56 
A. Rea— Pre-historic Burial-places in Southern India. [ISTo. 2, 
Nos. 1 to 7 were found in a pyriform tomb ; and Nos. 8 and 9 in 
another, with fragments of other chatties. 
I think there seems a probability that some at least, if not all, of 
the utensils which we find in these tombs were originally placed, not 
in, but over them. In almost every case traces of a pottery lid remain ; 
•with the pyriform tombs this was an inverted chatty with a large head 
moulding on the rim. With the oblong tombs, a flat slab of earthen¬ 
ware has, I believe, covered them in every case : some of these have dis¬ 
appeared, but fragments are always found inside. Now, in some tombs, 
there is simply an accumulation of soil, which has broken through the 
lid by its weight, and in these, the contents are usually in good preser¬ 
vation, and not lying on the bottom, but scattered about the inside. 
In others again the tomb is filled with earth and large stones, and in 
these, the chatties are usually broken, and the pieces are not on the 
bottom of the tomb, but are at different depths such as we would ex¬ 
pect them, if they had fallen in with the mass of earth and stones 
through the broken lid. If the tomb had been intentionally filled with 
earth, which is very unlikely, the people would have shown some dis¬ 
crimination in filling it, and not used blocks of stone for the purpose. 
Then, if the small chatties had been originally placed inside, we would 
find them all on the lowest surface of the earth which fills the tomb ; 
but in no case are they all so. On one of the oblong tombs which I 
partially exposed, I found a piece of its flat lid remaining at one end, 
and resting on it were the remains of a few broken chatties. These 
would thus seem to have been placed over and not in the tomb : if this 
portion of the lid had been broken, the small chatties would have found 
their way inside as in other excavated examples. All these facts are 
confirmatory of the theory of a mound having once covered each tomb. 
The earthenware would resist the superincumbent weight for a time, 
but becoming cracked by the expansion and contraction of the sur¬ 
rounding earth, would give way, and a mass of earth would fall in. 
This again, would cause a hollow in the core or centre of the mound 
itself, and so hasten its being washed down by the weather. 
The first seven articles enumerated above, are exactly those which 
the ideas of those early people would suggest as necessary for the pro¬ 
viding of meat, drink and lights for the spirit of the deceased. In some 
parts of China this custom still prevails. They believe that the hills 
—which they use for burial places,—are inhabited by spirits which 
protect the graves of the dead. They therefore offer to them a sacrifice 
of food, wine, and incense or candles. The graves at Pallavaram are 
all either on the hills, or on the sloping ground immediately below them. 
This may have been the result of the ancient edict which forbade the 
