254 



prove by foreign usages and historical evidence the real and principal 

 nature of these enigmatical objects; and which one more curious, and 

 possibly unique, in the valuable collection of the Earl of Londesborough, 

 will incontestibly prove. 



The subject is not, however, without danger, as we must not only 

 run counter to preconceived opinions, but it is difficult to bring minds 

 fully occupied with a prior theory to pay attention to citations and 

 proofs from distant, and possibly to them, unknown authorities, which 

 bring only fragmentary and widely dispersed evidence. It has been 

 well observed by a writer on German mythology, in Part xxi. of the 

 Journal of the Verein fur AlterthumsJcunde im Reinlcmde (Association 

 for the Knowledge of the Archseology of the Ehine Countries) that its 

 specialities have to be collected, and an entirety to be constructed anew 

 from very disjointed and distant fragments ; and he adds the exemplifica- 

 tion of another writer on the same topic : one place will give us Thor's 

 hammer, and another, possibly, its curious feature of hitting every ob- 

 ject at which it is aimed ; whilst a third locality, perhaps a hundred 

 miles distant, will adduce its property of always returning (like the 

 Australian boomerang) to the powerful hand from which it was hurled. 

 This may excuse and apologize for referring in our proposed inquiry to 

 old continental practices and writers ; and it is only from, as I trust, the 

 successful results, that something of prolixity may be justified. 



Before, however, proceeding farther, it may be necessary to anim- 

 advert to the prevalent belief that these objects were used as fibulae to 

 fasten the garments of their owners — a purpose, certainly, for which, 

 from their form, they are very ill adapted : we must suppose, for such 

 intent, that the two projecting lips were inserted in two holes of a 

 heavy toga or outer covering of skins ; but in that case the prominent 

 semicircular head must have pressed so forcibly against the breast, and 

 dug itself so deeply in the flesh of the v/earer, that the pain must have 

 been insupportable ; if inverted, and the bend brought outwards, it 

 would have been often an inconvenient obstacle to the use of the arm or 

 the bend of the neck. "We have inMontfaucon some examples ofDruidical 

 costume, and in various authors references to their habits and dress, but 

 in none is there the slightest allusion to such a use ; and as the articles 

 were, from their material, evidently only in use by the higher classes, 

 such neglect does not appear probable, had this use obtained. 



If we consider the radical meaning of the eing^ as a symbol, we 

 shall find, without having recourse to the idea of Adelung {s. v.), that the 

 final is merely a superfluous suffixus, and that consequently the word 

 contains the idea of purity, from rin (to run as a brook), and rein (clean) ; 

 or that our old Saxon rinse, and still better wring, or Anglo-Saxon 



* We believe the entirety of the exhumations of tumuli in this and every other 

 country, though rich in fibulae and personal ornaments, may be challenged for the produc- 

 tion of a single object of this description. My own extended observations have never 

 yet met with an instance ; but, at all events, never on skeletons in the necessary position 

 of this ornament. 



