MADRAS JOURNAL 



OF 



LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 



N°. 12-NEW SEKIES. 



December 1861. 



XIV — Remarks on the Druidic Antiquities of the South of India. 

 By Major H. Congreve. 



Cromlechs. 



The Cromlech at Paliconclah in the Carnatic, is remarkable for 

 its double ring of stones. In my account of it>in this Journal,'*' 

 I did not place sufficient emphasis on this circumstance, which is 

 one of the greatest evidences of the Druidic origin of this altar as 

 will be seen from the following account of similar antiquities in 

 Europe. At this day, in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, in the 

 middle of a plain, or upon some eminence, altars are found, around 

 which the ancient inhabitants assembled to offer sacrifices and to 

 assist at other religious ceremonies. The greatest part of these 

 altars are raised upon a little hill, either natural or artificial. 

 Three long pieces of rock set upright serve as a basis to a great 

 flat stone, which forms the table of the altar. There is commonly 

 a pretty large cavity under this altar, which might be intended to 

 receive the blood of the victims ; and stones for striking fire are 

 scattered round it ; for no other fire, but such as was struck forth 

 with a flint, was thought pure enough for so holy a purpose. 

 Sometimes these rural altars are constructed in a more magnificent 

 manner ; a double range of enormous stones surround the altar and 

 the little hill on which it is erected. In Zealand there is one of 

 this kind ; which is formed of stones of a prodigious magnitude. 



Old Series No. XXXI, March 1846, p, 47. 



