Cumby — Relative Age of Stone omcI Metallic Weapons. 453 



also spears pointed with horn ; also the Libyans in the same army- 

 used spears whose point was merely the end of the shaft hardened 

 in the fii-e (Herod, vii. 69, 71) ; to these we may add that the Massa- 

 getge had only gold and brass, but neither iron nor silver, and their 

 weapons and horse furniture were made of the two former metals 

 (Herod, i. 215) ; and a tribe of Ethiopians had not even brass, 15ut 

 only gold (Herod, iii. 23). It is clear therefore that distant and 

 barbarous tribes used flint and even wooden weapons when brass 

 and iron had been in use for thousands of years among more civilised 

 nations ; it appears also that even commerce with these remote bar- 

 barians was almost an impossibility. 



n. The flint implements most frequently met with are arrow- 

 heads : — the bow is perhaps the oldest known weapon, and was used 

 especially by the Scythians, a name given to all the nations that 

 dwelt north of the Danube and the Phasis ; for the Scythian bow see 

 Herod, iv. 9, 10, 64; vii. 64; Strab. ii. 125 ; Plin. K H. vii. 201; 

 for Scythian metals, Herod, iv. 5, 62, 71 ; from whence we might 

 infer that with them the use of gold and iron was older than that of 

 silver and brass ; yet their arrow heads were of brass (Herod, iv. 81), 

 and also Plin. N. H. vii. 197). The relative antiquity of iron and 

 brass is neither easy to determine nor absolutely necessary to the 

 question we have m hand. According to Hesiod Op. and D. 150, 

 iron was not used in the brazen age ; but the Idaei Dactyli, who 

 invented hon, flou.rished before or early in the brazen age (Strab. x. 

 473 ; Clem. Alex. Strom, i. p. 401 ; Schol. Ap. Ehod. i.llSl ; Plin. 

 N. H. vii. 197 ; Marm. Arund. Epoch, 11.) ; and the still earlier weapon 

 mentioned (Hes. Theog. 162, 175, 179 et seq. ; ApoUod. Bibl. i. 1,"4), 

 and said to have been made of adamant (whether this be stone or 

 iron) is of a form wholly unsuited to stone (see Schol. Hes. Op. and 

 D. 145 ; Schol. Ap. Ehod. ii. 231 ; Schol. Theocr. ii. 34 ; Hesych. 

 s.v. d8d/jia<i : see especially Strab. xiv. 654). The term adamant 

 was perhaps given to iron from the extreme difficidty of smelting 

 the ore (see Hes. Theog. 864). 



ni. The old Assyrian arrow had no barbs (Layard's Nineveh, 

 vol. i. p. 336 ; ii. p. 350, 402 ; Nineveh and Babylon, p. 150). The 

 Egyptians used both the barbed head and that of a lozenge or leaf- 

 like form (See Sir Gardner Wilkinson's work above cited, vol. i. 

 p. 310), 



The Greeks of the Heroic period used iron for agricultural pur- 

 poses (IL ■^. 834, Procl. in Hes. Op. and D. 142), and for arrowheads 

 (H S. 123). Their other weapons and even table knives were of 

 brass (H. A,. 640, also II. a. 236, Od. e. 235), their arrowheads had 

 barbs (11. 8. 151, 214, Od. cf). 61, and ScholL, also Apoll. Lex. s.v. 

 oyKov?. Eustath. 457, 30, 1899, 1 seq. ; Hesych. s.v. op/kiov. o'^kIov. 

 and seq. Et. Mag. s.v. o^kIov. Poll. i. 137, vii. 158, x. 165). Here 

 the name given to the barbs resembles the Latin word uncus : words 

 common to both the Greek and Latin languages are clearly very 

 ancient, and the antiquity of the name furnishes some presumption 

 of the antiquity of the thing. The trident of Neptune also had barbs 

 (see Gerhard's Greek Vases, Plates 8, 10, 13, 48, and elsewhere 



