Such projections as those on the chapes of this form would appear to be inconvenient; but in another variety the projecting ends shoot out into regular spikes, the ends of which are tipped by a small button. In some cases the length from point to point is not less than 8 inches. There are several in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy. Sir W. Wilde considered that the bronze sword was suspended high up on the thigh and not allowed to trail on the ground, so that these projections would be less in the way of the wearer than might at first sight appear. The lengthening of these points may have been the result of a kind of prehistoric dandyism, analogous to that which led to the lengthening of the points of boots and shoes in England at the beginning of the fifteenth century.[1156] Specimens of these still exist in which the points extend 6 inches beyond the foot, and it has been asserted that they had to be chained to the knees of the wearers to give them a chance of walking with freedom. [Illustration: Fig. 376.—Thames. ½] Though chiefly found in Ireland, this elongated form of scabbard has occasionally been discovered in England. Fig. 376 represents a specimen from the Thames, now preserved in the British Museum. Another example, but slightly more curved, was found with a bronze sword at Ebberston, Yorkshire, and is in the Bateman Collection.[1157] It has been figured. The rivets for attaching it to the wooden scabbard are still in position. This type of scabbard end has also been found in France. In the Museum of Bourges is an example about 5½ inches long, much like Fig. 376, but rather more V-shaped. Another, more like the figure, was found with a bronze sword, near Marsanne[1158] (Drôme), and a third in the tumulus of Barésia[1159] (Jura). Another was found at the end of an iron sword in a tumulus at Mons[1160] (Auvergne). It is to be observed that the ends of some of the knife sheaths of the Early Iron Period[1161] expand in somewhat the same manner, so as to assume an anchor-like appearance. A bronze bouterolle or scabbard tip of a very peculiar type, the sides being elongated and flattened out so as to form two sickle-shaped wings curving upwards, was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries in 1867[1162] as having been found in Britain. A figure of it was to have appeared in the _Archæologia_, but has not yet been published. Perhaps there was room to doubt its English origin. Certainly the description, with the exception of the sickle-shaped wings curving upwards, agrees with a form of which several examples have been found in Germany and in France.[1163] Some of these are sharp at the end like a socketed celt, with two expanding sickle-like wings, but their purpose as chapes has not always been recognised. One from Hallstatt is described by Von Sacken[1164] as a cutting tool to be attached to a thin shaft. There are two in the Museum at Prague, found at Korno and Brasy.