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Nov. 1, 1872.]
At the March meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for the present year, Capt. Fryer exhibited more than one hundred specimens of celts which he had collected in Burmah, the largest collection ever made; but no detailed description has yet been published of them.
In the Rangoon Times of April 18, 1872, the Curator of the Phayre Museum acknowledges the reception of twenty-five specimens from Capt. Fryer with tabular notices of " Implement-Rock Material-weight-where found."
THE CELTS OF TOUNGO0.
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4 a, and of the end, to show the thickness, in Fig. 4 b.
All the celts collected by Capt. Fryer are of stone, as are also all those collected by Mr. Theobald excepting the "fragment of a brass celt which was shown me near Maulmain, and was regarded by me of doubtful authority."
In the Toungoo district copper celts are not uncommon. They are sometimes little wedges of the same size and shape as the most common of the stone celts. Fig. 5. is the tracing of one. It is 18 inches long by 17 broad, and 6 thick at the end; and weighs 10 tolas. It is bevelled down on both sides at the edge and has evidently been cast in a mould with, I think, some admixture of metal not copper.
All the specimens collected by Mr. Theobald and Capt. Fryer are from the Tenasserim Provinces, Pegu, or Arakan. It is here proposed to notice a few which have come under my own observation in the Toungoo district.
Another, but rarer form, is that of a small spade, cast with a hollow socket in which to insert a wooden handle, such as are used in cultivation by both Burmese and Karens and other tribes at the present day, but made of iron. A tracing of one is given in Fig. 6. It is 3.2 inches long by 17 wide at the broadest part. In the specimen figured, a portion of the upper side of the socket has been broken off.
One of the most common forms of the small stone implements is given in Fig. 1a. The edge is bevelled down on both sides, but more on one side than the other, as may be seen by the form of the border given in Fig. 1 6. The specimen from which these tracings were taken is made of basalt, as most of this type are; occasionally they are met formed of schistose rock. Some specimens have the corners at the cutting edge more angular, and others more rounded than the one figured. A second form has a cutting edge on three sides, and is even slightly sharpened behind. A sketch of one is given in Fig. 2 and is formed of a schistose rock, as are all of this type that I have seen. A third form is that of a small adze with shoulders. A tracing of one is given in Fig. 3 a. and its side in Fig. 3 b. The specimen was formed of basalt, as are most of the specimens I have seen in Toungoo.
A third form is that of the hollow spearheads. A figure of one is given in Fig. 7 a. The length is 4-4 inches hollow with a depth of 3.9, leaving 0.5 solid at the margin. The width of the broadest part is 3.2. The lines in the figure are on one side only, and are raised above the surface, showing that they were in the mould when the instrument was cast. Fig. 7 b. is a tracing of the end, showing a hollow space 1.6 inches long by 0-5 wide. The chevron is hardly pre-historic. Another spearhead of the same general outline but smaller, with sharper barbs, and one larger than the other, was brought me by a Shân who said it came from the borders of China. A sketch of it is given at Fig. 8. It was 3.4 inches long by 2.6 broad at the blade. P
But the most remarkable stone instrument, which I have seen or heard of in Burmah is a curved two-edged sword or dagger, but the point is broken off. It is nearly ten inches long by three and a half broad, at its widest part, and is six tenths of an inch thick. Three inches of the lower part is narrowed down to two inches and a half in width for a handle, leaving the blade on each side to form a shoulder. It is made of basalt, but where the stone has not been recently chipped or ground down, it has a soft whitish incrustation, owing to the decay of the rock from exposure to the atmosphere. On this surface some regular cross lines have been drawn, some of which are nearly obliterated; but for what object is not clear.
Besides the forms usually recognized as celts, the Karens associate with them a miscellaneous collection of circular articles both of stone and bronze. The most notable among them is a stone quoit, 4.3 inches in diameter, with a hollow in the centre 2-2 across, leaving the stone circle 1.1 broad; and which is 0.5 thick on the inner side, but is bevelled off to a sharp edge on the margin. I have heard of several specimens, but the one I examined is a fine polished instrument
A tracing of the instrument is given in Fig. made of striped jasper, and before the edges
The lithographs are 3-4ths of the scale of Dr. Mason's tracings.-ED.
