1847.] 



Neilgherry Hills, ^c. 



93 



Pandyans would not shake the stability of my opinion respecting the 

 descent of the Thautawars from the ancient Scythians : contact with 

 the races about them having modified their customs, ideas and lan- 

 guage. 



The cairns and their contents are not the only interesting vestiges 

 of antiquity dispersed over the eminences of the Neiigherries. Be- 

 sides these cemeteries and the double and single rings of stones pre- 

 viously spoken of, -the antiquary may occasionally meet with those 

 ancient temples of Scythicism, found both in Europe and Asia. Of 

 these, one is of a nature so interesting that I have resolved to add a 

 drawing of it to my sketches of the antiquities of the Neiigherries. 



The temple is an open area environed by a circular wall of unce- 

 mented stones ; in the eastern side of the wall is the entrance. 



A huge altar of an oblong form, 30 feet in length, and 11 feet broad, 

 rises to a height of 9 feet from the centre of the area. This temple 

 is precisely what we might look for amongst the ancient Celtic remains 

 in Cornwall and Wales. It stands on the south side of a gently slop- 

 ing lawn, whose crest is occupied by a Thautawar village and cattle 

 enclosure. A semicircular wall of great antiquity connects the sacred 

 building with the village, and is continued beyond it for some distance 

 to the opposite declivity of the lawn, where it terminates at a Thau- 

 tawar dairy, the aspect and plan whereof is a perfect fac-simile of a 

 house of the ancient Britons (Celtic Scythians) ; indeed a drawing of 

 one is an accurate representation of the other. In my possession is 

 a sketch of one of those ancient British houses described in the Ar- 

 chcEologia, and without the least exaggeration I might say this draw- 

 ing would spare me the necessity of sketching the Thautawar dairy. 

 Both structures are circular, and surmounted with a high conical thatch- 

 ed roof; admission to the interior being obtained through a narrow low 

 hole, scarcely deserving the name of a door, in the body of the building. 

 A low circular wall encloses the yard wherein the building stands. 

 A Thautawar denied me admission, stating the building was holy and 

 only accessible to the men of his race. When I asked this man what 

 was the use of the enclosed area and altar on the right of the lawn, 

 he replied it was " Deevra" (sacred,) in-other words a church or tem- 

 ple. The word Deevra is clearly of the same derivation as the Deoo 

 of the Zend ; Deev of the Persian ; Deva or Devetai'oi.the Sanscrit; 

 Dewai'a of the Canarese ; Deus or Divus of the Latin ; Dieu of the 

 French j and Divine of the English ; one of those universal expressions 



