INGOULETZ. On leaving its banks and travel ling eastward over the steppe, are to be observed innumerable tumuli, which vary greatly in size ; and one of unusual magnitude is generally sur rounded by several of smaller dimensions. There can be no doubt that the larger tumuli are raised over the bodies of princes and heroes, and the minor sort cover the remains of the followers of their armies, or of their state. The expanse oc cupied by these monuments of the dead extend regularly to the very farthest stretch of sight. Herodotus declares these remote regions of sepul ture to be regular places • of interment for whole nations, and particularly mentions, that when ever the Scythians lost a king or a chief, they assembled in great multitudes to solemnize his obsequies; and, after making the tour of certain districts of the kingdom with the corpse, they stopped in the country of the Gerrhi, a people who lived in the most distant parts of Scythia, and over whose lands the sepulchres were spread. A large quadrangular excavation was then made in the earth (in dimensions more like a hall of banquet than a grave), and within it was placed a sort of bier bearing the body of the deceased prince. Daggers were laid at. various distances around him, and the whole covered with pieces of wood and branches of the willow tree. la another part of the same immense tomb were deposited the remains of one of the late sove reign's concubines, who had been previously strangled ; also his favourite servant, his baker, . cook, horsekeeper, and even the horses them selves, all followed him to the grave, and were laid in the same tomb, with his most valuable property, and above all a sufficient number of golden goblets. This done, the hollow was
soon filled and surmounted with earth ; each person present being ambitious to do his part in raising the pile that was to honour his departed lord. About six miles from the ancient city of Sardis, near the lake Gygmus, was to be seen the great tumulus erected in memory of Alyattes, father of Crcesus. It is described by Herodotus as of prodigious height, having a base of stones, on which three classes of people were employed to heap up its enormous bulk. In the time of Strabo, the remains were 200 feet high, and the circumference three-quarters of a mile. Several other tumuli surrounded it. This form of sepul ture may be found all over the world ; and how lasting it is, as a monument, may he gathered from the date of this very mound of Alyattes, which could not have been erected much less than MO years ago, Alyattes having been contem porary with Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon who destroyed Jerusalem about COO years before the birth of Christ. In some parts are found tumuli in distinct groups wide of each other; and in other places they appear singly, like solitary and silent watch-towers, at distant stations. About 7 miles S.E. of Hyderabad, in the Dekhau, is an immense plain covered with cairns and kistvaens. —I'orter's Travels.