244 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Oct. 



they were burial places. Should any reliable information be obtained, or 

 should any interesting discoveries be made, I will write to you again.' 



Captain Cole writes to Mr. Bo wring as follows : — 



' In reply to Dr. Oldham's queries, I have the pleasure of forward- 

 ing the following information regarding the names used in Coorg for 

 the Cromlechs or Kistien-vaen. 



I find that there are two names and two traditions regarding 

 them. The majority call them in the Coorg dialect, Pdndu-pare, 

 which means the stone of the Pandus. The Coorg dialect, as shewn in my 

 grammar, bears the strongest affinity through the Malayalim to the 

 Tamul language ; and in Tamul, pare also means a large stone. The 

 Moplahsof the Malayalim country call these structures " Pandu-porre," 

 andporre means a small hut. Such structures have not, I believe, ever 

 been found in the Malayalim districts. The other name for these 

 structures is Pundara-mane, or the house of the Pundaras, a legendary 

 Pygmy race, sometimes confounded with the descendants of the Pan- 

 dus. Both these terms have been traditionally handed down. 



With regard to Dr. Oldham's opinion that these structures are more 

 of the type of Kistvaens of Celtic Europe than of the true Cromlech or 

 Dolmen, it appears to me that we have both in Coorg. Those found 

 buried and consisting of a regular stone cist are doubtless Kistvaens ; 

 but I have found some with the top slab resting on two or more rough 

 stones or boulders at each end. I have just discovered four of a re- 

 markable type, situated in the middle of the forests about 13 miles 

 from here towards Somwarpett. They are large stone chambers 

 erected on the top of a low hill and on the very rock from which the 

 slabs had been quarried. They have all entrances of a shape as 

 shewn on Plate 2 of the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 

 for June last, or a circular hole in the centre of the slab. They stood out 

 in high relief, each on the top of a low mound, the base of which had a 

 circle or concentric circles of stones all round. They were perfectly 

 empty, and looked like temples or altars ; and bearing in mind what 

 Caesar, Pliny, and Tacitus, have said of the human sacrifices offered by 

 the Druids, and what we know of such sacrifices in India, the idea of 

 an altar is borne out by some of these structures. 



In others near Ramasammy Kunve, I have just found some beautiful 

 small goglets in black pottery and glazed, a basin, some large urns, and 

 a large round pot with three short pipes projecting out, as if used for 



