467 
doubtedly well acquainted with the use of metallic weapons— 
were universally in the habit of pointing their arrows with 
sharpened bone. 
‘¢ But there is another ground, of a general character, for 
the use of those implements at times very much later than those 
to which they are attributed in the theory of our Scandinavian 
friends. The man who finds a weapon of this description, and 
thinks he can turn it to advantage, is likely enough to do so, 
without inquiring whether the requirements of a philosophical 
system will be much disturbed by his act or not. We are aware 
that at the battle of Hastings, in 1066, the Saxons used battle- 
mauls made of stone, which they hurled against their adver- 
saries. We know that, even as late as the Thirty-years War, 
the soldiers of Wallenstein and Tilly, here and there, for want 
of better implements, used the old stone hammers as efficient 
weapons of attack... Nay, more, to this day the peasant of 
Brittany, if, while tending his sheep upon the plains, he dis- 
covers one of the polished celts of his forefathers, takes it at 
once to the neighbouring forest, and there, splitting the 
branch of a young tree, inserts it, well assured that, in the 
course of a year or two, the operations of nature will have fixed 
it with such firmness in the cleft, that he has but to cut the 
handle, and his axe is ready made to his hand. 
s¢ All these are grounds of disturbance, and will render it 
impossible to apply with strictness the canon of Copenhagen 
to the characterizing the graves according to their different 
periods. But there is another and a very strong ground of 
disturbance. 
‘¢ Certain races of the world, as it is well known, have at- 
tached a strong superstitious feeling to the possession of these 
ancient stone implements; and when they have found them, 
they have treasured them as something supernatural. In 
many parts of Germany, and, as I am informed, in Ireland 
and Scotland also, they are still looked upon as amulets par- 
ticularly valuable in the diseases of cattle. The collector 
