APPEXDIX A. 505 



may be licld, and the true mo-jto is mainly valued from this heliof in its presence 

 producinj; invulnerability in the wearer. Another test is, placing the nio-jio on a mat 

 with a quantity of rice. If a f^enuiue stone from heaven, no fowls, or other creatures, 

 will venture near the rice. Ap;ain, another test is cutting a rainbow in half ; a feat (juite 

 within the power of any one ijossessing the real mo-jio. Or if he cuts down a plantain 

 tree with one, the tree will be killed, and not, as is usually the case when cut down, 

 send up a new shoot. It also guards from tire, which leaves untouched any house 

 containing one. Its medicinal virtues too arc believed to be very great, and a small 

 chip reduced to powder and administered internally is considered as a cure against 

 intlammation of the viscera and of the liver. 



" The universal testimonj- of the Burmese goes to prove that these implements are 

 picked up on the surface of the hills, in the fields or clearings made tor cultivation, 

 and I never heard of their being found iu the plains or anywhere, save on the hill- 

 sides, by the peasants engaged iu clearing and cultivating them. This, I think, points 

 to their accidental loss or abandonment by their original owners, in spots which 

 supplied the wants of a long-passed generation, as they do the present race. Sup- 

 posing, however, that the mc'n who wrought these implements wore ignorant of 

 metal, or I may say iron, it is not easy to comprehend, how they were able to ctfeet 

 clearances, as the present race does, iu the gigantic forests of Pegu ; assuredly heavier 

 and more difficult to cope with by feeble men then, than now, and without clearing 

 the forest, no cultivation would be possible in its umbrageous recesses. 



" On the question, then, whether the makers of these stone implements possessed 

 iron also, depends, I think, the right determination of their use. If in possession of 

 the means for clearing the hill-sides sufficiently for the cultivation of cereals, then I 

 should incline to regard these stone relics as agricultural implements, used in hand 

 agriculture, at the end of a stick, as a spade, to form the shallow holes in which the 

 'hill rice' is even now sown by the Karens and Burmese in their hill clearings. 

 If not explained in this manner, we must then regard them as weapons of the chase 

 and war, though this use is, I think, negatived by their thoroughly inefficient 

 character for such purposes." 



Since the above extract was written, Mr. Ball has discovered stone weapons of 

 the ' shouldered ' or Burmese type in India, near Jabalpur, and the Central 

 Provinces.' 



In the Indian Antiquary, November 1st, 1872, Dr. Mason thus describes some 

 copper celts from Toung ngoo. 



"In the Toung-ngoo district copper celts are not uncommon. They are some- 

 times little wedges of the same size and shape as the most common of the stone celts. 

 One is 1-8 inches long by 1-7 broad, and 06 thick at the end; and weighs 10 tolas. 

 It is bevelled down on both sides at the edge, and has evidently been cast in a mould, 

 with, I think, some admixture of metal not copper. 



" Another, but rarer form, is that of a small spade, cast with a hollow socket in 

 which to insert a wooden handle, such as are used in cultivation by both Burmese 

 and Karens, and other tribes of the present day, but made of iron. It is 3'2 inches 

 long, by r7 wide at the broadest part. 



"A third form is that of the hollow spearheads. The length is 4-4 inches hollow 

 ■with a depth of 3-9, leaving 0-5 solid at the margin. The width of the broadest 

 part is 3-2. Another spearhead of the same general outline, but smaller, with sharper 

 barbs, and one larger than the other, was brought me by a Shan, who said it came 

 from the borders of China. It was 3-4 inches long, by 2-6 broad at the blade. 



"Besides the foi-m usually recognized as celts, the Karens associate with them a 

 miscellaneous collection of circular articles both of stone and bronze. The most 

 notable among them is a stone quoit, 4-3 inches in diameter, with a hollow in the 

 centre 2-2 across, leaving the stone circle 1-1 broad; and which is 0-5 thick on the 

 inner side, but is bevelled oif to a sharp edge on the margin. I have heard of several 

 specimens, but the one I examined is a tine polished instrument made of striped 

 jasper." 



' Ball's Junglo Life in Iiuliu, Appiudix B. 



