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the European collections of national antiquities, we next 

 observe a great number of implements, weapons, and ornaments 

 of bronze, together with ornaments of gold. It is impossible 

 that all tiiese could have belonged to the aboriginal people 

 who built the cromlechs ; first, because the tombs are quite dif- 

 ferent ; and secondly, we do not find any sufficient transition 

 from the antiquities of stone to the antiquities of bronze. The 

 latter are of a mixed metal, and are so beautiful in their 

 forms, and of such fine workmanship, that they must have be- 

 longed to a new people, who invaded Europe, followed the 

 large rivers into the interior parts, where, with their imple- 

 ments of metal, they were now able to make their way through 

 the thick forests. They began to drain the bogs and cul- 

 tivate the soil, no longer living merely by fishing and hunting, 

 as the people before them. There have been, however, diffe- 

 rent opinions about the origin of these implements and wea- 

 pons of bronze. Some said they were all of Phoenician or 

 Roman workmanship ; some contended that they all belonged 

 to an early Celtic population of Europe ; but a comparison 

 of the Irish and Danish antiquities will clearly shew that 

 these opinions are not to be relied upon. There is cer- 

 tainly a general resemblance in the forms of the bronze anti- 

 quities, but many differences in details, which prove that the 

 Irish antiquities of bronze were not brought from Ireland to 

 Denmark, or from Denmark to Ireland. The handles of the 

 Irish bronze swords were very nearly all of wood or horn : 

 while in Denmark a great many had handles of bronze, orna- 

 mented with a peculiar sort of pattern, which in no instance 

 appears on the Irish antiquities, and sometimes inlaid with 

 gold. In Denmark there are several antiquities which are not 

 to be found in Ireland ; and in Ireland some have been found, 

 which either did not exist at all in Denmark, or assumed another 

 shape. The Danish antiquities of bronze are again different 

 from the remains of the same period in the southern part of 

 Germany, in Greece, in Italy, and France, which in their turn 



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