16 
OLD GRAVES IN THE COIMBATOEE DISTRICT. 
is a hole 1 foot 2 inclies in diamater wliicli leads from one 
partition to the other. An end-section of this grave would 
be thus : 
O 
a side section thus : 
1 
o 
the entrance being by the hole at a, into the south com- 
partment. 
Both compartments were floored with stone, but nothing 
was found under the floors. 
Many of the pots are in excellent preservation and from 
the fi'eshness of the colour suggest that they were new 
when put into the grave. 
I believe the generally accepted theory as to these kuris 
is that they are graves. Small fragments of bones only 
were discovered however. The people call them houses 
and seem to think that they were inhabited in prehistoric 
times by a race of dwarfs, but for this belief there is no 
foundation but the snialloess of the entrance holes. 
One ci rious feature about them is that they all lie due 
east aud. west and that the entrance is invariably in the 
