Himalayan Journals — Volume 2: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
History
Himalayan Journals — Volume 2: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton
Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Himalaya Mountains
The Nurtiung Stonehenge is no doubt in part religious, as the grove
suggests, and also designed for cremation, the bodies being burnt on
the altars. In the Khasia these upright stones are generally raised
simply as memorials of great events, or of men whose ashes are not
necessarily, though frequently, buried or deposited in hollow stone
sarcophagi near them, and sometimes in an urn placed inside a
sarcophagus, or under horizontal slabs.
Illustration--STONES AT NURTIUNG.
The usual arrangement is a row of five, seven, or more erect oblong
blocks with round heads (the highest being placed in the middle), on
which are often wooden discs and cones: more rarely pyramids are
built. Broad slabs for seats are also common by the wayside.
Mr. Yule, who first drew attention to these monuments, mentions one
thirty-two feet by fifteen, and two in thickness; and states that the
sarcophagi (which, however, are rare) formed of four slabs, resemble
a drawing in Bell's Circassia, and descriptions in Irby and Mangles'
Travels in Syria. He adds that many villages derive their names from
these stones, "mau" signifying "stone:" thus "Mausmai" is "the stone
of oath," because, as his native informant said, "there was war
between Churra and Mausmai, and when they made peace, they swore to
it, and placed a stone as a witness;" forcibly recalling the stone
Jacob set up for a pillar, and other passages in the old Testament:
"Mamloo" is "the stone of salt," eating salt from a sword's point
being the Khasia form of oath: "Mauflong" is "the grassy stone,"
etc.* [Notes on the Khasia mountains and people; by Lieutenant H.
Yule, Bengal Engineers. Analogous combinations occur in the south of
England and in Brittany, etc., where similar structures are found.
Thus _maen, man,_ or _men_ is the so-called Druidical name for a
stony, whence _Pen-maen-mawr,_ for "the hill of the big stone,"
_Maen-hayr,_ for the standing stones of Brittany, and _Dol-men,_ °the
table-stone," for a cromlech.] Returning from this grove, we crossed
a stream by a single squared block, twenty-eight feet long, five
broad, and two thick, of gray syenitic granite with large crystals
of felspar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account