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which is almost circular in section in the middle of its length, tapering to a conically-pointed butt. The surface is not polished, but bears the marks of picking all over it, as if it had been reduced to shape by this process.

Another of this third group is at Kilchattan, also in Colonsay. Like the one at Riskbuie it is of the pot barley type, and cut out of the solid rock. It is near the ruins of the Church of St Chattan, and of the house of the chief of M Mhurich (Currie), who owned this portion of the island. His house was called "Tigh an tom dreis" (Bramble Knoll House), and according to highland custom he himself was generally known as "fear an tom dreis." As chief of the more fertile moiety of the island, M'Mhurich was, of course, a much greater man than M'Phee at Scallasaig. If M'Phee could get south wind, M‘Mhurich could by means of his rockbasin get any wind he liked. The basin was called "Cuidh Chattain." It is quite a mistake to say, as I have heard at times said, that any Currie could operate the well. It was only "fear an tom dreis" himself who could do it. He could get the wind to blow from any quarter he wished, by the simple expedient of clearing out any rubbish which it might contain on to the side from which the wind was desired. It was sure to come and blow it back again into the basin.1

According to Adamnan, St Columba did not even need to change the wind, but showed his superior power by sailing rapidly in his boat on Loch Ness, against the strong adverse wind which the Druid Broichan had

raised.

Before passing from the subject of rock basins and cups, I may mention as bearing on the subject a tradition which I heard from my friend, Rev. J. M'Lean of Grantully. We were about half-way up Glenlyon, when he pointed out to me some isolated patches of rock by the road side, remarking that they indicated the limit to which the plague had reached

1 Originally I am persuaded it was not any accidental rubbish which was cleared out, but (with undoubtedly certain appropriate ceremonies) the offering of food to the supernatural powers, which had been left in the basin when last used for its primary purpose of making pot barley.

in the glen; St Adamnan, it seems, stayed its further progress by boring a hole in one of these rocks-catching the plague and stopping it up in the hole. In the time at my disposal I could not find on any of the rocks any artificial markings which might have started this tradition.

A short time ago, Mr Dunn, factor to the Marquis of Breadalbane, showed me a small stone cup (fig. 4), a regular elf cup in the popular estimation, which was recently found by a shepherd close to a sheep-path near the top of Schihallion. It is of very hard stone, with a simple orna

[graphic][merged small]

mental pattern running round the outside. At one point there is a projection which looks like the remains of a handle. There is no possible natural use, of which I can think, which could induce any one to carry such a vessel to near the top of a very high hill. It must surely have been in connection with the ideas which they entertained of the supernatural, that our remote ancestors were impelled to cut out these cups in the rocks, place them in their graves, and carry them up to the high places of the earth. What were these ideas?

III.

NOTES ON SOME ROCK-BASINS, CUP AND RING-MARKED STONES, AND ARCHAIC CUSTOMS CASUALLY MET WITH IN INDIA. BY CAPTAIN J. H. ANDERSON, F.S. A. SCOT.

Rock-Basins. At a camp in the hills about 70 miles north of Ranikhet, I found a rock with several beautifully-rounded "pits" or "rockbasins," about 6 inches in diameter and 6 inches deep. None of the other rocks were marked in any way, and as this occurred at the junction of two streams (always more or less a sacred spot to Hindus), I came to the conclusion that there might be some similarity between these "pits" and the Scotch cup-marked rocks. But about 30 miles further on, I found other pits of the same kind, which required no theoretical explanation, because I found them in use. They were simply a kind of primitive mortars for shelling rice. The rice is put into the rock-basin, and is pounded and worked round by an iron shod beam about 3 inches in diameter and 6 feet long. Afterwards I found many more of these mills in use, and, on my return journey, found the old foundations of several huts, that I had not observed at my first inspection, hidden in the brushwood close to the original pit-marked rock.

