1907.] 



on Dexterity and the Bend Sinister. 



627 



carried in the right hand, that the sacred vestment is crowned by 

 a right hand, and that in the folded hands the right hand is 

 uppermost. 



Much further back, 1500 B.C., we have right-handedness pro- 

 nounced in the sculpture of the Sun god of Sipara in his shrine (Fig. 6), 

 and further back still, 2000 B.C., we have it again in the giving 

 of the Laws to Kammurah the Sun god (Fig. 7). Referring to 

 Assyrian right-handedness, Dr. WaUis Budge writes to me : " I see 

 no single instance of the use of the left hand." And bear in mind 

 that Dr. Wallis Budge has thousands of tablets and sculptures under 

 his scrutiny at the British Museum. 



In the more conventional art of Egypt the occasional use of 

 the left hand is seen, but in an immense majority of instances it 



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is the right hand that is in use. As everybody goes to Egypt now- 

 adays, it is almost unnecessary to illustrate the statement ; but I 

 may pass before you two or three of what may be called trade pictures. 



1. Reapers at work, 1200 B.C., the sickle in the right hand, 

 the sheaves grasped by the left (Fig. 8). 



2. A carpenter at work, from a Tomb at Thebes, 1500 B.C. 

 (Fig. 9). 



;>. Painters at work, the brush in the rio'ht hand, 1500 B.C. 

 (Fig. 10). 



But if we go beyond historical records and remains and dip into 

 the obscurities that lie beyond, we still have glimpses of right-handed- 

 ness amongst our ancestors in the Bronze Age and even in palaeolithic 

 times. We have here probably one of the most ancient examples of 

 an implement expressly adapted for the right hand, in the handle of a 

 bronze sickle found in a lake dwelling at Brienz in Switzerland and 

 described bv Dr. Keller (Fis^. 11). It is a right-handed implement 



2 S 2 



