THE EARLIEST USE OF IRON. 725 
tock." When Solomon came to build the temple he sent to Hiram, King of 
Tyre, for "a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in 
iron." The Phoenicians were celebrated as workers in all the metals. 
In Jeremiah, xv. 12, the questfon is asked by the prophet: "Shall iron 
break the northern iron, and the steel?" The northern iron and steel here re- 
ferred to were probably products of Chalybia, a small district lying on the south- 
eastern shore of the Euxine, the inhabitants of which, called Chalibees or Chaly- 
bians, were famous in the days of Asiatic pre-eminence for the fine quality of 
their iron and steel. Herodotus, in the fifth century before Christ, speaks of 
" the Chalybians, a people of iron-workers." They are said to have invented 
the art of converting iron into steel, but it is probable that, as they used magnetic 
sand, they made steel mainly. Latin and Greek names for steel were derived 
from the name of this people. From the same source we obtain the words 
"chalybean" and "chalybeate." 
But other eastern nations doubtless made steel at as early a day as the 
Chalybians. In Ezekiel, xxvii. 12, the merchants of Tarshish are said to supply 
Tyre with iron and other metals, and in the 19th verse of the same chapter the 
merchants of Dan and Javan are said to supply its market with "bright iron." 
Tarshish is supposed to have been a city in the south of Spain, and Dan and 
Javan were probably cities in the south of Arabia. The name Tarshish may, 
however, have referred generally to the countries lying along the western coast of 
the Mediterranean and beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Dan and Javan may have 
supplied iron made in the southern part of Arabia, or they may have traded in 
the " bright iron," or steel, of India. The period embraced in the references 
quoted from the prophet was about six hundred years before Christ. Both Tyre 
and Sidon traded in all the products of the East and the West for centuries before 
and after Ezekiel, and iron was one of the products which they supplied to their 
neighbors, the Israelites. 
The Persians and their northern neighbors, the Medes, made iron long 
before the Christian era, and so did the Parthians and other Scythian tribes. 
The Parthian- arrow was first tipped with bronze, but afterwards with steel. The 
Parthian kings are said to have engaged with pride in the forging and sharpen- 
ing of arrow-heads. Iron is still made in Persia by primitive methods. 
India appears to have been acquainted with the manufacture of iron and 
steel from a very early period. When Alexander defeated Porus, one of the 
Punjaub Kings, in the fourth century before the Christian era, Porus gave him 
thirty pounds of Indian steel, or wootz. This steel, which is still made in India 
and Persia, was a true sreel, and of a quality unsurpassed even in our day. It 
was and still is manufactured by a process of great simplicity, similar to that by 
which crucible steel is now manufactured. Long prior to the Christian era, as 
well as for many centuries afterwards, Damascus, the Capital of Syria, manufac- 
tured its famous swords in part from Indian wootz. The people of India further 
appear to have become familiar, at an early period in their history, with processes 
for the manufacture of iron on a large scale, which have since been lost. It is 
