1869.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 183 



All the specimens of stone implements figured except fig. 2, pi. IV, 

 which was from near Moulmein, were procured by me in the Prome 

 district, east of the Irawadi ; near the frontier and below Prome they 



become scarce, increasing in abundance, — to credit native testimony 



above the frontier. 



The universal testimony of the Burmese goes to prove that these 

 implements are picked up on the surface of the hills, in the fields or 

 clearings made for cultivation, and I never heard of their being found 

 in the plains or anywhere, save on the hill sides, by the peasants en- 

 gaged in clearing and cultivating them. This I think points to their 

 accidental loss or abandonment by their original owners, in spots which 

 supplied the wants of a long passed generation, as they do the present 

 race. Supposing, however, that the men who wrought these implements 

 were ignorant of metal, or I may say iron, it is not easy to comprehend, 

 how they were able to effect clearances, as the present race does, in the 

 gigantic forests of Pegu ; assuredly heavier and more difficult to cope 

 with by feeble men then, than now, and without clearing the forest, no 

 cultivation would be possible in its umbrageous recesses. 



On the question then, whether the makers of these stone implements 

 possessed iron also, depends, I think, the right determination of their 

 use. If in possession of the means for clearing the hill sides suf- 

 ficiently for the cultivation of cereals, then I should incline to regard 

 these stone relics as agricultural implements, used in hand agriculture, 

 at the end of a stick, as a spade, to form the shallow holes in which 

 the " hill rice" is even now sown by the Karens and Burmese in their 

 hill clearings. If not explained in this manner, we must then regard 

 them as weapons of the chase and war, though this use is, I think, 

 negatived by their thoroughly inefficient character for such purposes. 



Doubtless we shall be in a better position to argue their uses when 

 a larger collection has been made, and any present remarks are, there- 

 fore, only tentative and designed to elicit additional information, 



The most remarkable specimens, which seem to belong almost to 

 another class of weapons from the rest, are those represented in figs. 

 1 and 2 of pi. III. 



Fig. 1 (pi. Ill) is now in London, where I took it for comparison, and 



I a very similar implement not quite so massive, but of the identical type, 

 is in the "Christy" Museum, marked "Sumatra ;" and this is the only 



