396 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Burmah, and has published a number of Papers, the most comprehen- 

 sive and latest of which will he found as an Appendix to his Account 

 of the Geology of Pegu.* Dr. J. Anderson, the Bev. Dr. Mason, and 

 Captain Fryer have also written on this subject. 



I shall not attempt here to enter into details regarding the varie- 

 ties of form which have been met with in Burmah. It will be suffi- 

 cient to state that one class of the so-called specialised Burmese forms 

 have a shouldered adze-like shape, while the other, though unshoul- 

 dered, differ from the ordinary Indian and European celts, in having a 

 chisel instead of a double-sloped cutting edge. 



Specimens are particularly abundant in the valley of the Irawadi, 

 above Prome ; but the districts of Aracan, Tenasserim and Toungoo 

 have also yielded a large number of examples. One only has been 

 found so far to the south as Moulmein. In Western Tunan, the un- 

 shouldered varieties, generally made of jade, were met with by Dr. 

 Anderson. I quote the following curious account of the estimation in 

 which these articles are held by the Burmese, from Mr. Theobald's 

 above-mentioned Paper : — 



"The Burmese call these implements mo-jio, thunder-chain or 

 thunder-bolt, and believe that they descend with the lightning flash, 

 and. after penetrating the earth, work their way back by degrees to 

 the surface, where they are found scattered about the fields, among the 

 lower hills, usually after rain, or on removing crops. The true mo-jio 

 is supposed to possess many occult virtues, and it is not common to 

 find one which does not show signs of having been chipped or scraped 

 for medicinal purposes. 



" One of the chief virtues of the mo-jio is to render the person of 

 the wearer invulnerable ; and many an unlucky mo-jio has succumbed 

 to the popular test, which is to wrap it in a cloth and fire a bullet at 

 it at short range. If the man misses the cloth the authenticity and 

 power of the charm is at once established ; if the stone is fractured it 

 is held not to be a real mo-jio. Other less severe tests are also applied. 

 Fowls, it is supposed, will not venture near rice on which a real 

 mo-jio is lying. Fire will not consume a house which contains one- 

 (though I never heard of this ordeal being attempted). A plantain 

 tree cut down with one will not sprout up again ; and last, but not least 

 in esteem, is the known fact that the owner of a real mo-jio can cut a 

 rainbow in half with it."f 



Andaman Islands. 



Elsewhere in this Paper I have alluded to the fact that, in the 

 Andaman Islands we have a race of people who, at the present day, 

 manufacture flakes from flint pebbles. Near the settlements glass has 



* Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, vol. x. pp. 255-259. 

 t Ibid., p. 171. 



