WEAPONS OF THE GEEMANI. REINDEEK. 47 



We are thus, in the consideration of this subject under the assumption I have 

 advanced, thrown back about 670 years, at the least, anterior to the time when 

 Tacitus wrote ; and even at that comparatively late day horn or bone, as well as 

 stone implements and weapons of war, must have been largely used by the 

 " Germans," whom, as before shown, I assume, allowing for the changes of time, to 

 represent the ancient people of Aquitaine. I mean particularly that portion of 

 the great German race who inhabited the neighbourhood of the Hercynian Forest 

 the descendants of the VolcaB Tectosages* who migrated thither, as told by Caesar. 

 Tacitus says, "Ne ferrum quidem superest, sicut ex genere telorum colligitur 12 . 

 Rari gladiis, aut majoribus lanceis utuntur : hastas, vel ipsorum vocabulo/ramm* 

 gerunt, angusto et brevi ferro, sed ita acri, et ad usum habili, ut eodem telo, 

 prout ratio poscit, vel cominus vel eminus pugnent" (Germ. vi.). But after- 

 wards we find (I quote from Relhan's notes to Brotier's edition), " Postea, cum 

 ferrum abundaret, Germani gladiis praacipue usi sunt." And again, " Cum ferrum 

 apud Germanos abundavit, non frameis vel hastis, sed longis acutisque gladiis usi 

 sunt," &c., to the same end. Hence I infer that even in the days of Tacitus horn 

 weapons for striking, such as are figured in B. Plates III. & IV., were used by the 

 Germans. These the Romans did not dignify with the name of swords. The 

 swords alluded to by Tacitus as being " rarely used " were doubtless the short 

 straight Roman weapon, obtained in various ways, which, of course, with those 

 who were fortunate enough to obtain them, supplanted the unwieldy prototype of 

 horn. These, again, as civilization advanced and iron became common, gave way 

 to the enormous two-handed weapons which characterized the warfare of the 

 Middle Ages, and which, in the hands of the descendants of the Helvetii, com- 

 mitted such havoc amid the ranks of Burgundy upon the fields of Granson and 

 Morat. 



I omitted to remark that the horn which you describe as having been sent 

 from British Columbia is more probably that of what is here miscalled the Elk 

 than that of the Reindeer 13 . This Elk of the north-west coast is in reality a variety 

 of the Cervus elaphus, and is, I think, distinguished by naturalists as the Wapiti. 

 It attains to an enormous size in these localities ; and its antlers are applied by 

 the natives to many useful purposes. The Reindeer is not found upon this portion 

 of the coast ; though approaching Behring's Strait, it appears to winter in close 

 proximity to the sea-board. Further south it frequents the Coast-range of moun- 



* Lempriere says that the Volcoe of Aquitania received the name of Tectosagso, quod sayls tegerentur. 

 Compare Tacitus, Germ. xvii. Tegumen omnibus sagum, &c. 



