92 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd S. VIII. July 30. '59. 



the same resources and come to the same results. 

 It was necessity taught them, and taught them to 

 use ^rst, what was within their immediate grasp. 

 The human race indeed (and in deeds) is one ! 



I have now before me a Report, made up by 

 Dr. C. Leemans, the Director of the Leyden 

 Museum of Antiquities. In it he refers to the 

 several acquisitions made, in the year 1858, by 

 the collection under his care. Under the heading 

 " Asiatic Monuments," he writes : — 



" Our division of Javanese Antiquities was greatly en- 

 riched with a present, offered by Mr. J. A. Kraijenbrink, 

 and sent by him from the Tegalwaru-lands, Krawang 

 Residence, in Java, to the Ministry of Inland Atfairs. 



" This gift is the more important, because it was 

 accompanied by an exact account of the circumstances 

 and particulars which attended the sundry discoveries. A 

 farther illustration was also given in a minute sketch of 

 one of the sites, where some of the antiquities were found. 



" The collection contained nine stone wedges of differ- 

 ent forms and sizes, and consisting of quartz, chalcedonj', 

 agate, green jasper, flint, and brown jasper. These wedges 

 or hatchets were long from 4 (Dutch or French) centi- 

 metres, 5 millimetres, to 11 centimetres; broad from 2-1 

 to 6 centimetres, and thick from 8 to 30 millimetres; 

 they were discovered in 1853 — 1856 at Pangkehan, Sirba 

 Telukdjambee, Tegahwaru, Tjeehaskana, and Ulekkam, 

 all places situate in the Tegalwarulands. 



" But of particular importance are six objects, which, 

 in 1851, were dug up near the dessa Tjilledock, not far 

 from the river Lossaree in the Residence Cheribon. 

 Though at different depths under the trodden soil, the 

 pieces of antiquity I am going to describe were found 

 lying in each other's vicinity. They afford us the first 

 instances, as far as our knowledge goes, of stone and 

 metal implements of this kind discovered contiguouslj', 

 and thus seemingly descending from the same period. 

 Thej' are: a flat, oblong wedge, neatly and smoothly 

 worked and ground, and apparently' never used, long 16, 

 broad 6-5, and thick 1 centimetre : and a second chisel- 

 shaped wedge, outside convex, inside concave, also of 

 very neat, smooth, and sharp workmanship. This second 

 implement, as the first, is of lava, and was, it seems, 

 never used. Its dimensions are, length 22, breadth 55, 

 thickness 4 centimetres. In the third place : a finely 

 preserved bronze spear-head, 18 centimetres long, and 

 6'5 wide. These three objects were found at about the 

 same depth. Xearly four yards above lay a fourth object, 

 being part of an iron sword, still 35 centimetres long, 5 

 wide, and 1 thick." 



Farther : — 



" For the division American Antiquities, we received 

 three objects, whose relative value is heightened by the 

 circumstance that they came from the soil, trodden by 

 the earlier inhabitants of Guyana, now in part the Dutch 

 colony Surinarti : and thus afford us the first opportunity 

 for opening in our Museum a subdivision of antiquities 

 from the Dutch West-Indian possessions. They consist 

 in a beautifully polished wedge of yellowish quartz, 

 grooved at both sides of the upper end, in order to admit 

 of its being fastened to a handle. This implement has a 

 length of 13 centimetres: its breadth, at the upper part, 

 is of 9, and its thickness of 3 centimetres. Together with 

 another wedge, — about which presentlj', — it was found 

 nnder one tree, and was presented to Lieutenant Jonkheer 

 C. A. van Sj'pesteyn, then adjutant to the Governor of 

 the Colony, by the director of the plantation Berg en 

 Dral, the place where the hatchets were discovered. The 

 second wedge, of which a plaster cast was made for the 



Museum, is 6 centimetres high, and has from 6 to 8 centi- 

 metres breadth. It is made out of peculiar kind of quartz, 

 in Dutch kwartsiet, and differs in form from the instru- 

 ment just mentioned, by looking more like a battle-axe. 

 In fact, the narrow sides diverge towards a fan-like edge. 

 For the rest, the implement has, like the other hatchet, a 

 groove at both sides, to facilitate the fastening of the 

 handle. 



" The third object is a flat-round grinding-stone of 

 quartz, 6 centimetres, 5 millimetres by 5 centimetres, 4 

 millimetres : it was obtained by Mr. van Sypesteyn from 

 the plantation Bleijendaal, where it was stated to have 

 fallen from the skj' after a meteorical explosion. To this 

 kind of implements, which the natives distinguish from 

 the stone hatchets or wedges by the name of thuuderstones 

 (^dondersteenen), the barbarians of Guyana ascribe a great 

 medical power." 



Mr. Leemans farther supposes (though to us It 

 seems improbable) that the aborigines may have 

 translated into their language the name of donder- 

 steenen, which perhaps Dutch settlers gave to such 

 stones in their hearing : and he then infers that, 

 also from the Dutch, the natives may have adopted 

 their belief in the healing properties of this kind 

 of antiquities. 



" It is remarkable," saj's he, " that, as well in the East 

 as in the West-Indies, the same appellation and super- 

 stition are found to exist, which still are prevalent 

 amongst our illiterate countrj'folks. It is well known 

 that, in Holland, the stone wedges are called donderbeiteh 

 [^thunder-chisels'], whilst, in Java, they are named light- 

 ning-teeth \bUksem-tanden'\." 



Now, to us, this is no cause of v/onder at all. 

 Man wants always to assign a cause for everything, 

 and, rather than confess his ignorance, he will in- 

 vent a cause. For instance : how lightning can 

 split a gnarled oak, the illiterate do not under- 

 stand. But if near this oak is found a stone 

 wedge, of course to this wedge is ascribed the 

 phenomenal destruction. The hatchets are mostly 

 found near trees : for to fell trees they no doubt 

 were most used. And, of course, near very olE 

 trees, which already existed in the stone period ; 

 and these, as highest, are most subject to being 

 struck with lightning. The stone implements were 

 either forgotten or left there, because, in our age 

 of unsafety, man has often suddenly to leave his 

 peaceful occupations never to come back, or even 

 sometimes is killed over his instruments of peace. 



In the north of Europe the name of donderheitel 

 perhaps still echoes a faint reminiscence of Thor's 

 mighty hammer, and not less mighty thunderbolts, 

 whilst, almost everywhere, the memory of the 

 stone period has vanished, and more civilised 

 mankind is hardly able to represent to itself an 

 age in which iron was not known. 



But in the current belief, spread all over the 

 world, that the stone implements of antiquity are 

 the ivedges of lightning, we again see a proof of 

 the individuality of the human race ! 



The healing power, assigned by the natives of Su- 

 rinam to the ancient grinding-stones, may perhaps 

 be a faint reminiscence that once medicaments 



