1873 .] 
E. T. Dalton —Rude Stone Monuments. 
113 
It is not surprising that they should take all this trouble for a man 
in the position of the Borkela Manki who is a chief of considerable influence 
and old family ; but at the next halting place, Sargam Hato (‘ the village 
of the Sal Tree’), I saw a huge stone which had been brought to the village 
in anticipation of the death of an old woman who was in the last stage of 
decrepitude. This old crone was not a pleasing object to gaze upon, and 
she had been for many years a burden to her family, but she had been kind¬ 
ly cared for, and had the gratification of knowing that a public funeral had 
been decreed to her, and the satisfaction of gazing on the monumental stone 
which had already been prepared to commemorate her virtues. 
The Saranda Pir is a mass of hills forming the southern geographical 
division of the District of Singbhum, and has a population, chiefly Kols, of 
about 700 souls. I entered the northern portion of this wild, unfrequented 
tract on the 1st January, 1872, and passing through it from end to end, 
emerged in Bonai on the 7th. 
The villages of Saranda are few and far between, and the scanty popula¬ 
tion of the Munda type of Kols are in a very primitive state having no 
intercourse with the world beyond their own valley. In marching through 
the Pir to Bonai, the road continued up the valley watered by the Koina, 
which we traced almost to its source, and the small villages were for the 
most part on or near its banks. The sites were picturesque enough, and we 
generally found for our bath, pools shaded and rock-bound, in which Diana 
and her nymphs might have disported themselves. The people were at 
first rather shy. Many of them had never before seen a white face, but 
they gained confidence as we quietly advanced, and no evil fell on them in 
consequence of our intrusion. On one occasion, the women of a village which 
we passed were induced to follow us to camp, and there they sang and danced 
for us. Most of the men were away clearing the road ; but those we saw, 
and the girls, in number twenty-five, who danced for us, were of strikingly 
fine physique, and there was very little drapery to hide their grand propor¬ 
tions. The predominance of eyes, nose, and mouth of the Mongolian type was 
very remarkable ; some of them were of very light and bright colour, one of 
the group from her features and complexion might have been taken for a 
Chinese girl. Such traits stereotyped in Saranda, seem to indicate that 
these Munclas have been there from a very remote antiquity without op¬ 
portunities of miscegenation. Some of the young women told me they had 
never ventured to cross the borders of their Pir. 
After the dance we remained on very good terms with the fair sex in 
Saranda. The young women joined the men in clearing our path through 
the forest, and the vigour with which they used their felling axes, the hearty, 
good humour with which they toiled at the work, greatly astonished and 
edilied our comparatively indolent and apathetic camp followers. 
