Ball — On Ancient Stone Implements of India. 395 



•of an axe, used in the hand for dressing skins. It appears to have 

 seen some service ; but probably never at at any time had so highly 

 finished a surface as the implements numbered 9 and 10. These are 

 made of a dense volcanic rock, susceptible of receiving a high polish. 

 It is not unlikely that they likewise were used for dressing skins. In 

 general appearance they closely resemble certain well-known forms of 

 European celts. They were discovered in some forest land, which 

 has recently been cleared for tea cultivation on the slopes of Paris- 

 nath, a well-known lofty hill in Western Bengal, which has for many 

 years attracted notice as a place of pilgrimage by the people of the 

 •Jain religion throughout India, and more recently as a site for an 

 attempted Sanitarium, which has proved a failure. I am indebted to 

 Mr. I. J. "Whitty, C.E., for these specimens. 



In the district of Singhbhum I obtained from Mr. Ritchie, Super- 

 intendent of Police, two specimens of the specialised Burmese type of 

 shouldered adze, Plate 15, Figs. 11 and 12. In my original account of 

 them I pointed out this resemblance, and further stated that they were 

 likewise regarded by the people of the country as being thunderbolts, 

 •as is also the case in Burmah. Shortly after the publication of my 

 Paper, General Sir Arthur Phayre, then in the Mauritius, communicated 

 the interesting fact that the valley of the Irawadi, where many of the 

 Burmese implements have been found, is inhabited by a race of people 

 called Muns, whose language and customs show an affinity for those 

 of the Mundas, who inhabit Singhbhum and adjoining districts. 

 Thus, the probability of a pre-historic connexion having existed be- 

 comes very great. It is in part the success of this identification that 

 has led me on to the wider generalisation of the present Paper. 



Assam and Adjoining Cotjxteees. 



In Assam and the neighbouring hills polished celts, approximating 

 in character to the unshouldered Burmese forms,* have been disco- 

 vered in small numbers at wide intervals. The materials used in their 

 manufacture vary from jade to gneiss and soft argillaceous slate. They 

 appear to have been used principally as hoes for weeding and planting 

 on the hill sides. Among the Assamese they are believed, as in Burmah, 

 to be thunderbolts. The Nagas, however, according to Mr. Peale, say 

 that they belong to a former and extinct race of people, and seem to 

 regard them as uncanny objects, which it is advisable for them to 

 leave alone. 



Burmah:. 



Like Mr. Poote in Madras, so Mr. "W. Theobald, also of the 

 Geological Survey, is the great authority on the stone implements of 



* It seems, however, to be usual with them to have the edges ground down on 

 both sides, while in the Burmese implements the cutting surface is generally a 

 <-hisel-like edge. 



