Rev. B. A. Bullen — Eoliths from 8. 8^ 8.W. England. 107 



V. Criticism of Mr. Clement Reid's statement about the Dewlish Eoliths. 



In concluding this short notice I regretfully animadvert on 

 Mr. Eeid's statement ' that the flints associated with E. meridionalis 

 at Dewlish are so battered that their artificial origin is open to much 

 doubt. The only specimen for which this statement could possibly 

 stand is the one numbered 15/ (Bullen, " Eolithic Implements," 

 pi. iii, fig. 2). The others, Nos. 28, 18, 32, 31/ (Dr. Blackmore's 

 collection), have much less 'batter' than usual upon their well- 

 defined edges, which circumstance, to those accustomed to discriminate 

 between natural and artificial flaking and chipping, is of most 

 persuasive force. The above-mentioned stone tools are before me 

 as I write. Their colour, originally deeply ochreous, has been 

 lightened very considerably by bleaching in the sandy matrix in 

 which they had so long lain. 



VI. Use of Hollow ' Scrapers.^ 



A passage in Sir J. W. Dawson's " Modern Science in Bible Lands," 

 p. 300, deserves quotation in its entirety, as it may throw light on 

 some, if not the majority, of the hollow ' sci'apers ' so characteristic 

 of Eolithic workmanship, especially when we consider the prime 

 necessity to man of procuring fire in all stages of his civilization : — 

 " When in Egypt in 1844 I saw women in the market at Assiout with 

 baskets of flint flakes on sale. I asked the use of these, and found 

 they were for strike-lights. I asked, ' Why do they not use matches?' 

 The answer was, ' Matches are too dear for the fellaheen. It is 

 much cheaper to have a flint and steel, and a little fibre from the 

 spathe of the doum-palm to light their cigarettes.' I afterwards 

 verified this by examining the tobacco-pouches of some of the people, 

 and exchanged with one of them a new flint for one that he had 

 used so long that its front had been chipped into a semicircular 

 form, like that of one of those hollow scrapers one sees in collections 

 of stone implements, and which are supposed to have been used for 

 polishing shafts of spears, but some of which are possibly worn-out 

 strike-lights of dubious antiquity. It may be observed here that 

 in the most primitive times, before steel could be obtained, the 

 native^ iron pyrite was used for the same purpose, as evidenced 

 by fragments of it found in very ancient burial-places and caverns 

 of residence." 



Iron pyrites, however, is not absolutely necessai'y for the procuring 

 of fire; the percussion of quartz and flint ^ produces sparks, and 

 probably the percussion of flint or chert with flint* would do so, 

 since they are all forms of silica, either crystalline or amorphous. 



1 Ibid., p. 36. 



2 Joly : "Man before Metals," 3rd ed., p. 196. 



^ Jago, Eoyal Cornwall Gazette, Nov. 29, 1900: Royal Institution of Cornwall 

 Annual Meeting. Mr. A. Pott (of Bath) writes, " I find I can get finer sparks from 

 the quartz and tiint than from either with the pyrites." 



* An illustration of how strike-a-lights of flint, found in the Dordogue Caves, 

 may have been used is given in the ReliquicB Aquitanicce, Feb. 1870, pt. x, 

 pp. 138, 139, figs. 36, 37. 



