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OCTOBER, 19037 NOTES ON A COLLECTION OF STONE-IMPLEMENTS.
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This story begins thus: - "Formerly Kia-ni-che-kia, king of Kien-t'o-lo (Gandhära), had "a door, all yellow, to his palace. He passed all his time in superintending household affairs "(affaires de l'intérieur) and hardly went out into the city and to the outside." Then follows the tale of some oxen he saw, which ends in saying: -"He charged a high functionary henceforth "to make known to him the outside affairs."
With reference to the "yellow door," ef. the "golden door" of the royal palace at Bhatgaon, in Oldfield : Sketches from Nipal, 1, 130, and Le Bon : Les monuments de l'Inde, fig. 869.
In answer to a doubt expressed by a friendly critic as to the identity of Ki-ni-tch'a and Kanishka, M. Lévi refers to the Itinéraire d'Ou-Kong (Journal Asiatique, July-Dec., 1895, p. 337) Ou-K'ong, or rather his mouthpiece, mentions briefly an episode related in detail by Hionen-tsang: he designates under the name of Ki-ni-tch's the king whom Hiouen-tsang calls Kia-ni-che-kia. Further, the Chenn-i-tien (bk. 77, fol. 44) relates the miraculous conversion of Kanishka in the same manner as Hiouen-taang (Mémoires, 1, 107), but substitutes the form Ki-ni-t'cha of our texts for the Kia-ni-che-kia of Hiouen-tsang.
(To be continued.)
NOTES ON A COLLECTION OF STONE-IMPLEMENTS FROM LADAKH.
BY THE REV. A. H. FRANCKE. In the Spring Myth of the Kesar Saga (ante, Vol. XXXI. p. 39) I remarked that the Stone Age was not quite a matter of the past in Ladakh, and that remains of it were to be found there to the present day. Ladakh is still in many respects in the Stone Age, and a collection of genuine stone-implements still in use is to be made there withoat any difficulty. In fact, the articles included in the illustrations to this paper were collected without any great trouble within the space of three months.
The articles in this collection fall naturally into two groups. Those in common use, made ont of a soft serpentine or bacon-stone, the Speckstein of German, and those practically nover now used, made out of a hard granite or slate. Both varieties were collected readily.
In Plate I., Fig. 1, are shown articles made of the serpentine, and in Fr. 2 articles made of hard stone. I do not yet know exactly how the modern articles are worked up, but a good deal of skill is required in their manufacture, as I ascertained that the stone was not easily worked with even steel tools. They are nevertheless locally quite cheap in price, the larger vessels costing from six annas to a rupee and a half. The manufacturers are Baltis, who either make them in Baltistan and bring them to Ladakh for sale, or come to a hill called Do-ltog-ri near Wanla in Ladakh, where there is a suitable stone, and make them there. Of stone-implements not shown in the Plates attached, may be mentioned the following:1. Granite rectangular tables of the same shape and height from the ground as the
ordinary Ladakhi wooden tables. They are called rdo-chog, are about 8 incbes
from the ground, and are found in many houses. 2. Oil-press for expressing oil from apricot-kernels. The upper surface resembles
very flat dish with a mouthpiece. They are called tsig. 3. Granite chessboard for playing mig-mang, carved in heavy boulders. There is
one such near the Fort of Khalatee and another in the middle of the village. . 4. An Oblong granite “log” for breaking up firewood by beating.
