178 COMPARATIVE ARCHAZOLOGY. 
stones, those silver chains and brooches, and Cufic and Anglo- 
Saxon coins.”’ 
As to their use, he publishes a portion of the Bayeaux 
tapestry showing maces, carried by the Anglo-Saxons at the 
battle of Hastings, which had heads corresponding to some 
of the Scottish stone balls, from which he draws the following 
conclusion :—‘' These stone balls, in all their varieties, are 
therefore in all probability actually the stone heads of maces, 
which each man probably made and ornamented according to 
his own taste, and afterwards fastened to a stout and short 
cylindrical handle of wood, and had thus a most efficient 
weapon for defence and offence.”’ 
If Dr Smith’s inference holds good, is it not strange that 
not a single specimen of such weapons has hitherto been 
found, either in the vicinity of Hastings or anywhere south 
of the Scottish border ? 
In the year 1907, i.e., 33 years after Dr Smith’s mono- 
graph appeared, I became interested in these balls, in con- 
sequence of having on two occasions to present to the 
National Museum a specimen on behalf of Mr Andrew 
Urquhart, headmaster of Rosehall Public School, Sutherland- 
shire. The first was picked up by Mr Urquhart at a funeral 
at Achness from the contents of the newly-opened grave 
(Plate I1I]., No. 11). The second was found on a cultivated 
field on the farm of Contullich, Ross-shire. Both these balls 
have six raised discs, the only difference between them being 
that the discs on the sepulchral specimen are more rounded 
than those on the other. 
On looking over the records of 73 balls noticed in the 
Proceedings of the Society (including purchases, donations, 
and exhibitions), and three described in the Reliquary (N.S., 
vol. ill., pp. 45 and 47), all subsequent to the publication of 
Dr Smith’s monograph, and classifying them by counties, 
after his method, and then adding the two together, the fol- 
lowing was the result, which therefore approximately repre- 
sents their number and geographical distribution up to the 
year 1907 :—Aberdeen, 56; Fife, 8; Perth and Moray, 6 each; 
Caithness, 5; Forfar, Banff, Lanark, Inverness, and Kincar- 
dine, 3 each; Orkney, Argyll, Ross, Dumfries, Sutherland, 
