1873.] 
E. T. Dalton —Rude Stone Monuments. 
117 
to affect the numbers of the Munda people in this part of the country, but 
there is no reason for supposing that there has been any considerable reduc¬ 
tion by emigration. All Mundas who make use of the Chokaliatu cemetery, 
must, in accordance with the creed of the race, be the descendants of colonists 
who established themselves at Chokahatu or somewhere near it. The foun¬ 
ders of the other villages must be offshoots from the first settlement; the 
probability, consequently, is, that the Munda population of this neighbourhood 
has greatly increased. 
The monumental stones in this part of the Munda country are few in 
comparison with the sepulchral; but many are noticeable, some in the vil¬ 
lages, even within the garden enclosures (as they are always placed by 
people of the Kharriah tribe), some scattered in the fields as if placed there 
for the benefit of the cattle, like those whose founder Scotchmen are said to 
bless, and some in groups. The arrangement of the group is in line, perhaps 
indicating a line of ancestors or a family. They frequently served for a 
father, mother, and their offspring ; but I do not find that more than one 
monumental pillar is ever set up in honor of one person. The turban seen 
occasionally on the central and tallest of a line of such monuments in the 
Kasia Hills, I have never perceived amongst the Kols ; but though I have 
not myself seen carved pillars erected by Mundas to the memory of the dead,* 
I have heard of them. 
It appears from Yule’s accountf of the Kasia cenotaphs, that cromlechs 
are sometimes found in front of them, a flat stone resting on short rough 
pillars which form the ordinary road side resting place of the weary traveller. 
These are not cineraries. I have stated in my ‘ Ethnology’ that the Singli- 
bhum Kols, when they first set up a monument, make round it a plinth of 
earth, on which the ghost of the departed or other person who is bold 
enough to take the seat may rest, but I have recently seen both in the 
Loliardagga and Singbhum districts. 
Monumental monoliths with little cromlechs in front, ghost seats, re¬ 
sembling exactly the Kasia seats, depicted and described by Colonel 
Yule, I first saw in Sonapet, a beautiful valley, the hills forming which 
give birth to the Sona Diver, an auriferous stream, hence the name. This 
valley has been held for ages exclusively by Mundas. Each village is a 
parish with its separate burial-ground and head man, and at the entiance of 
one of these, the village of Sursi, I saw a fine monument of this description, 
raised to the memory of a respectable inhabitant recently demised. I he 
Hargari, or cemetery, was at the other side of the village, and his grave was 
there shewn to me. So there could be no doubt that the seat was not, as I 
* Mr. T. F. Peppe has kindly favoured mo with a sketch of such carved pillars 
which I forward. 
f Journal, As. Society, Bongal, No. CLII, 1864. 
