PANDA VULA METTA. 
67 
have remained to tell of departed grandeur ; but the closest 
examination of both hills and surrounding country fails to 
reveal even so much as a single stone corresponding to the 
circular cuttings in the rooks. Much has been cut into, but 
little out of, them. Of what, then, were the supporting 
pillars of the buildings, which once crowned these hills, con- 
structed ? Evidently of wood, which in the course of years 
would be entirely removed either by succeeding generations 
of human beings or by the natural process of decay. In 
the cocoanut and palmyra palm ready-made pillars were 
found, which, fitted to the rock-cut sockets, supported a roof of 
thatch or other material. In the centre, to support this roof, 
one or more larger pillars were raised. Before the entrance, 
to render the buildings more palatial, a semi-circular portico 
was erected. Around the whole, to ward off sun and rain 
and to afiord additional space and strength, a panchapal 
was constructed. The difficulty presented during the rains 
by the in-flowing water was easily obviated by the construc- 
tion of a low dyke of clay around that part of the building 
which faced up the gentle slope, while to prevent this water 
standing in pools in the numerous depressions of the rocky 
surface, channels were hewn of sufficient depth to admit of 
its ready egress. 
The native legends as to the origin and use of these rock- 
cuttings are wholly nonsensical and untrustworthy. The 
majority of the people in the immediate vicinity call the 
holes rollu or " mortars," and declare that they were made 
and used by the gods of old for removing the husk from 
their paddy. Others again affirm these to be the marks 
of cannon balls. With equal reason they conjecture that 
every rock which gives out a hollow sound because of some 
internal flaw is the receptacle of the dhanani or wealth 
of these same gods. The name, however, which the hill 
still bears points to the spot as the former abode of human 
beings — whether the " five Panda vas" or not cannot be deter- 
