________________
MARCH, 1877.)
83
MISCELLANEA.
from Hormos, and from Kis, and from Aden, and all Arabia, laden with horses and with other things for sale. And this brings a great concourse of people from the country round about, and so there is great business done in the city of Cael. The king possesses vast treasures, and wears upon his person great store of rich jewels. He maintains great state, and administers his kingdom with great equity, and extends great favourto merchants and foreigners, so that they are very glad to visit his city. This king has some 300 wives; for in those parts the man who has inost wives is most thought of." Marco Polo goes on to speak of the One mother of the five Brother-Kings of the South India of his day, of whom the chief was the king of Cael, and to all of whom, in their disputes, the mother, who was then alive, acted as a mediator. He also alludes to the use of the betel-leaf in Cael.
The following extracts (dated June 23, Shepherd's-land--Ideiyarkddu, Tinnevelly), from a private letter by Dr. Caldwell, written on the outskirts of Kåyal, will be read with interest:
I set my coolies last evening to dig for sepul. chral urns in the lowest ground in the neighbourhood. These are 'jare'--matonmattantii-in which a race of people, of whom nothing is known, used to bury 8 Before long they found one in the deepest part of a tank which is now dry. It was a nouster, eleven feet in circumference. Unfortunately it had been so often soaked in water that it was found broken in three. The contents, however, were perfect, the bones of a man with an exceed. ingly perfect skull. There is a small hole in one part of the skull, apparently made by a weapon. The grand interest, however, is this. This place is a portion of the Tâmraparni delta, and the ancient people had dug right through the alluvium of the delta till they had come to the white seasand underneath, in which they had deposited the urn. The upper stratum of the sea-sand has generally turned into a grit-stone, through the infiltration of the alluvium deposited above. The grit stone accordingly had formed round the urn, and even inside, and the carity of the skull is filled with compact grit-stone! The teeth are very perfect
and complete. Altogether, the skull would be an interesting addition to a naturalist's studio. I have found no traces of the Greeks here, but plenty to prove that the place is of great antiquity. I have had ten coolies digging for several days, and wherever they dig they find nothing till they get to a depth of about eight feet. Then brick floors, &c. are found. The thorough excavation of a place like this would prove very expensive. The Collector sent me a peon, to be present as a sign of Government authorization. I am to send in a list of what I find to the Government.
“A certain Dr. J- of Berlin, was in Tinnevelly in the beginning of the year. He made a considerable collection of urns, skulls, &c., which he carried off to Germany without communication with the Madras authorities. For this the Collector, it is said, was reprimanded.....
"I am taking the greatest possible care not to irritate the people in any way; 80 I make no excavations near their temples, and have not dug about the numerous images of Buddha, even though they are not now worshipped. There is an image of Buddha, near Ka y al, which the people have turned back upwards, and the washermen use it for beating their clothes upon !
"Saturday 24th.--I have been this morning to KAyal again, and returned. This time I went in a palanquin, and did my journey comfortably. I went two miles beyond what now remains of Kayal, and still found myself only in the centre of the remains of the great city of Marco Polo's time. I marked out several places for excavation, and left ten men to do as much work as ten men could do in a day... I intend to cross the mouth of the Tamraparni, and see Pinn ei-K A ya l....
"Yesterday my people found a couple of urus at Maramangalam. One was as large as the one found at Korkei, but empty. The meaning of that is that it only contained the bone-dust of the dead. The other was a smaller one, which my coolies were able to take out whole. It contained two beautiful little polished kalasame, or vessels. but no bones. The inside is black, and so are the kalasams...." -Atheneum, 12th August 1876.
BOOK NOTICE. MUSHAKRAH FIQRA'T BIBLE: Naya 'Ahdnama. (The New on the whole Bible under the title of Maharvah
Testament portion of the Annotated Paragraph Bible in Roman Urdu.) London: The Religious Triet Socy. 1876. fiqra's Bible. (We must confee that we stumble This is the first part issued of & Commentary on the threshold; the word Bible may pass, but
built. He likewise conquered the five independent princes to the south, who acknowledge no earthly superior." Many of the Palliya-karers or Polygars, constituted by Vishvanaths Naiker, exjat to the present day. The estates or Pall yams, given on the feudal tenure of rendering military service and defending the bastions of the metropolitan fort allot. ted to their holders, are all well known; most of them were
forfeited in the Polygar war, which fills so many pages of Wilks and Hume, and the history and traditions of each, which doubtless survive in the families, would, if collected, throw much light on the antiquities and affairs of the days of the Southern Rajas.-M. J. W.
See the last chap., Appendix, to Dr. C's Comp. Gram.
