18 OLD GRAVES IN THE COIMBATORE DISTEICT. 
would think, for them to imagine the deceased climbiug 
over the four foot wall than creeping through a hole little 
more than a foot in diameter. 
This same argument applies if living people are supposed 
to have dwelt in that grave. They could more easily climb 
the wall than creep through the hole. Then grave or 
house, for what purpose was the hole ? If the people 
were dwarfs and as the ryots think, only a foot or so in 
height, it is comprehensible but then they would want a 
race of giants to build for them. On the whole I do not 
feel much wiser on the matter than the ryots, some of 
whom thought the kuris must date from " before the com- 
pany " while others, referred them to a period before the 
Kaliyuga. 
Since writiug my letter 5th June 1890, I have opened 
another kuri which deserves description. Outwardly before 
excavation it was a mound of loose stones and earth, some 
24 feet in diameter. On the eastern side stood a large up- 
right stone, some 8 or 10 feet high, and all round were 
visible the tops of a circle of smaller upright stones. On 
excavation some 3 feet below the ground level was found 
the usual massive stone slab which roofs the Kuri. As in 
the other cases this rested on the stones which formed the 
sides and ends of the grave itself. On excavating all the 
earth within the stoue circle, a clear space was obtained 
surrounded by a wall of stone slabs some 5 to 7 feet high, 
the eastern slab being from that level, 12 or 14 feet high. 
In the middle, or rather to the east, lay the grave. On 
removing the cap stone, was found a square stoue chamber, 
some 8 feet deep, divided into two compartments by a stoue 
slab as shown by the double line in the plan accouipanying. 
The north couipartmeut was again divided into two by a 
slab some 3 feet high between which, and the partition 
wall lay the usual thit shelf of stone. This grave differed 
from those previously opened in that it was larger and 
