Professor Rolleston[1020] has well said, “I am not quite clear that this bronze sword, leaf-shaped or other, has always a very small hilt.” “At any rate, there can be no doubt that in this country the skeletons of the Bronze Period belonged to much larger and stronger and taller men than did the skeletons of the Long Barrow stone-using folk who preceded them. In some parts of England the contrast in this matter of size between the men of the Bronze and those of the Stone Age is as great as that now existing between the Maori and the gentle Hindoo.” [Illustration: Fig. 342. Battersea. ¼] The stature of several of the men interred in the Yorkshire barrows, examined by Canon Greenwell, was not less than five feet nine inches, and the bones of the hands were proportional to those of the bodies; but, unfortunately, no bronze swords accompanied them, though many of the interments were of the Bronze Age. The usual form of sword to which the term “leaf-shaped” has been applied is that shown in Fig. 342. Their total length is generally about 24 inches, though sometimes not more than 16 inches, but they are occasionally as long as 30 inches, or even more. The blades are in most cases uniformly rounded, but with the part next the edge slightly drawn down so as to form a shallow fluting. In some instances, however, there is a more or less bold rounded central rib, or else projecting ridges running along the greater part of the blade near the edges. They differ considerably in the form of the plate for the hilt, and in the number and arrangement of the rivets by which the covering material was attached. This latter, as will subsequently be seen, usually consisted of plates of horn, bone, or wood, riveted on each side of the hilt-plate. In rare instances the outer part of the hilt was of bronze. Of the scabbards of such swords and the chapes attached to them I shall subsequently speak.