EDGE TOOLS IN EARLY BRITAIN. 135 



length of a dark time in Greek history, Bronze smithery had 

 been so far a wonted craft of the Greeks that a smith in metal 

 was called by them a x.a\Kovpyos, a bronze or brass smith, 

 Ztiritiovpyos long afterwards an iron-smith. 



" At what time Bronze tools came into the hands of Britons 

 in this land, it is not easy to tell, nor are we sure by what line 

 or form of traffic they were brought hither ; whether from 

 Phenicians of Cadiz, or Phenicia, or through Gaul, or straight 

 over the sea. Some bronze might have come through Gaul, 

 and it may be more of it might have been brought over the 

 sea by the Phenicians. There is a tradition in British lore 

 that there came into Britain in early times a people whom 

 the Britons call " Hir ei Peisieu," long coats, or " Long- 

 coated men," but it does not say that they came in war, or 

 where in Britain they abode, or whence or why they came. 

 Strabo, the Greek geographer 44 years B.C., writes of the 

 Cassiterides (Scilly Islands), whither it is said the Phenicians 

 came for tin "The Kattiterides are indeed ten, and they 

 be near each other towards the north from the haven of 

 the Cornish Artabii. One of them is uninhabited, but on 

 the others there are men with black coats down to their feet, 

 belted round the waist, walking about with sticks or wands, 

 and with beards like goats. They live mostly on cattle. 

 They have as metals tin and lead, and they get for these and 

 for their hides, crockery, and salt, and Bronze ware for the 

 Chapmen. 



" This is interesting, as it shews that these " Long coats " 

 were middle men between the Phenicians and the Chapmen 

 of Britain who retailed the Phenician wares to the Britons. 

 Now who should these men be but the long-coats of the 

 Welsh tradition ? The tradition is that they were in-comers, 

 and the garb of these men shows they were not Britons. 

 They were most likely Phenicians, or successors of Phenicians 

 who were put there at the head-quarters of their staple trade 

 with the Britons, and who also catered for the Phenician 

 crews, buying into their stores of tin and hides and selling 

 out from them their own wares. In this way bronze tools 



