334 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



It is recognized, however, by means of the proofs 

 furnished by archaeological and philological researches, 

 that the different races of mankind which have succeeded 

 one another in Europe have exhibited a constant pro- 

 gression, not only in physical development, but also in 

 intelligence and in the aptitude to practise various in- 

 dustries and arts. The remains found in many regions 

 exhibit this gradual advancement, until, from a state 

 which appears that of savagedom, we arrive at a period 

 when domestic animals are kept, and a knowledge of 

 metallurgy is obvious. It is only, however, when we 

 come to the epoch of the early migrations of the Aryan 

 or Indo-Germanic races, that we find substantial traces of 

 the employment of metals. The most important of these 

 migrations, that of the Cimbri, who, with the Gauls, 

 founded the Celtic race some eighteen hundred years 

 before our era, and introduced Druidism into Gaul, 

 when it reached Europe knew no other metals than gold, 

 copper, tin, and the combination of the last two — brass. 

 A study of Sanscrit, the mother-tongue of all these Aryan 

 peoples, shows this to have been the case. The working 

 in iron, or the 'IronAge,' even with some civilized peoples, 

 did not occur until a comparatively recent time. Lucretius 

 admits that gold and brass were known before iron : 



Sed prius aeris erat quam ferri cognitus usus. 



As no other migration of any importance occurred until 

 that of the hordes who destroyed the Roman empire, and 

 as we have seen that iron was worked by the Gauls long 

 before the Christian era, it is between the period when 

 the Gallo-Cimbri arrived, and the conquest of Gaul by 



