? PRIMAEVAL DEXTERITY. 127 



world-old institution as we. Why that particular hand was chosen 

 is a question not to be settled, not worth asking except as a kind of 

 riddle ; probably arose in fighting ; most important to protect your 

 heart and its adjacencies, and to carry the shield on that hand." 



The reference to " oldest Hebrews " no doubt had in view what 

 may be regarded as the earliest known statistics of left-handedness 

 on record. The account given in the Book of Judges of the remark- 

 able skill manifested by the left-handed Benjamite warriors is worthy 

 of special note. Left-handedness, if not more prevalent among the 

 tribe of Benjamin than in other Hebrew tribes, appears to have 

 attracted such special attention that those who were noted for it 

 were organized into a separate body of marksmen, renowned for 

 their matchless skill with the sling, as well as for their general dex- 

 terity. Ehud, the son of Gera, the deliverer of his people from the 

 servitude of Eglon, King of Moab, was a Benjamite, a man left- 

 handed : and so, as he snatched from his right side the dagger with 

 which he slew the Moabitiph king, the motion of his left hand would 

 not excite suspicion. But the very form of the record shows the 

 attribute to be exceptional ; and all the more so as occurring in the 

 tribe whose name — ben yamin, the son of my right hand, — so speci- 

 ally marks the sense of dignity and honour associated with the 

 right hand. Hence the reference to this select body of seven hundred 

 skilled marksmen is due to the fact that their use of the left hand 

 was at variance with the general practice of their tribe. Had any 

 ancient left-handed people come under the observation of the histori- 

 cal nations whose records have come down to us, this reference to the 

 left-handed Benjamites shows that the fact would have been noted ; 

 for the entire number of left-handed slingers barely amounted to 2-7 

 per cent. Out of twenty-six thousand Benjamites, as we are told, 

 all warriors, there were seven hundred chosen men of the tribe, 

 every one of whom was left-handed, and could sling stones at a 

 hair's- breadth and not miss. Nearly the same relative number, viz., 

 two per cent., is assigned by Professor Hyrtl, of Yienna, as the pro. 

 portion of left-handed persons at the present day, as determined 

 from observations made by him in one of the most civilized centres 

 of modern Europe. 



But some recent disclosures give promise of evidence derived from 

 greatly more ancient records even than the Hebrew scriptures. Dis. 

 coveries in the department of prehistoric archaeology have greatly 



