70 
A. Rea—P re-liistoric Burial-places in Southern India. [No. 2, 
have taken place many years ago, when the roadway was being con¬ 
structed, or it may have been through natives searching for treasure. 
The contents of this have, at one time or other, been cleared out, and 
we only found a few pieces of broken pottery. These were interesting, 
however, in that they shewed the peculiar black and red glazed colours 
of the pottery found in the plains near Madura. If this does not show 
that these megaliths were erected by migratory sections of the tribes 
who nsed the others on the plains, it would at least prove they must 
have had some connexion with them, when they used the same kinds 
of pottery. It is curious that this should have been so ; the one class 
of megalithic remains have an enclosure of stone circles whereas the 
others are erected in a square enclosure. 
The square built basement of these kistvaens is a peculiarity in its 
way, and is but one of the many varieties of megalithic remains, per¬ 
taining to different parts of the country. Cromlechs and dolmens are 
found, with slight variations in their character, all the world over ; and 
it is also interesting to find that funeral jars, seemingly such as these 
we have lately been examining, are found in other countries besides 
India. Between Carthagena and Almeria, the remains of a pre-historic 
colony have lately been found, which are believed to have been inhabi¬ 
ted by some unknown race previous to the Aryans. Numbers of utensils, 
ornaments, and arms have been found, some without trace of metal, and 
others in stone, iron, and bronze. Remains of bodies were found buried 
in large jars and in tiled square enclosures. This in Spain ; and in 
Africa also, an aboriginal tribe—in Taveta—have burial customs which 
are similar in some respects to those remaining in India. From a recent 
traveller and explorer* we learn that “ after death the body is buried in 
a sitting posture, the left arm resting on the knee, and the head sup¬ 
ported by the hand, the contrary arm and hand being used by the 
women. When they have remained sufficiently long to be reduced to 
skeletons, the skulls of the man and his chief wife are taken out, and 
placed in deep, oval-shaped pots. These are laid on their sides at the 
base of dracsena trees in the centre of his plantation, where in the 
shape of good spirits they keep watch and ward over the welfare of 
the crops.” 
When we find cromlechs, stone circles, and other megalithic remains 
in different parts of the world, presenting a wonderful similarity in 
design and arrangement to each other, it would argue either a wander¬ 
ing tribe in early periods of ancient society, or different races having 
connexion with each other. We find in India megalithic and various 
forms of earthenware receptacles for the dead, which have evidently 
* Thomson, Through Masai Land, 3rd csjition, 1885, p. 110. 
