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previously described, no longer carries water, and part of which is still used to supply irrigation water to a village. The ancient grave at Lo-A-Tsai on Lamma Island is made of similar stones; and I am inclined to associate also with these people a number of high standing stones, some of which are still cult objects, of which one stands above Bowen Road, another overlooking Sha Tin115 is known to Europeans by the unnecessarily sneering name of the "Amah Rock". A stone of this type, standing above a rock pool which looks as though it had been artificially enlarged and made circular, stands between the deserted village of Pak Koks at the south-western tip of Shek Pik Bay128 and the new village to which the ancient Fung2 clan of Fan Puisi were moved to make room for the Shek Pik Reservoir. Another overlooks Long Harbour, and about this one there is some mystery, since every year at approximately the date of the Mid-Autumn Festival a considerable number of women can be seen flocking up the hill to this stone, but all villages within walking distance flatly deny knowledge of any such celebration. This is at best negative evidence, and may not indicate the persistence of a pre-Chinese tradition; for a similar reticence regarding religious celebrations by women is observed at the great Nu-kwa102 temple on Honam Island154
opposite Canton, which men are seldom allowed to visit. I am trying to plot the positions of all these stone works and believe that when the list is finished, it will arrange itself into three circuits on Lantao Island, one on Lamma Island, two on Hong Kong Island, two on the Saikung126 Peninsula and three or four in the rest of the New Territories. This work might well be taken in hand by someone younger, but it must be someone who is fond of walking; and walkers have a peculiar blind spot when it comes to the collection of this kind of evidence, for I have often had to draw the attention of my walking companions even to the most obvious systems of stone walls which they have been walking right past, or even over, without noticing. The Lo-A-Tsai grave is situated close by a path and the first time I passed it, in the company of five villagers, I asked them what it was though most of them used that path nearly every day, none had ever before noticed the grave!
A piece which is of vital importance and may indeed be what holds the rest of our jigsaw puzzle together is the correct identification of occupied sites on the seashore. There are many