1847.] 



Neilgherry Hills, S^c. 



79 



" spears about four inches long, very well finished and in a perfect 

 ** state, but they began to corrode very soon after exposure to the 

 *' air. The same barrow contained one small hell entire and the 

 ** broken fragments of another." Besides these articles, some cloth 

 and a kind of knife were found. 



Hearne who is justly ranked with Leland, Ashmole, and Anthony- 

 a-Wood, as an eminent antiquary, tells us that on one of the stone 

 monuments at Stanton being opened, it was found to contain a spear 

 and a large hell with a screw at the end of it. 



Douglas, in his Nenia Britannica, recording the opening of the 

 barrows in Greenwich Park, states that amongst other articles found 

 in them were spear heads, iron knives, and some cloth. 



The resemblance thus shown to subsist between the Thautawars 

 and Scythian barrows and their contents, is too striking to be the re- 

 sult of accident. 



The fact of so unusual an article of grave furniture as a hell being 

 found in both cases, is very singular. 



I might mention in support of my supposition regarding the origin 

 of the Thautawars, that Abulgazi in his History of the Tartars says, 

 the Scythians under one of their most early Emperors conquered the 

 Northern regions of Hindustan. 



From Scythia sprung the three great people who overran Europe : 

 the Slavonic tribes, the Goths or Germans, and the Celts. Although 

 differing in the sequel in religion and habits, their institutions were 

 originally the same, and hence my comparisons will be fair. 



The Parthians, governed for a time by the celebrated Arsacidse, 

 and whose territories laid between Media and India, were a Celtic 

 tribe. The proximity of a people of Celtic origin to the Indian Pe- 

 ninsula lends much countenance to my views. 



On the evening of the 11th September, 1844, 1 opened a cairn on 

 the summit of a hill near Ootacamund. 



A double ring of stones, standing up like tombstones, comprehended 

 the exterior of the cemetery ; the inner ring was about 4| feet in dia- 

 meter, and its stones were very close to those of the outer. 



A slab which appeared above ground in the middle of the enclosure 

 being removed, two oblong stones lying at right angles to it were 

 reached, which on being taken up discovered a bed of black mould. 

 Digging about a foot and a half through this, I found three round 

 vessels 7 inches in diameter, embedded in the soil and containing burnt 

 human bones, black mould, and some charcoal. 



