General A. Pitt-Rivers’ collection has two Swords from Spain. The first is a bronze, sub-leaf-shaped, with a thin protracted point. The length is twenty-one inches; the breadth at the swell two inches, thinning near the handle to one inch and a quarter; the tang is broken, and there are two rivet-holes at the shoulder, which is two inches wide. The other, which the owner calls a ‘Kopis,’ also twenty-one inches long, and two inches and a half in width, has a broad back and a wedge-section. The cutting part is inside, and the whole contour remarkably resembles the Kukkri or Korah of Nepaul, and, in a less degree, the Albanian Yataghan and the Kabyle ‘Flissa.’ The Kopis, however, has a hook-handle as if for suspension; and there is a swelling in the inside of the grip. ‘As the Celtiberians,’ continues Diodorus, ‘are furnished with two Swords,’ (probably _espada y daga_), ‘the horsemen, when they have routed their opponents, dismount, and, joining the foot, fight as its auxiliaries.’ The Lusitanians, most valiant of the race, inhabited a mountain-land peculiarly rich in minerals. Justin[948] speaks of the gold, copper, lead, and vermilion, which last named the ‘Minho’ river. Of the iron he says: ‘It is of an extraordinary quality, but their water is more powerful than the iron itself; for the metal being tempered in it becomes keener; nor is any weapon held in esteem among them that has not been dipt in the Bilbilis or the Chalybs.’[949] Strabo[950] represents Iberia as abounding in metal, and arms the Lusitanians with poniard and dagger, probably meaning dirk and knife. [Heading: _THE SWORD OF THE OLD GAULS._] [Illustration: FIG. 287.—GALLIC SWORD OF BRONZE (Jähns).] The Northern neighbours of the Celtiberians—the warlike old Keltic[951] Gauls—were essentially swordsmen: they relied mainly upon the Claidab.[952] When they entered Europe they had already left behind them the Age of Stone; and they made their blades of copper, bronze, and iron. The latter, as we learn from history, entered into use during the fourth or fifth century B.C., the later Celtic Period, as it is called by Mr. Franks. The material appears to have been, according to all authorities, very poor and mean. The blade was mostly two-edged, about one mètre long, thin, straight, and without point (_sine mucrone_); it had a tang for the attachment of the grip, but no guard or defence for the hand.