Lindenschmit[999] has figured seven examples, from various parts of Germany and Italy, some more or less similar to each of the three figures I have given. Some of these are decorated with spirals in relief. Lisch[1000] has also engraved some specimens. In the British Museum[1001] are some foreign specimens decorated with patterns of a decidedly mediæval character. An instrument of this kind, with eight lateral spikes and a long iron spike coming out from the end, was found with numerous mediæval relics in the ruins of Söborg,[1002] in North Zealand. Such a discovery seems to me conclusive as to the date to be assigned to this class of weapons. I must apologise to the reader for this digression, and now proceed to the consideration of the leaf-shaped bronze swords, which are far more closely allied to the arms described in Chapter X. than to the objects which have been discussed in the present chapter. CHAPTER XII. LEAF-SHAPED SWORDS. AMONG ancient weapons of bronze, perhaps the most remarkable both for elegance of form and for the skill displayed in their casting are the leaf-shaped swords, of which a considerable number have come down to our times. The only other forms that can vie with them in these respects are the spear-heads, of which many are gracefully proportioned, while the coring of their sockets for the reception of the shafts would do credit to the most skilful modern founder. Neither the one nor the other belong to the earliest period[1003] when bronze first came into general use for weapons and tools, the flat celts and knife-daggers characteristic of that period being as a rule absent from the hoards in which fragments of swords and spear-heads are present.