May 1861.] 



Architectural Remains. 



115 



must, at one time, have been thickly peopled : it is scarcely pos- 

 sible that these could be the results of the occasional visits of a 

 nomadic race. 



9. By far the finest specimens of these remains, that I have 

 seen, are in the valley of the Moyar. 



Generally, the Tumuli are not much raised above the surface 

 of the land ; along the Moyar many of them are raised eight or 

 nine feet and each Tumulus is surrounded by a stone circle. 



10. In some places there is one Tumuli much larger than the 

 rest, and surrounded by a larger circle of larger stones, flat, pla- 

 ced on edge, and standing about three feet above the ground. 



11. In every instance there is a large flat stone upon the top 

 of the Tumulus ; in a very few cases I have seen two within one 

 circle ; and I presume each covered a Kist Vaen, as was the case 

 in all, (perhaps 100) that I have seen open. 



Some of the covering stones contained 150 to 200 cubic feet. 



12. The Kist Vaens in these Tumuli are precisely similar to 

 those found in Europe : from four to five feet in length and two to 

 three in width ; thus evidently intended for the reception either of 

 Cinerary remains, or of bodies in a sitting posture: a mode of burial 

 still observed by Lingadharis and others. The dimensions given 

 above are those that generally prevail ; but I have seen some much 

 larger : there is a very large one in a rice field near C oimbatore 

 close to the new road to the Railway Station : they are all, so far 

 as I have seen, placed east and west. 



13. I opened one of the Tumuli in the valley of the Moyar it 

 contained the usual Cinerary urne of baked clay, with portions of 

 calcined and uncalcined human bones — I have been told that 

 pieces of metal have been found in some but I never saw any. 



14. Very many Cinerary urns have been collected by the Rail- 

 way Engineers, as their works laid open hundreds of Tumuli : the 

 Collector of this District too, had and still has a considerable num- 

 ber. 



They are of various shapes, and in size they vary from two or 

 three feet to four or five inches in diameter : some are rudely or- 

 namented, usually by wavy parallel lines ; but none that I have seen 



