~ 200 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [ August, 1905. 
_ food and small articles are thrown into the stream. Those who 
_-yowed the gift of hens or goats, go to the temple or shrine of the 
goddess, and there they will either set free those creatures or will 
slaughter them and leave the remains to be removed by the 
sweepers or other low-caste people. It so happened that the holi 
_ festival came on when the epidemic was in full force. I had ex- 
pected this festival to be observed with much zest as the harvest 
had been plentiful. In such years all festivals are observed with 
muchado. To my surprise the holi festival that year received but 
little attention, and singing and obscene language were guardedly 
employed. The reason, | learned, was the presence of the mata in 
their midst. It was considered offensive to the goddess to sing 
the holi songs. Special songs are sung at night to please the god- 
dess, and it will be interesting some time to have these songs re- 
corded and translated and published in this Journal. 
83. Concerning Stone Inplements.!|—W hile conducting a class of 
oung men, I happened to have on my table a copy of the Journal 
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. I showed the class illustrations 
of the stone implements in the Journal. One of the men remarked, 
‘“When I wasa boy my father had a stone like that one,” pointing 
out one in the illustrations. The youngman said his father called 
it a “sarag patar”’—heaven or sky stone. [immediately saw the 
importance of this name and was positive the young man referred to 
astoneimplement. In widely separated countries the belief prevails 
that the stone implements are thunderbolts, and here was the name 
“heaven stone”? used by the people in Mungeli. Next morning 
I made further inquiries, and my syce offered to get me a “ sarag 
patar’’ which was owned by one of his uncles. The uncle turned 
up in due time bringing with hima bored stone, and I saw 
immediately that it was undoubtedly a stone implement of former 
days. The only use for which this stone was now employed was 
as a remedy for galwa, swollen glands, round the neck. The 
man who owned the stone, said it had come down from father to 
to son in his family, for generations. Together with this 
stone the man brought me a piece of stag’s horn, which he said 
had always been with thestone. I now very much regret that I 
took no interest in the stag’s horn and purchased only the bored 
stone. It did not occur to me that there was any possible con- 
nection between the stone and the stag’s horn. Some months later 
I was reading Sir Daniel Wilson’s book on Left-handedness. 
On page 49, he shows that in all probability the makers of flint 
arrows, etc., employed bones or horns, for these were the only imple- 
plements at their service. The fact that a stone and a stag’s horn 
were handed down for generations together would indicate some close 
connection between the two ;and it seems probable that the stag’s 
horn was the implement with which the stone wasthe bored. After 
two years of search I have succeeded in getting together only a 
dozen stones. Some of these have been badly rubbed when they 
were used medicinally. But we are able to judge of their original 
shape and form. One or two of the stones are beautifully smooth 
inside where bored, ‘as smooth as glass,” as a friend remarked. 
1 See Plate VI. 
