in various parts of the Peninsula, which are considered to be Buddhistic remains. But that is all I can say. The Buddhists were expelled from the country a thousand years ago or so.

[These explorations were continued in various quarters, and a general interest excited among the missionaries, when suddenly, to David's delight, a new field of exploration came into knowledge in his own station.]

[JOURNAL LETTER.]

PERIAKULAM, Nov. 3, 1862. I have been quite excited to-day and may be more so to-morrow. You know that I have been a good deal interested in old stones and mud, and have been making explorations in different quarters. Mr. Webb is to excavate in Dindigal, and Washburn writes that old cairns have turned up somewhere in his station. But I have them nearer home, and shall not have to go to Dindigal or Mânâ Madura to pursue antiquarian researches. The other day I found an old mud fort, and near it a lot of circles of rough stones corresponding precisely to those found in Dindigal. I inquired about them, and found the people had all sorts of notions as to what they were. I inquired of Pastor Seymour, and he knew of others, and told me what the people thought of them. We are eighty miles from Mânâ Madura, yet the same stories are current here that we heard there: that formerly the people lived to a great age, and had to be buried alive in these big pots. They were giants too. Well, I sent Seymour to explore this morning in a place where there were said to be some of these pots. He came back about

two o'clock, bringing me a piece of iron looking much like a cleaver, only very much rust-eaten. He said he had found pots as tall as his head, and that one of our church-members had ploughed up this year a piece of iron like a sword, and had seen many of these big pots, but they were broken now. He said too that circles of stones similar to those found near here were there; that there were cromlechs like those on the hills; and that in a small stone house the man had found a pottery horse of very neat pattern, much above the style common now. The whole story has quite woke me up; so to-morrow morning early I propose to go to the spot, close to the foot of the hills, on the road to the tope, and see for myself. They say that they find the skull in a basin and the bones arranged around it. Is it not singular that all throughout this district such remains should be found, telling us of a race inhabiting the country differing totally in their modes of sepulture from any now existing? The iron instrument which was brought me is the first thing of the kind found, and I hope may add something to what we know of such matters.

Nov. 7.

I have spent the day in a cromlech! So you must have some account of it. Some days ago I was attracted by the sight of some circles of stone along the side of a road which we frequently travel upon. I suspected there was something within and had our gardener dig in the centre. He soon struck upon a slab. I left it a day or two, but yesterday had him try it again. We had other help, and soon found that it was hollow below. But we could only pry off a small piece of a slab large enough to let me in. I got in

and found myself in a regular cromlech about six feet long and three wide, but quite choked up with dirt. We could not lift up the larger piece, and had to leave and come again at night with two big levers and ropes. This was last night while I had my catechists here, and they helped me. We dug some and found in one corner a potter's vessel, and on the side four. It was almost dark, so we covered the vessel with dirt and came home. The meeting closed yesterday. So today I set out with the determination of giving up one day to antiquities. I went out about six with a gardener and we went to work. The first thing we came to of interest was a doorway in one end, that is a round hole, with a stone set up against it outside. I hurrahed internally, for this was a discovery. It corresponds precisely with cromlechs found upon the Nilagiris, and which I have never seen here. It is supposed, and I think with good reason, that these are tombs, and that the hole was made for a person to enter and deposit the bodies for sepulture. In proof of this are the contents of the tomb. One thing after another turned up, but I will simply state what, not detailing the individual things. We found a pot on four legs, a remarkable affair. The chief things were two big pots, such as I described before as containing smaller vessels, lying on their sides facing the door. In the rest of the room were fragments of pots and vessels of all sorts, heaps upon heaps. We hardly found a whole one there. We did however secure some, and of different patterns from any I have seen before, and among other things some covers to pots, rare things. I found also several iron instruments, but they were too far gone by rust to make them out. Lastly some bones made their ap

pearance. I think there were bones all through the soil, but crumbled so as to leave only a white powder. We got out one of the big pots, and tying it to two beams, the men, some half dozen, brought it home. I came home late to breakfast, and returned immediately after, having a shady place under ground. I stayed until four, eating lunch in the cromlech, and then went home to dinner. I worked hard all day and am pretty decidedly tired to-night, so you will give me credit for writing at once. I think the broken pots, etc., are evidences that the place is a family tomb, or was, and that pots were broken or disarranged by persons entering to make fresh deposits. But such enormous slabs of stone! The room faces exactly east, and the slabs. are six feet thick by seven or eight high; the end ones three feet wide by seven high. There is no place short of a mile whence they could have been brought.

I FIND that it won't do to be in too great a hurry. As I was feverish with haste this morning, I took up a little pocket Proverbs and read, "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established." It was just the verse for me. I need to cast my care upon Him and be quiet. But you have no idea of the multifarious vexations in this life, and the trouble is that the whole matter rests upon you, everybody looks to you for what they shall do, and your spirit will almost necessarily infuse itself throughout. One requires a cheerful piety to work steadily among this people, much patience to wait for good, forbearance with individuals, and a general purpose to take things happily, no matter how perverse they may appear.

[JOURNAL LETTER.]

PERIAKULAM, Oct. 14.

[Returning from a tour he passed the night at Andipatti.] I woke rather later than I meant to be, took my tea and toast, and was off on Burnside for home just as the sun rose. Now you must know that the rainy season has fairly set in and our rivers rise and