Miscellaneous Notes on Deneholes. 107
Appendix II.
On Rook Granaries.
The following descriptions of subterranean granaries now
used in India and South America seem to me worth giving,
in the present divided state of opinion as to the original pur-
pose for which Deneholes were constructed. For as these
accounts are the work of men who have been for many years
resident in the above countries, and as the granaries described
are still in use there, we get a fuller and more accurate notion
as to their details than can usually be obtained from the
quickly-passing traveller, or respecting excavations now
neglected, or used for a variety of other purposes.
In a book published in 1878 (London), and called 'Thirteen
Years among the Wild Beasts of India, by G. P. Sanderson,
Officer in Charge of the Government Elephant-Catching
Establishment in Mysore,' the following account is given of
subterranean granaries in Southern India :—
"They are usually situated on somewhat high ground, and
in gravelly soil or decomposed rock. Their construction is
simple. A circular hole about two feet in diameter is dug to
three feet in depth, when a domed chamber of an oval shape
is excavated, capable of containing from ten to twenty cart-
loads of grain. Neither masonry nor props are used. A little
straw is laid on the floor, and against the walls of the chamber
to a third of their height, when the grain is filled in. A slab
is placed over the pit at the bottom of the short shaft that
enters it, and the shaft is then filled in with earth, Ragi thus
stored will keep for an indefinite number of years. It is safe
from insects and rats, and is not easily accessible to thieves,
as the pits are generally situated near the village,—sometimes
in the streets,-—and it takes some little time to dig to the
grain. Moreover, it is highly dangerous to enter a ragi-pit
till twelve hours or more after it has been opened. The
carbonic acid gas generated therein is instantaneously fatal,
and, though natives are well aware of this, accidents frequently
happen."
The following account of the rook-granaries of Peru and
Bolivia is given me by my cousin, Mr. J. J. Winder, who has
been for more than twenty years a resident in South America,
chiefly at Tupiza, in Bolivia. He says :—"There are very many
of them throughout the whole of the high table-land of Bolivia
and Peru ; there may be some in other places, but I do not
remember having seen any. Generally they are small in size,
are in granite or porphyry, and each belongs exclusively to
one family. In one place, however, a storehouse of large