281. TWO-EDGED ROMAN STILETTOS 257 282. SWORD OF TIBERIUS 258 283. GERMAN OR SLAV SWORD 263 284. SCRAMASAX FROM HALLSTADT 263 285. DANISH SCRAMASAX 263 286. BLADE AND HANDLE OF BRONZE WITH PART OF EAGLE 265 287. GALLIC SWORD OF BRONZE 266 288. SWORD FOUND AT AUGSBURG 270 289. BRONZE 271 290. THE SPATHA OF SCHLESWIG 272 291. SHORT KELTIC SWORD 272 292. DANISH SWORD 274 293. BRITISH SWORD, BRONZE 278 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. CHAPTER I. PREAMBLE: ON THE ORIGIN OF WEAPONS. Man’s civilisation began with Fire—how to light it and how to keep it lit. Before he had taken this step, our primal ancestor (or ancestors) evidently led the life of the lower animals. The legend of ‘Iapetus’ bold son’ Prometheus, like many others invented by the Greeks, or rather borrowed from Egypt, contained under the form of fable a deep Truth, a fact, a lesson valuable even in these days. ‘Forethought,’ the elder brother of ‘Afterthought,’ brought down the _semina flammæ_ in a hollow tube from Heaven, or stole it from the chariot of the Sun. Here we have the personification of the Great Unknown, who, finding a cane-brake or a jungle tree fired by lightning or flamed by wind-friction, conceived the idea of feeding the σπέρμα πυρὸς with fuel. Thus Hermes or Mercury was ‘Pteropédilos’ or ‘Alipes;’ and his ankles were fitted with ‘Pedila’ or ‘Talaria,’ winged sandals, to show that the soldier fights with his legs as well as with his arms.[3] I will not enlarge upon the imperious interest of Hoplology: the history of arms and armour, their connection and their transitions, plays the most important part in the annals of the world. The first effort of human technology was probably weapon-making. History and travel tell us of no race so rude as to lack artificial means of offence and defence.[4] To these, indeed, man’s ingenuity and artistic efforts must, in his simple youthtide, have been confined. I do not allude to the complete man, created full-grown in body and mind by the priestly castes of Egypt, Phœnicia, Judæa, Assyria, Persia, and India. The _Homo sapiens_ whom we have to consider is the ‘Adam Kadmon,’[5] not of the Cabbalist, but of the anthropologist, as soon as he raised himself above the beasts of the field by superiority of brains and hands.