30 Impact of Iron on Thought 



cannot think of our God as modern in appearance. We jvist cannot think of 

 Jahveh with a clean shave, and dressed in an ordinary sack suit, a soft hat, 

 and modern shoes. We can think of Him only as an old man with a long 

 beard. He must wear a robe and His feet must be in sandals. We can hardly 

 imagine Him as riding in an automobile, but rather in an ancient chariot. 

 Even when we address Him we must use the archaic "Thou." 



Since, at the beginnings of ancient worship, a flint knife was used in the 

 sacrificing of offerings, thousands of years had to pass before any priest could 

 think of changing to a metal knife. Finally, when a change did come and the 

 more intelligent classes in many parts of the world accepted Buddhism, Mo- 

 hammedanism, or Christianity, the people in the streets, who still clung to 

 some belief in or fear of their ancient gods, the more ancient demons, and 

 the witches, pixies, fairies and other "little people," felt sure that these beings 

 had kept to the old ways and would never be able even to come near the 

 newfangled iron. 



It is possible, also, that there were other minor reasons for the distrust and 

 fear of iron and the institution of taboos against its use. In the years before 

 looo B.C. what little iron the ancients had came blazing down from heaven, 

 and that doubtless caused most people to fear even to touch it. According to 

 one authority, the people of early Egypt looked on the crude product of the 

 first iron smelters as too impure for any religious purpose. They thought also 

 that it had its origin in the spirits of evil. The early blacksmiths were looked 

 on with considerable fear, and possibly because of this and partly because the 

 products of their skill were so much desired by kings and warriors, when a city 

 was captured and the inhabitants put to the sword, the smiths were usually 

 not molested. 



Another reason for the distrust of iron may have been the common tendency 

 of men, after trying out something new, to ascribe any disaster that later 

 befalls them to their impious break with past customs. Thus, Frazer stated 

 that in Poland iron plowshares long were banned because, following their 

 introduction, there were three bad harvests. That was enough to send the 

 farmers back to their old wooden plows. 



It is possible, also, as Budge^ said, that in some places there was fear of 

 magnetite with its strange properties. In more recent years the devil was 

 thought to reside in it, and hence no one should have a piece of it in his pocket 

 when he went to Mass. 



There is a possibility also that among some subject races iron came to be 

 looked on with fear because the conquerors had decreed that their neighbors 

 were not to have the efficient weapons that could be made from this metal. 

 Thus, we learn from the Bible that "there was no smith found throughout all 

 the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make them swords 

 or spears." 