Ring-Marked Stones without Central Cups.-In a Hindoo temple inclosure near Dwarahat, a small town about 13 miles north of Ranikhet, in the province of Kumaon, I found a stone with two concentric rings, incised, to the depth of about half an inch, the channels being a little wider than their depth. The inner circle. was 24 inches in diameter, the outer circle 63 inches in diameter, and from it there proceeded a "duct" 11 inches in length. The stone is a slab about 23 inches by 17 inches, and is lying face uppermost on a pile of loosely built up stones, and is very much weathered. The inclosure contains numerous stones more or less carved, chiefly of the usual Phallic types, but there are only two others, broken and very much defaced, which at all resemble this one.

In the Terai near the Hundspoor camping ground, about 18 miles due east of Huldwani, I found another stone with a single ring incised, the channel being about of an inch in depth and an inch in width, and the interior diameter or space enclosed by the ring 1 inch in diameter. From this ring there proceeded a "duct" 8 inches in length. The whole was surrounded by an oval channel of about inch in width, narrowing towards the outer end of the "duct." There is no temple or any other carved stone in the neighbourhood. The stone was propped up against a tree, and is evidently still held in veneration, as there were numerous rags and threads tied to the branches of a tree close by. The few native cowherds who live near for a few months in the cold weather professed to know nothing about it.

Though I examined many stones, more or less carved, over a very wide area, these are the only ones I found presenting these particular patterns.

“Dug-Out” Canoes.—On the Sarda River, which for part of its course forms the boundary between Nepaul and British India, I found numerous dug-out canoes in use.

One I examined, in the neighbourhood of Tanackpur, was about 36 feet long, 2 feet wide, and over 18 inches in depth. Both ends were neatly rounded, and tapered off from underneath. It was made. out of a single log, and I was told was hollowed out and shaped entirely with the ordinary native axe.

I understand that when the river is in flood, two of these canoes are lashed several feet apart by bamboos at the bows and stern.

The canoes are propelled by long poles in shallow water, and by paddles in the Canadian fashion in deep water.

In this neighbourhood (Tanackpur), I found the natives storing their grain in large vessels often 4 feet high. These vessels are constructed of ordinary basketwork, covered with slime (mud), and then dried in the sun.

Fishing. About 20 miles south of Tanackpur, in the Chouka River, a tributary of the Sarda River, a sluggish stream with large weed covered pool, the native method of fishing is curious.

A small erection of piles is made in the pool, just far enough out to enable a man to wade out to it waist-deep. The fisherman sits, or rather squats, on the pile erection, and has at his right side, floating on the water, about a dozen lengths of thin bamboos, roughly shaped at the ends to allow of their being jointed into each other.

The hook is baited with a paste of coarse flour. The line fixed to the end of the first bamboo length allowing about 4 feet of free line, the remainder of the line is coiled up on the seat beside him. This first length of bamboo is now pushed out and rested on top of the thick bed of weeds. Another length of bamboo is jointed on and pushed out and so on till the made up rod measures 45 to 50 feet, about 4 feet of the first point projecting beyond the weed bed, thus allowing the spare end of the line and the hook to be suspended in the open water on the far side of the weeds. Personally, I never saw any fish caught, but was told that they were frequently up to about 2 feet long; and that when hooked they were simply hauled in over the weeds-the line being pulled in and coiled with the left hand, while the right hand disjointed the rod as it came back, the joints being allowed to float in the water close at hand and ready to be used again in making up the rod.

Methods of snaring wild animals.-When on a shooting trip in March 1900, on the borders of the Bickaneer Desert, I found the natives snaring black buck and chinkara (or ravine deer) in two ways:

(1) In pitfalls.—These are deep holes about 8 feet deep and about 4 feet by 5 feet. They are either dug in gaps in thorn or grass-wattle fences or else on the far side of a low part of the fence, so that the deer just clearing the fence will jump into the hole. The pits are covered with thin brushwood, over which sand and loose earth is carefully spread.

A very similar method for catching wild elephants was carried on in the Kumaon Terai, till stopped many years ago by the British Government. I have seen the remains of many of these old pits, which appear to have been generally in groups of four or five. I was informed by the mahouts and natives that these pits were covered with brushwood, with This was then sown

a layer of about 6 inches of fine earth on the top.

VOL. XXXIV.

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