152 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



there, an exceedingly fine collection of Celtic relics. It was partic- 

 ularly rich in bronze spear and javelin heads. I understand Mr. 

 Day, of Cork, has also a remarkable one. In fact the private col- 

 lections are very numerous. Bronze arrow points are rare compara- 

 tively speaking. The Irish and Welsh Kern, the true bowmen of 

 Crecy, used steel or iron points-. This material does not admit of 

 being well preserved for any great length of time unless in very ex- 

 ceptional instances. I may notice here a singular fact relative to 

 King Edward's wars in France. One of the Irish leaders, an Earl 

 Kildare, was created a knight for valor on the battlefield ; another, 

 the Prior of Kilmainhan (Butler), was made an earl for services ren- 

 dered on our foe. Numerous as are the bronze swords and 

 skeaus in the Royal Irish Academy (280 odd), I do not think we 

 possess a single specimen of the former retaining the handle of the 

 blade. " Solinus mentions," remarks Wilde, " that the Irish formed 

 the hilts of their weapons from the teeth of large sea monsters, which 

 they polished to a beautiful whiteness." If the walrus furnished the 

 material it seems diflicult to understand why such a substance as 

 that was not preserved. Gold-hilted swords are frequently men- 

 tioned by our annaUsts. On one of the blades found in a bog in 

 Limerick County, a portion of the gold mounting was attached to 

 the handle ; on another, from Tipperary, was a fragment of the pre- 

 cious metal weighing twelve pennyweights and nine grains. In 1751 

 a sword was found with a plate of gold, rivets fastening it on one 

 side, weighing between three and four ounces ; another was discov- 

 ered two years after similarly ornamented. It is not improbable 

 that in some instances many of the weapons were flung aside when 

 they had been stripped of the gold plates forming the handles. No 

 complete scabbard has yet been found, but I think I noticed the 

 bronze tip of one which possibly was fixed on a leather sheath. It 

 is not likely that such would have been preserved unless in very ex- 

 ceptional instances. 



Dr. Crawford, a distinguished member of the Anthropological 

 Institute and Fellow of the Royal Society of Great Britain, endeavors 

 to show the bronze weapons of North-West Europe were of foreign 

 introduction, in the course of barter. From the small hilts of the 

 swords, Danish probably, he supposes they were the work of an 

 Asiatic people. 



A considerable number of our Irish antiquarians think they may 



