STONE IMPLEMENTS. ETC., IN THE DORSET MUSEUM. 17 



New Zealand, was undoubtedly an implement for getting at the 

 marrow. Further, I think we may fairly give trust and acceptance 

 to the opinion of experienced antiquaries. 



In now proceeding to speak of the chief specimens in the Dorset 

 Museum I shall follow Evans, both in beginning with Neolithic 

 implements and (roughly) in order of their varieties. I shall also 

 be guided by him in including within the four corners of the 

 subject several contrivances and articles not exactly implements. 



i. Evans' first class of Neolithic implements consists of celts. 

 First used, he says, as an antiquarian word in 1696, the name celt 

 seems, to my mind, curiously ill chosen. It makes many think 

 that it has some reference to the Celtic race. It has none. Further, 

 it is from celtts, a Latin word found in only one single, solitary 

 place namely, the Vulgate of Job xix., 24. Otherwise unknown 

 in antiquity, it looks as if it must be a scribe's mistake. Then it 

 is taken to mean in that verse a chisel. In antiquarian parlance it 

 means an implement more like an axe. There is a glamour about 

 celts. They were, nay are, called thunderbolts, and credited with 

 magic power as charms. Before pointing out a few of our Dorset 

 specimens I would say, in passing, that they give one proof, among 

 many, that progress is not always, and in all things, a characteristic 

 of man. In the chipping of flints and other stones into large 

 implements the Neolithic men seem to have been less skilful 

 than some of the much more remote Palaeolithic men. And it is 

 chipping that is the art part of stone implement making. What 

 the Neolithic people did introduce (it seems) was smoothing the 

 tools. But Ruskin lays down that nothing producible merely by 

 patience and sandpaper is artistic. Now we have chipped Neolithic 

 celts far ruder, to my eye, than most large Palaeolithic implements. 

 And here, while speaking of rude celts, a word may fitly be said 

 of certain extremely rough worked flints and other stones, also of 

 Neolithic date in the opinion of experts, as I understand. They 

 are of the class of implements called by some mattocks, and were 

 in certain instances probably used in tillage. So, likely enough, 

 were the ruder celts. But several of these extra-rough mattocks, 



