60 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. X. 



they are over three and four inches in length. There are among them 

 also short ones like those which Confucius under the name § ' stone 

 arrow-heads with wooden shafts' made out as objects of the tribe of 

 Su-shen. [Then follow the quotations from the Yii kung above re- 

 ferred to.] In the Ch'un Ts'iu period ( b. c. 722-481) they were 

 collected in the palace of the state of Ch'en in such a way that the 

 wooden shafts were perforated and strung; the stone arrow-head of 

 these was one foot and eight inches long. There are, further, stone 

 coats-of-mail consisting of scales ("leaves") like tortoise-shells, 1 but 

 somewhat thicker. There are stone axes as big as a palm, the wooden 

 hafts of which have been pierced to enable convenient carrying. They 

 are all dark (or green) colored and hard; when struck, they emit sounds." 

 Ch'ang K'u, the author of ancient records relating to Sze-ch'uan 

 (Hua yang kuo chi) written at the time of the Tsin dynasty (265-313 

 a. d.) mentions stone arrow-heads in the district of T'ai-teng (Sze- 

 ch'uan Province), on a mountain situated on a lake Ma hu ("Horse 

 Lake") into which a small river Sun shut or Pai sha kiang ("White- 

 sand River") falls. "When these arrow-heads are burnt by fire, they 

 will harden like iron." 2 Johan Neuhoff (Die Gesantschaft der 

 Ost-Indischen Gesellschaft, p. 318, Amsterdam, 1669) tells of a peculiar 

 kind of stone found on the mountain Tiexe near K'ien-kiang in Sze- 

 ch'uan; when heated by fire, iron pours out of them well suited for 

 sabres and swords. 



In the great archaeological work edited by the two brothers Feng 

 in 1822, the Kin-shih so {kin so, Vol. 2), three stone arrow-points with 

 inscriptions are published (reproduced in Fig. 8) . In the upper one on 

 the left an ancient form of the character yu "right" is engraved, in 

 the one on the right the symbols for the two numerals "eight" and 

 "thousand;" in the lower arrow-head the character Vung "together" 

 appears in relief, 3 while the lower, face of the same specimen figured 

 beside it is without character. The Chinese editors do not express an 

 opinion in regard to the meaning of these symbols ; maybe they merely 

 take the place of property marks, if they are not, which is even worse, 

 collectors' marks only. I hardly believe that they originated contem- 



1 The Shih i ki written by Wang Kia in the fourth century records: "In the 

 first year of the period T'ai shih (265 a. d.) of the Tsin dynasty, men of the country 

 of Pin-se came to court with clothing adorned with jade in five colors, in the style 

 of the present coats-of-mail (i. e. jade plaques were fastened to the coat as metal 

 plaques in an armor). Further the country of Po-ti presented a ring of black jade 

 in color resembling lacquer." 



2 Quoted in P'ei wen yiinfu, Ch. 100 A, p. 29 b. 



3 As shown by its black color in the reproduction, whereas the two others are 

 white. The illustrations were made from rubbings of the specimens. 



