1S4 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [July, 



other specimen, I could find in ESngland, approaching it in character. 



It is of basalt, worked perfectly smooth, with here and there, the 

 evidence of its chipped, or primitive stage unobliterated by grinding. 

 Its cutting edge, however, is perfectly worked down and entire, save a 

 little scraping it has been subjected to by the natives before it came 

 into my possession for medicinal purposes, which is sufficient to display 

 the surface change of colour in the stone from atmospheric action. 



Fig. 2 (pi. Ill) is a remarkable form, highly finished, but seems to 

 have suffered fracture across the neck, which may have been an inch or 

 two longer. I judge this was the case, as whilst the sides are squared 

 and polished, the top surface is an unground fracture. This is of 

 much the same material as the last, a fine grained basalt, and may 

 be considered I think as a " chisel," and not a field implement. 

 It is the only one of the type I ever saw in Pegu, and was said to 

 have been found in the Prome district. 



The specimens figured on pi. Ill, fig. 4 and pi. IV, fig. 1, are of the 

 commonest type and somewhat variable as to shape and size. In the 

 British Museum, there is one of this type, presented by Capt. Duff from 

 West of the Iravadi. Many of these implements have seen bad usage, 

 though many of the chips are of recent origin, and made by the Burmese 

 owners for medical use. 



If used as offensive weapons, we must suppose them to have been set 

 in a handle parallel to the cutting edge. I, however, rather incline to 

 think that they were used as implements for digging, and were fixed 

 vertically in a handle at right angles to the edge, but in the same plane 

 as back to front. The shoulders which are so conspicuous a feature on 

 all specimens of this type would, on the latter supposition be of service, 

 but not on the former. Or they may have been fixed hoe-wise with the 

 handle at right angles to the back and front plane. Thus fixed, the 

 shoulders would have been useful, but from their lightness, I incline 

 to the idea of their having been fixed vertically in a handle and used 

 for digging holes, for which their shape of edge is well adapted. 



Fig. 4, on plate IV, belongs to a type which, though not so common 



as the Last, is not rare, and the two pass into each other by intermediate 

 forms. 



Fig. 3, on pi. IV, represents a type not very common, and not un- 

 like some of the implements found in Behar, though the nearest to it 

 that L have seen, have already been pointed out above. 



