No. 58. — 1907.] PREHISTORIC STONES IN CEYLON. 273 



account of their want of workmanship, it being urged that 

 they were merely pieces of sea- washed rubble. " No such 

 implements were to be found on the beach, however," and I 

 am afraid this is the only point we can bring forward in favour 

 of the chips (No. 14), for none of these flakes of " shaken " 

 quartz are to be found except in the general camping grounds 

 on our mountain ridges. 



The Veddas are a small-handed race, the Drs. Sarasin tell 

 us, and these stones appear to give us the same information of 

 the prehistoric. We merely surmise the uses they were put 

 to : the peeling of the arrow-wands, and scraping of the bow 

 into shape, and shafts of spear or javelin, the skinning of the 

 slain animal, and dressing of the skins for raiment, manufacture 

 of bags for porterage of their stone implements, &c. Beyond 

 this there was no " necessity." " They ate, they drank, and 

 slept, and then, they ate, they drank, and slept again" ; but 

 I suspect, from the nature of their artillery, that hunting enter- 

 tained them not a little. 



Almost without exception these stones have been collected 

 since the Drs. Sarasin made their interesting discovery ; their 

 existence, of course, was known to me some time previously. 

 All stones collected and preserved, previous to their letter in 

 the Observer of April 19 this year, about 100 in all, fair exam- 

 ples, have been forwarded to the Drs. Sarasin. These will be 

 described and probably illustrated in the book the Doctors 

 are writing on this subject. 



The main features of interest in these specimens lie in the 

 circumstance that the Doctors recognized the nature of the 

 stones which had been forwarded to them in Kandy as being 

 very similar in style to those forming their Uva discoveries. 



An attempt has been made to place this lot in some sort of 

 arrangement to allow of their exhibition, by showing the nature 

 of the crystals from which most of their keenest implements 

 were struck, (1) showing their rough water- worn exterior ; and 

 (la) flakes showing the outer skin of such crystals on their 

 surface. These are marked No. 1 and No. la. 



The crystal marked No. 1 has had a chip taken off, probably 

 by a Vedda, as a commencement ; this shows nicely the internal 

 nature of the stone. 



