258 W. N. Edwards & H. H. Mann —Assamese Fortification. [No. 3, 
that the same race of people was concerned with the building of 
both. 
At two separate places this wall has been built up on the inside 
with a flat tile like brick, and there is, as described by Captain Dalton, 
a gateway in the face of the wall, (though not, as he says, in the centre), 
where bricks also occur. The bricks here found are of similar shape 
and size to those occurring at Pertabgarh on the Bishnath plain, as 
well as in the tanks and buildings which abound on that plain. The 
bricks have, however, evidently been made in the vicinity, as on being 
broken they showed a very sandy texture, and were much softer than 
is usual with this class of bricks made in the plains. 
The stones of which this wall were made ranged from 12 to 14 
inches in length and 8 to 10 inches in breadth and depth, to small 
pieces four inches square, but all were equally dressed. 
Behind the wall, and to the north of it, there is a ditch, and then 
a high plateau stretching right back to the steep hill side. All this is 
now covered with dense jungle, some of it being composed of large old 
hardwood forest trees presumed to be at least sixty to eighty years old, 
and these were in certain cases growing out of the wall itself. (See 
Plate IV, Fig. 1.) 
The second part of the fortification, the stone wall B (Fig. 1) is 
the complement and completion of that already described, but it is in 
a much worse state of repair, and in places can hardly be traced. At 
the end where it overhangs the river, it appears to have been partly 
washed away. At the other extremity it encloses a natural spring, or 
at any rate what seems to have been such from the remains, and the 
whole wall being on a bluff at the foot‘of the hills, it commands the 
course of the river. 
It will be noticed from the photograph in Plate V, No. 2, that the 
left bank of the stream at the north end of the wall A is formed of a 
sheer inaccessible cliff, which itself rendered the continuation of the 
fortification in this direction unnecessary, and made an extremely 
strong position. Two miles above this point is the cave to which the 
defender of this position is stated to have retired, now locally known 
as the “ Badli Karang,” the cave of bats. 
The folklore attached to these fortifications, is not very great, 
and their existence does not now seem to be known to the Assamese. 
The Daphlas know of them, but few are acquainted with any tradition 
concerning them. One old Daphla, how r ever, said a story was formerly 
current among his tribe that these walls were built by a Raja of Pra- 
tabpur—(Pertabgarh) who, having killed his father, had taken to the 
hills with his followers, and there entrenched himself against his 
