ETHNOLOGY. 395 



country people pa.d no attention whatever to the' relics they constantly 

 met almost everywhere, and sometimes in enormous quantities, while 

 cultivating the ground. In plowing up our ancient cemeteries, re- 

 peatedly and at various depths, they have destroyed the funeral urns; 

 but neither their fraguieuts and contents nor the skeletons discovered 

 in the more regular burying-places excited their curiosity or tempted 

 them to closer examinations. When they found articles of bronze they 

 sold them like old iron or applied them to their own use, after they had 

 been transformed by the blacksmith according to their notions. How 

 many objects have thus been lost which would have served to elucidate 

 the condition of an unknown people that has passed away long ago ! 



Our predecessors only collected flint articles, which they broke into 

 pieces of proper size to be used for striking fire. The stone axes or 

 "thunderbolts," to which they attributed in their superstitious minds 

 the virtue of curing various diseases of men and beasts, were likewise 

 preserved by them, and the myths attached to these implements are 

 here the same as in other parts of Europe. Wherever people speak of 

 thunderbolts the superstitions to which they have given rise are so in- 

 veterate and general, and the belief in their supposed powers appears 

 so firmly rooted, that no stronger proofs of their high antiquity could be 

 adduced. 



This is all I can say concerning the opinions which the objects per- 

 taining to remote prehistoric ages have elicited among our compatriots, 

 even in the present century ! 



What has been done within the last forty years, since the brothers 

 Augustus and Francis de Kubinyi and my distinguished predecessor, 

 Mr. John Erdy, commenced the study of our antiquities, was commu- 

 nicated by me to the congress at Paris in my sketch of the prehistoric 

 times of Hungary, in which I have summed up from memory, and in a 

 very succinct manner, all that relates to this epoch. * To this I have 

 only very little to add at present. 



Prior to the Universal Exposition at Paris, in 1867, several of our 

 foreign colleagues had visited our archaeological museum. They fully 

 appreciated our articles of bronze and precious metals, which then al- 

 most exclusively constituted our prehistoric collections. The museums 

 of the neighboring countries were not ahead of us in that respect, con- 

 sidering that the study of classical archseology prevailed everywhere at 

 that period. Nothing was bought or exhibited but choice specimens of 

 classical antiquity, or such as were made of precious metals, and their 

 number sufficed to satisfy the interest of the curious. 



The resources of the National Museum being very limited, most of 

 the specimens were the gifts of good patriots, and they were depos- 

 ited without order or system, occupying the places assigned to them by 

 the generous donors. 



A new era for these studies and for our collections dates from the in- 



" See Compte-rendu de la II« Session a Paris, p. 321, etc. 



