THE DAWN OF METALLURGY. 291 
whilst the use of bronze continued in Denmark as late as the 
third century before our era, or even the second, according 
to Sir A. Franks. | 
We have already observed that the art of metallurgy seems 
to have originated amongst a race which was neither Semitic 
nor Aryan. Ata period when the Aryans and Semites were 
pastoral nomads, the Accadian population of Chaldea were 
well acquainted with metals ; and it is stated that it is always 
in branches of the so-called Turanian and Altaic families of 
mankind that the use of «metals is found as an original 
possession, that these races link their own origin with 
metallurgy and give this art a preponderating place in their 
mythologies,—a thing which is unknown amongst those of 
other races. If this be so, then we must conclude that both 
the Semites and the Aryans, and, according to some 
authorities, also the Hamites, learnt the art of metallurgy before 
their migrations, and carried with them a knowledge of the 
smelting and working of metals into the various countries 
where they settled: It is said, however, that philology 
proves that the Aryans were unacquainted with the use of iron 
until after their dispersion. The able Belgian reviewer, who 
writes under the nom de plume of Jean d’Hstienne, says that 
the Hamitic tribes who entered Egypt before the dawn of 
history, and mingled there with the aboriginal race, brought 
with them the use of metals, metallurgy there appearing 
plainly to have been introduced from the  North-Hast. 
Whether the aboriginal tribes had any implements other than 
those of stone we do not know; but it is considered fairly 
proved that the first Hgyptian dynasty resulted from the 
fusion of the Hamitic and negro races, and that it was the 
Hamitic race which introduced metallurgy into the valley of 
the Nile. Then, again, the Semitic peoples attribute the 
invention of metals to a period so remote as to go back, as we 
have seen, to the very origin of mankind; and there is, it is 
said, nothing in tradition, or in their language or customs, to 
denote a time when they were ignorant of the use of metals, 
the invention of which they ascribe to a descendant of Cain. 
Philology is also said to prove that metallurgy existed in an 
advanced state amongst the Aryans before the separation took 
place between the Hastern and Western branches. In India, 
we are also told that, before the Aryan immigration took 
place, both bronze and iron were in use, and a remarkable fact 
is dwelt upon, viz., that the average proportions of copper 
and. tin used in the bronze were identical with those found in 
the bronze of all pre-historic antiquity. This cannot have 
