■i 84 C O O E »s VOYAGE. 
cei.ve by what means they were brought to their prefent lia- 
tion, efpecially as it is the fummit of a hill ; but the world is 
full of memorials of human ftrength, in which the me- 
chanical powers that have been fince added by mathematical 
fcience, feem to be furpafled ; and of fuch monuments there 
are not a few among the remains of barbarous antiquity in our 
cwn .ountry, befides thofe upon Salilbury plain. 
Thefe ftones not only record the reigns of fucceflive princes, 
but ferve for a purpofe much more extraordinary, and pro- 
bably altogether peculiar to this country. When a Raja dies, 
a general feaft is proclaimed throughout his dominions, and 
all his fubjedts aflemble round thefe ftones ; almoft every liv- 
ing creature that can be caught is then killed, and the feaft 
lafts for a lefs or greater number of weeks or months, as the 
kingdom happens to be more or lefs furnifhed with live ftock 
at the time ; the ftones ferve for tables. When this madnefs 
is over, a fall: muft neceftarily enfue, and the whole kingdom 
is obliged to fubfift upon fyrup and water, if it happens in 
the dry feafon, when no vegetables can be procured, till a 
new ftock of animals can be raifed from the few that have 
efcaped by chance, or been preferved by policy from the ge- 
neral maffacre, or can be procured from the neighbouring 
kingdoms. Such, however, is the account we received from 
Mr. Lange. 
We had no opportunity to examine any of their manufac- 
tures, except that of their cloth, which they fpin, weave, 
and dye ; we did not indeed fee them employed, but many of 
the inftruments which they ufe fell in our way. We faw their 
machine for clearing cotton of its feed, which is made upon 
the fame principles as thofe in Europe, but is fo fmall that it 
might be taken for a model, or a toy : it confifts of two cy- 
linders, like our round rulers, fomewhat lefs than an inch in 
diameter, one of which being turned round by a plain winch, 
turns the other by means of an endlefs worm ; and the whole 
machine is not more than fourteen inches long, and feven 
high : that which we faw had been much ufed, and many 
pieces of cotton were hanging about it, fo that there is no 
reafon to doubt its being a fair fpecimen of the reft. We alfo 
once faw their apparatus for fpinning ; it confifled of a bob- 
bin, on which was wound a fmall quantity of thread, and a 
kind of diftaff filled with cotton ; we conjectured therefore 
that they fpin by hand, as the women of Europe did before 
the introduction of wheels ; and I am told that they have not 
yet found their way into fome parts of it. Their loom feemed 
to be in one refpeCt preferable to ours, for the web was not 
ftretched upon a frame, but extended by a piece of wood at 
each end, round one of which the cloth was rolled, and round 
the other the threads : the webb was about half a yard broad. 
