VI.] THE SOUTHERN MONGOLS. 219 



documents to the rude and savage times, which in China as 

 elsewhere certainly preceded the historic period. Three different 

 prehistoric ages are even discriminated, and tradition relates how 

 Fu-hi introduced wooden, Thin-ming stone, and Shi-yu metal 

 implements 1 . Later, when their origin and use were forgotten, 

 the jade axes, like those from Yunnan, were looked on as bolts 

 hurled to the earth by the god of thunder, while the arrow-heads, 

 supposed to be also of divine origin, were endowed in the 

 popular fancy with special virtues and even regarded as emblems 

 of sovereignty. Thus may perhaps be explained the curious fact 

 that in early times, before the i2th century B.C., tribute in flint 

 weapons was paid to the imperial government by some of the 

 reduced wild tribes of the western uplands. 



These men of the Stone and Metal Ages are no doubt still 

 largely represented, not only amongst the rude hill 



tribes of the southern and western borderlands, but Early Migra- 

 tions. 



also amongst the settled and cultured lowlanders 

 of the great fluvial valleys. The "Hundred Families," as the 

 first immigrants called themselves, came traditionally from the 

 north-western regions beyond the Hoang-ho. According to the 



ruler belongs to the fabulous period, and is stated to have reigned 115 years. 

 The first certain date would appear to be that of Yau, first of the Chinese sages 

 and reformer of the calendar (2357 B.C.). The date 2254 B.C. for Confucius's 

 model king Shun seems also established. But of course all this is modern 

 history compared with the now determined Babylonian and Egyptian records. 



1 Amongst the metals reference is made to iron so early as the time of the 

 Emperor Ta Yii (2200 B.C.), when it is mentioned as an article of tribute in the 

 Shu-King. Prof. F. Hirth, who states this fact, adds that during the same 

 period, if not even earlier, iron was already a flourishing industry in the Liang 

 district (Paper on the History of Chinese Culture, Munich Anthropological 

 Society, April, 1898). At the discussion which followed the reading of this 

 paper Prof. Montelius argued that iron was unknown in Western Asia and 

 Egypt before 1500 B.C., although the point was contested by Prof. Hommel, 

 who quoted a word for iron in the earliest Egyptian texts. Montelius, however, 

 explained that terms originally meaning "ore" or "metal" were afterwards 

 used for " iron." Such was certainly the case with the Gk xa\/cos, at first 

 "copper," then metal in general, and used still later for aLd-rjpos, "iron"; 

 hence %a\Kei5s = coppersmith, blacksmith, and even goldsmith. So also with 

 the Lat. aes (Sanskrit ay as, akin to aurora, with simple idea of brightness), 

 used first especially for copper (aes cyprtuw, cupnun}, and then for bronze 

 (Lewis and Short). 



