274 MR. E. H. C. WALSH, I.C.S., ON 



stone (PL XIII, fig. 3). The fact that the grinding of holes into rocks and monuments 

 at sacred places is still considered in Tibet as an act of devotion, is probably merely 

 a survival of the religious veneration so often attached to the unknown and mysterious. 

 This feeling is attached to these cup marks which existed from a previous age, their object 

 being unknown and being considered miraculous, or at any rate connected with religion. 



The markings on the present inscription are simple cups, as in the similar markings 

 on the Kumaon rocks, and there is no surrounding ring to any of the cups such as is- 

 found in some examples. 



Mr. Rivett Carnac considers this ring to be probably the symbol of the religion of 

 the persons who made the inscriptions, as in its present survival in the Hindu symbols 

 (of the Linga and Yoni). If this surmise is correct, it would tend to show that the makers 

 of the present cup mark did not follow that form of religion. But, as I have already 

 pointed out, all conclusions with regard to cup marks must at present be considered merely 

 as conjectures. 



The inscription itself is small, being only 31 inches in length and 22 inches in depth. 

 But the rock on which it is made is striking and arrests the attention from the fact that 

 there is a conspicuous band of white quartz, which is uncommon in the Chumbi Valley, run- 

 ning along the top of it. This, however, would not be a sufficient reason for selecting 

 this particular rock for an inscription, and it must have been selected on other grounds. 

 Though the river is now crossed by a bridge about a mile higher up at Rinchhengong, I 

 found from inquiries that the bridge was formerly situated exactly below this rock, and ex- 

 isted until the last 50 years or so (when the present bridge at Rinchhengong was built) 

 at the place where, according to tradition, the route from Bhutan had always crossed the 

 river. It is also the point at which persons coming down from the Bhutan passes would 

 find the first suitable crossing, and it may, therefore, be presumed to have been on the 

 regular route, until the construction of the village of Rinchhengong in recent years led to 

 the bridge being removed further up the river to that place. 



The position of the inscription, therefore, bears out Mr. Rivett Carnac's theory that 

 cup-mark inscriptions will be found " on the oldest and most frequented passes used 

 from time immorial by the advancing tribes," and would show that there was intercourse 

 by this route in prehistoric times. That the route after crossing the river at this point 

 went up the Chumbi valley, following the course of the present road, is also shown by the 

 existence of another cup-mark inscription on a rock about four miles higher up the valley. 



The existence of this latter inscription I ascertained by inquiries, as it was at the 

 time built up by a stone causeway, constructed about fourteen years ago, to carry the 

 road over the projecting rock, on the side of the cliff adjoining which the inscription 

 was said to be cut. Subsequently, when the 23rd Pioneers diverted the road at this point 

 by blasting out a road round the projecting rock, and the inclined stone causeway was no 

 longer used as the road, I had a sufficient portion of it removed to show that there was 

 such an inscription on the side of the cliff some feet below the level of the causeway. 



It had, however, been almost entirely obliterated by subsequent passsers-by, who 

 had further scooped out the cups, and had run them one into the other, in the same way as»- 

 on the Do- Ring monolith at Lhasa already alluded to. The reason for this subsequent 



