1892-5)3.] NOTES ON THE WESTERN Dl^N^S. 137 



a still later period has been found in an Etruscan tomb alongside with a 

 stone knife. At Bibracte, the most important town of the yEdui in 

 ancient Gaul, scientific exploration has brought to light work on metal 

 and coins mingled with flint arrow heads, polished stone axes and a 

 flint knife. Similar discoveries have been made in many places through- 

 out France.* In ancient Egypt, stone and metal implements were also 

 used contemporaneously. f In the centre and south of modern Africa, 

 the negroes, according to Lenormant " have never known bronze, and 

 work hardly any copper. Instead of this, they manufacture iron wares 

 in large quantities and for this purpose make use of a process which was 

 not communicated to them from the outside. Hence they themselves 

 discovered the method of manufacturing iron, and when they gave up 

 the use of stone implements, they passed to the manufacture of this 

 metal.": 



These few instances chosen among many others will, I hope, suffice 

 to prove that the sharp and almost instantaneous change from one age 

 to another and the strictly successive order generally believed to have 

 been followed in these transitions are, in many cases, more fancied than 

 real. Metal objects were apparently the property of the leaders and the 

 higher classes generally while the lower classes must have contented 

 themselves with the stone equivalents, just as in the Middle Ages only 

 the knights wore steel armour. 



That copper and iron were to be found among the Carriers long before 

 these aborigines even suspected the existence of the whites there can be 

 no doubt» But the use of these metals was, of course, restricted to a 

 few fancy objects or working tools. Moreover, in so far at least as that 

 tribe is concerned, neither copper nor iron was indigenous and the former 

 metal only was wrought by its members. Concerning its introduction 

 among the Carriers, I take the liberty of reproducing here a short native 

 legend which I have already quoted elsewhere.§ 



"In times not very remote, all the Indians (themselves among the 

 rest) congregated at a certain point of the sea coast, around a tower-like 

 copper mountain emerging from the midst of the water. Their object was 

 to decide which tribe should become the possessor thereof. When all 

 had united in shouting, the mountain began gradually to totter, and the 

 Haidahs who are blessed with big heads and strong voices caused it 



* See "Christian Anthropology," New York, 1892, p. 324. 



t Ibid. 



+ '■'■Die Anfdnge der Cultiir,'" vol. I. p. 57. 



§ "The Western Denes," Proc. Canadian Institute, 1888-89. 



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