272 
F. S. Growse —The town of Buland&liahr. 
[N o. 3, 
were, however, afforded of the interesting fact that in old times it had been 
occupied by Buddhists. Among my discoveries were several specimens of 
the curious plain stone stools, such as are figured in Plate III of Yol. XV of 
the Archaeological Survey. General Cunningham says they are found of the 
same general pattern from Taxila to Palibothra and only at Buddhist sites. 
They were all about 6 inches high, and a foot long ; but not one was unbro¬ 
ken. The ground had been so often disturbed before, that it was not possi¬ 
ble to trace any definite line of building, but the fragments of walls and 
pavements yielded an enormous number of large and well-burnt bricks, each 
measuring as much as a cubit in length by half a cubit in breadth and three 
inches in thickness. They were mostly marked on one side by two parallel 
lines drawn by the workman’s finger in the damp clay. Many were broken 
in digging them out, but many also had been laid in a broken state, as was 
evident from the appearance of the fracture. 
Of more exceptional interest were the remains of what would seem to 
have been a special local manufacture, being some scores of strange earthen¬ 
ware flask or vase-like objects (Plates XXII and XXIII, figs. 2, 3, 4<). 
They are all alike in general shape, being pointed at one end like a Roman 
amphora and with a very small orifice at the other for a mouth ; but they 
vary very much in the patterns with which they have been ornamented, 
and are of different size, weight and thickness. Some apparently had been 
squeezed out of shape, before the material of which they were made had 
had time to dry. The spot where they were found is evidently that where 
they were baked ; for, besides the failures, there was also a large accumula¬ 
tion of broken pieces, all mixed in a deep deposit of ashes and the other 
refuse of a potter’s kiln. I sent one to the British Museum, where it was 
considered so curious that I have been asked to supply some more ; and 
others were exhibited at a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; but 
from neither quarter have I received any suggestion as to the purpose for 
which they were intended. 
Most natives who have seen them think they were meant to hold 
either gunpowder or oil, which is what the shape suggests; but the 
material, on account of its weight, seems unsuitable for such a purpose, 
if the flask was to be carried about on the person ; while the pointed 
bottom makes it awkward for storing. The idea has also been hazarded 
that they were meant to be filled with gunpowder and then exploded as 
a kind of fire-work ; but, if this were their object, there would scarcely 
have been so much trouble spent on their ornamentation. A third theory, 
which has found much favour on the spot, but which at the time I was 
inclined to reject as altogether untenable, is that they were intended to 
form a balustrade for a balcony or the roof of a house. At first my own 
impression was that they were not at all likely to be of the same age 
