324 Proceedings oftlie Asiatic Society. [No. 3, 



other stone weapons compared with the multitude of celts, one stone 

 hammer and a single arrow head only as recorded by M. Le Mesurier 

 in addition to the numbers of celts scattered by threes and fours under 

 pipal trees and in temples about Karoi. In the same neighbourhood 

 a stone punch or chisel was procured by me and at Powari east of 

 the Son River a stone hammer, which should encourage us to search 

 more diligently for other relics of this most interesting stone period. 



Very few of the celts in this collection offer any evidence of 

 their ever having been fixed in handles, and where such has been 

 the case, it was probably by a race of far more recent date than the 

 original fabricators, for it is difficult to conceive a form less adapted 

 for such a purpose than the typical celt or more liable to be always 

 falling out : this difficulty is greatest in the case of the smallest 

 celts and when we consider that a little flattening or notching the 

 sides could have enormously facilitated their retention in any handle, 

 it seems difficult to suppose that their original makers ever so used 

 them. Can Nos. 1, 7 or 12, ever have been so used ? No. 4 though 

 merely chipped and not smoothed at the sides, presents the most 

 perfect cutting edge of any in the collection, and what could have been 

 easier than to fashion its sides if ever intended for a handle, or what 

 form can possibly be suggested as less applicable for firm retention 

 in a socket than that given to it, carefully wrought though it be ? 

 Some celts perhaps may have been fitted to handles, but hardly I 

 think by their original makers, for reasons above stated, unless No, 6 

 is an exception. This celt presents a curious pit or depression on one 

 side which might have been intended to receive the head of a handle 

 and could certainly have contributed to its firm retention, though but 

 slightly, and the general form is as in all celts singularly ill-adapted 

 for such an application. The only other possible use I can suggest 

 for this depression is, that of breaking nuts or fruit stones, which 

 would not be so likely to fly off or slip aside if struck with the cupped 

 side of this celt. 



Celt No. 14 is the only one in the collection which exhibits any 

 traces in fact of an adaptation fitting it for a handle, and it only differs 

 from others in certain rude notches cut in the side, which certainly 

 suggest the probability of their having been made to receive some 

 sort of lashing. Their rough finish, however, suggests doubts of their 

 being as old as the original elate of the weapon. The several typical 



