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two inches long — are very thin, and sharp-edged. They 
were no doubt fastened to a bone blade and handle, in the 
same manner as the bronze blades that have been found in 
the tumuli indicate that they were made. 
I have a flint knife that appears to have been fastened to 
a handle in the same manner, which leads me to suppose that 
the dagger is the offshoot from the knife, and that such 
knives were used as daggers. 
The dagger is the only weapon that appears to have been 
intended by those early Britons for striking below the head, 
and we must conclude from this circumstance that their 
mode of fighting was always overhanded, and that they 
were unacquainted with any method of attack which was 
similar to our bayonet charge. They appear to me to have 
trusted to a hand-to-hand encounter, with their blunt spears, 
their small hatchets, their tomahawks, their knob- sticks, and 
bird’s beaks, and hand-fighting stones, and to have reserved 
their sling- stones for pursuit. They never carried more than 
four kinds of weapons to fight with ; and those who were the 
best provided with weapons I have found possessed a bird’s 
beak, two small knobs, three or four sling-stones, and a hand- 
fighting stone ; or varied in this way — a spear, an arrow, a 
knob-stick, and sling-stones. 
A flint knob, or a bird’s beak, or snake’s head, and sling- 
stones, are almost invariably found with dress- fastenings, 
while the other weapons vary very much, according to the 
inferiority or apparent superiority of the person who possessed 
them. Some of the sets of weapons show that the person 
was provided with the best manufactured weapons that were 
made ; others appear second-rate, but still good ; while others 
appear not to have possessed any good weapons whatever ; 
and the dress- fastenings which are found with them in- 
variably correspond with the quality of the weapons that 
lay near them. So much is this the case that I have felt as 
