing this was that the depository of some 



