PREHISTORIC TIMES. 



103 



handle might pass. No bronze implements of this description have 

 been yet found in Great Britain, though a few have occurred in Den- 

 mark, where they are of great beauty and highly decorated. 



The swords of the Bronze Age are always more or less leaf-like in 

 shape, double-edged, sharp-pointed, and intended for stabbing and 



thrusting, rather than for cutting. 



Fish-hooks, knives, bracelets, pins, and rings, of the same era, are 

 also discovered in great numbers in various parts of Europe. They 



Bracelets . Switzerland. 



Bronze Hair-pins. Switzerland. 



are well cast, and show considerable skill in metallurgy ; ana the 

 beauty of their form and ornamentation indicates no little develop- 

 ment of the artistic faculties. 



We should hardly have hoped to ascertain much of the manner in 

 which the people of the Bronze Age were dressed. Considering how 

 perishable are the materials out of which clothes are formed, it is won- 

 derful that any fragments of them should have remained to the present 

 day ; yet, in addition to traces of linen tissue, and of the skins of ani- 

 mals used in this period, we possess the whole dress of a chief belong- 

 ing to the Bronze Age. 



