Another form of blade is more of the nature of a bayonet than of a rapier, yet this would appear to be the proper place in which to notice it. The example shown in Fig. 323 is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., and was found at Raphoe, Co. Donegal. The section of the blade is nearly square, and the faces are ornamented with parallel engraved lines. It ends in a tang with a single hole through it, and with it was found a ferrule of bronze for receiving the end of the handle. In the Royal Irish Academy Museum is another blade of the same character, 33 inches long and nearly square in section, but having the faces fluted. With it was a ferrule, 3¾ inches long, having four ribs at the base, with hollows between. It has one rivet-hole through it. This specimen was found in a bog near Glenarm, Co. Antrim. From the ferrules and general form of the blades it is probable that they were lance or pike heads rather than of the nature of swords or daggers. The “javelin with loop” found in Monaghan, and engraved in the _Archæological Journal_[958] seems to be somewhat of the same nature. It may possibly be the case that some of the other blades described in this chapter have served as the points of spear-like weapons, though, from the hilts being discovered with so many of them, there can be no doubt that the majority must be regarded as having been the blades of daggers or rapiers. Among modern weapons we have, however, some which, like the sword-bayonet, are intended to serve a double purpose; and though there can be little doubt as to the true character of the knife-daggers, it is hardly safe to assert that all the dagger-like blades were without exception mounted with short hilts as poniards, and that none were provided with straight shafts as pikes, or placed transversely on a handle to serve as halberds or battle-axes. The weapons described in this chapter probably range over the whole of the Bronze Period of Britain. The knife-daggers, which have almost exclusively been found in barrows, often associated with other weapons formed of stone, may be regarded as among the earliest of our bronze antiquities; while the rapier-shaped blades, though of rare occurrence in hoards, appear to belong to a period when socketed celts were already in use. Of the dagger-like blades, in whatever manner they were mounted, a considerable number belong to an early period. The analogies of the different forms with those found upon the Continent have already from time to time been noted in the preceding pages. CHAPTER XI. TANGED AND SOCKETED DAGGERS, OR SPEAR-HEADS, HALBERDS, AND MACES.