276 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [October, 1873. porting a covering stone, the front side remaining open, are not unfrequent, especially in the eastern region of the Nilgiris, several of them also sculptured within ; but I know of no structures of connected cells, like the one described, occur¬ ring either in India or any other country. It differs essentially from the allees couvertes and chambered barrows of Europe. Colonel Congreve describes no such monument in his Antiquities of the Nilgiris, and I know of but one other ex¬ ample, on the hills, namely, at Meher, some miles westward at the foot of the K u n d a Range, where there appear to have been four con¬ nected cells, also with sculptured stones, but I am uncertain whether with appended lesser cells. This monument also, I understand, has been partially destroyed. Though the intention of kistvaens, chambered barrows, and what are generally called cromlechs, was undoubtedly sepulchral, I am on the whole not sure that it was so with respect to this and the other sculptured dolmens of the Nilgiris. Nothing was found on digging up the floor of the cells in the Nidi M&nd Dolmen,—which may further be said with confidence to have been always free-standing, and never covered with a tumulus,—an assertion further strengthened by the sculptures within. With respect to the last- mentioned feature, I may observe that these sculptured stones when occurring near their villages are worshipped as gods by the B a d a- g a s, the most numerous race on the hills. This, however, I believe, is only an instance of the Hindu propensity to venerate anything that appears mysterious or sacred, and argues no other connection with the remains. Tho Ku¬ ra m b a s—the wild jungle-tribe that haunt the densest jungles of the mountain slopes, and whose remote ancestry may have had more to do with megalithic monuments, also pay worship to some of the cairns and cromlechs on the plateau, in which they believe their old gods reside. They and their forest-kindred the I r u 1 a s, “ the children of darkness," still after every funeral bring a devva lcotta kallu, i. e. a long water-worn pebble, and put it in a cromlech to represent the deceased. Cromlechs have sometimes been found filled with such pebbles. Free-standing dolmens —or, as I should prefer to call them, hut-temples —closed on three sides, with a fourth open, and containing lingam stones or rude images, are frequent in the Maisur country and on the Digitized by Google Shivarai Hills in Salem, and are but rough extempore shrines, made and used to-day, but suggesting what the use of some of the ancient cromlechs may have been. In Central India both closed and open-sided kistvaens abound, but it has been observed that, though the former con¬ tain sepulchral remains, urns, &c. in profusion, the latter never do. I am therefore inclined to regard the five-celled open-sided Nidi Mand Dolmen as not sepulchral, but intended for a rude temple or shrine; and the cut piece of an elephant’s tusk found in it had probably been laid there by some wandering Knramba, to represent one of the primaeval gods worshipped by his ancestors before the advent of Indra and Vishnu. The grey weather-worn structure had an aspect of quaint mysterious antiquity as it stood in that spot of wild and utter seclusion, backed by steep converging slopes rough with rocks and trees, and overlooking in front a wide jungle-country stretching far below in a laby¬ rinth of ridges and valleys. The very peculiar feature of a small chamber being attached to each end of the great central triple chamber must not be overlooked. Analogous side-cham¬ bers are attached to the magnificent cromlech in Guernsey known as “ VAutel du Dehus” and these are spoken of as unique;" they however contained curious forms of interment. Finally I may add that, when returning, a small cairn was observed near the T o d a m a n d, on open¬ ing which a curious flattened chatti was found, its mouth covered with a flat -dish, and filled with red sand, like none in the neighbourhood. This peculiarity, of vessels being filled with sand or mould th|it must have been brought from a distance, occurs in cairn-interments both on the Indian plains and in England. II. A few years after the discovery of the above- described cromlech, a number of weapons were found in a stone-circle between K u n A r and K a r t a r i, on the Nilgiris. The circle was by no means remarkable, about six feet in diameter, and the stones of moderate size, only just appearing above the ground. It occupied no distinguished site, being on the slope of a hill of ordinary appearance, and might easily have escaped no¬ tice unless actually walked over. On digging into it, however, a number of weapons and im¬ plements were discovered embedded in a thick layer of charcoal, which appears to have had the
