47 
‘“‘ Purgatory Hammers,” and were buried with their owners that 
they might have the wherewithal tc thunder at the gates of 
purgatory till the heavenly janitor appeared. They are known 
in northern Germany and Scandinavia as Thor’s Hammers. 
Some authors have maintained that they were used for warlike 
purposes, so late as eight or ten centuries of our era. There are 
many forms of these axes; some with double edges or those 
with a cutting or but slightly blunted edge at either end. Adzes 
or implements with the edge at right angles to the shafthole. 
Axes with the edge at one end only, the hole being at the other 
end, which is rounded. These shade off into axe-hammers, 
sharp at one end, and more or less hammer-like at the other; 
the shafthole being usually near the centre. They were 
probably intended to serve more than one purpose, and that, 
while those of adze-like form were probably tools either for 
agriculture or for carpentry, and the large, heavy axe-hammers 
also served some analogous purpose, the smaller class of imple- 
ments may be considered as weapons. Mr. Yates showed several 
specimens of modern stone implements from New Zealand, New 
Guinea, Australia, and Fiji Islands, in his own collection, 
showing the various modes of hafting. He stated that very few 
of the ancient implements had been found in England with their 
hafts, but one of the most interesting was discovered by 
Mr. R. D. Darbishire, F.S.A., in the Ehenside Tarn, in 1871, 
full particulars of which were given in vol. xliv. of Archeologia. 
Several stone mauls, obtained by the lecturer from the old 
copper mines at Alderley Hidge, were exhibited; these had 
evidently been used for crushing and pounding the copper ore. 
In speaking of arrow-heads, Mr. Yates said that in Scotland 
and Ireland they are popularly regarded as missiles of elves. 
They are frequently set in silver and worn as armlets. In the 
north of Ireland, when cattle are sick, the fairy doctor is sent 
for, and he often says that the beast has been elf-shot or stricken 
by fairy darts, and by some legerdemain contrives to find in its 
skin one or more poisonous weapons, which, with some coins, 
are then placed in the water which is given the animal to drink, 
and a cure is said to be effected. The mode of fastening the 
arrow and spear heads by modern savages, was shown in 
specimens in the lecturer’s collection from Arctic regions, 
Australia, Admiralty Islands, and other places. 
Scrapers were the next implements described, so-called because 
of their similarity in character to stone implements used amongst 
the Esquimaux for scraping skins and other purposes. Besides 
being used for scraping hides and preparing leather, ii is 
supposed that they may have been used for making pins and 
other small articles of bone. Their outline is in some cases 
horse-shoe shaped or kite shaped, in others it is discoidal or 
