104 
NATURE 
[Fune 9, 1870 
But I think the analogy still holds good, inasmuch as the 
‘“‘oradual variation, &c., of a few primary sounds,” is not the 
result of an éréention to originate a new language, any more than 
the origination of anew species of animal by natural selection is 
_ intentional on the part of the animals engaged in the struggle 
for life. 4 
S. J.’s ‘impression is that the dialects which run wild are 
much more variable than those under man’s care, which is the 
reverse of the case with wild and domestic animals and plants.” 
But it must be remembered that it is the object of the “host of 
schoolmasters, lexicons, and grammars,” who “ watch over the 
Queen’s English” to make that language uniform, to check its 
variations. If breeders of cattle made an effort to obtain perfect 
uniformity in a certain species of animal, I have no doubt that 
the wild herds of that animal, if allowed to exist under different 
conditions, would show much more variation ‘‘ than those under 
man’s care.” But I question whether, in spite of the conserva- 
tive influences of ‘‘schoolmasters, lexicons, and grammars” 
languages do not undergo as much variation through the aréi- 
ficial selection of writers, whose aim it is to make language more 
and more expressive, as animals and plants undergo through the 
artificial selection of breeders and agriculturists. 
King’s Lynn, May 28 ARTHUR RANSOM 
STONE IMPLEMENTS FROM BURMA 
OME notes on the stone implements of Burma, by W. 
Theobald, jun., of the Geological Survey of India, 
contained in the number of the Proceedings of the Asiatic 
Society of Bengal for July, 1869, seem worthy of notice in 
these pages. “The implements are curious as differing 
in form and type, not only from anything found in India, 
but from anything hitherto described from any part of 
Europe, though any implement yet found in India has its 
precise analogue in Europe.” According to Mr. Theobald, 
not only is the form but the material remarkable, as these 
Burmese implements are fashioned either of basalt or 
some schistose rock, quite unlike anything to be met with 
in the district where the implements themselves occur ; a 
fact which he thinks points to their having been brought 
down from Upper Burma (where such implements are 
common) by the original settlers of the country. 
That curious superstition which prevails over almost 
the whole of the globe, and connects the origin of these 
stone implements with the “thunderbolt,” is found also in 
Burma. They are there called »o-gio, or thunderbolts, 
and are believed to accompany the lightning. If a flash 
of lightning is seen to strike the ground, and an earthen 
vessel is inverted over the spot, in the course of a year or 
so the mo-gio will be found in it, having worked its way 
back again to the surface by its own recoil. 
The classical, or rather Plinian, view of this subject has 
been well given by Bishop Marbodzeus, who wrote his 
Book “De Gemmis” early in the 12th century, and who } 
thus speaks of the Ceraunius :— 
Ventorum rabie cum turbidus zestuat aér, 
Cum tonat horrendum, cum fulgurat igneus ether, 
Nubibus elisus czelo cadit ille lapillus, 
Cujus apud Greecos extat de fulmine nomen. 
Its virtues were great in Europe as preserving from injury 
by lightning or shipwreck, and they had even aggressive 
as well as prophylactic powers, enabling the possessors to 
take beleaguered cities and to destroy hostile fleets. 
In Burma they are also highly valued, but are put to 
crucial tests to prove them to be the genuine article, before 
a purchaser pins his faith to them. One test is that if 
wrapped in cloth and fired at with a gun, no effect will be 
produced either on the cloth or its contents, however near 
the aim may be taken, and it is from its presence produc- 
ing invulnerability in its wearer that the 7o-g7o is mainly 
valued. It may be observed that it is not stated whether 
it is the seller who is entrusted to take aim with the gun. 
Another test of its celestial origin is placing it on a mat 
with a quantity of rice. If genuine, no fowl or other 
creature will venture near it. Again, a plaintain tree 
cut down with it ought to die, and not, as is usual, to 
send up anew shoot. If genuine, it preserves from fire, 
but it has also great medicinal virtues, and a small chip 
administered internally is considered a cure for inflamma- 
tion of the liver or other internal organs, and is also a 
specific for ophthalmia. The virtues of stone axes in Ger- 
many, as summarised by Preusker in his “ Blicke in die 
vaterlandische Vorzeit,” are curiously similar to those of 
the Burmese mo-gios. They preserve the house in which 
they are from lightning, they perspire when a storm is 
approaching, they are good for diseases of man and beast, 
they increase the milk of cows, they assist the birth of 
children, and powder scraped from them may be taken 
with advantage internally as a remedy for certain dis- 
eases. 
The types of these Burmese instruments described by 
Mr. Theobald seem susceptible of arrangement under 
four heads. 
1. “A rough, stout, wedge-shaped instrument,” which, 
to judge from the figure, resembles closely the better 
finished specimens of flint hatchets, of the type which 
occurs in the Danish Kjékkenméddings. 
This form is very rare. 
2. A hatchet with flat sides converging towards the 
base, which is square, and with a segmental edge, much 
like a common German form, 
This type is common. 
3. A long adze, with square, slightly converging sides, 
and a bevelled segmental edge, in character much resem- 
bling some of the implements discovered in Java, Borneo, 
and Sumatra, and also a New Zealand form ; and— 
4. Implements of the same character so far as the edge 
and sides are concerned, but having the butt end reduced 
in width so as to produce a square shoulder on each side 
of the blade. In some this reduction in width extends 
more than half the length of the blade, so as to produce 
a T-shaped form, These shorter specimens are the most 
common. This form appears to be peculiar to Burma, 
One of them has been figured by the Society of Anti- 
quaries (Proc. N.S. vol. ii. 96). 
In some cases the lashings used to fasten them to their 
hafts have left traces on the stone. The implements are 
usually picked up on the surface of the hills, in the fields, 
or clearings made for cultivation, and not in the plains, 
Mr. Theobald seems inclined to doubt whether, without 
the use of iron also, those who made these implements 
could have effected clearances in the gigantic forests of 
Pegu ; but it may be urged against this view that by calling 
in the aid of fire the efficiency of such tools is almost as 
great as if they had been formed of metal, and it is diffi- 
cult to conceive a people in possession either of bronze 
or iron bestowing the necessary time and trouble on the 
fashioning of stone tools, when those of metal were at 
their command, which, whether fire were employed in 
the clearance or no, were for general purposes so 
much more effective. If the makers of these stone 
tools had been in possession of other means for clear- 
ing the hill sides, then Mr. Theobald would be inclined 
to regard the stone relics as agricultural implements 
used in hand agriculture, at the end of sticks, as a 
kind of spade, to form the shallow holes for the culti- 
vation of “hill rice.” If not explained in this manner, 
he argues, we must regard them as weapons of the chase 
and war, though this use is, he thinks, negatived by their 
thoroughly inefficient character for such purposes. To 
this may be objected, first, that the material of which 
they are usually formed is basalt, a stone constantly used 
as a material for cutting tools ; secondly, that the presence 
of the square shoulders, so like those on the horn sockets 
for hatchets of the Swiss Lake-dwellers, seems to testify 
to the tools having been used as adzes or axes, or possibly 
chisels ; and thirdly, that if they had been required merely 
for hoeing or digging, the trouble of grinding and polsting 
might and would have been saved. We will only ad 
