[242] Wilson ("Archæologia of Scotland," 360) says, "But after all it is to Asia we are forced to return for the _true source of nearly all our primitive arts_, nor will the canons of archæology be established on a safe foundation till the antiquities of that older continent have been explored and classified." Not only bronze but iron has been found in the East in use at an early period (_vide_ Layard, "Nineveh and Babylon," 178-9, 194). At Nimroud, Dr Percy (_id._ 670) says the iron was used to economise the bronze; if so it must have been cheaper, and therefore probably more abundant; and he is of opinion that "iron was more extensively used by the ancients than seems to be generally admitted." Philology seems also to establish an early common knowledge, and subsequent tradition of the use of metals. Mr Max Müller (ii. 45) says, "That the value and usefulness of some of the metals was known before the separation of the Aryan race can be proved only by a few words; for the names of most of the metals differ in different countries. Yet there can be no doubt that iron was known, and its value appreciated, whether for defence or attack. Whatever its old Aryan name may have been, it is clear that Sanscrit 'ayas,' Latin 'ahes,' in 'ahencus' and even the contracted form 'æs, æris'; the Gothic 'ais,' the old German 'er,' and the English iron, are names cast in the same mould, and only slightly corroded even now by the rust of so many centuries." The Swedish Gothic race had no tradition but of weapons of iron. (Professor Nillson's "Stone Age," p. 192.) I find in Captain Cook's Voyages that in Otaheite their word for iron is "eure-eure." Germans (_apud_ Tacitus) called their iron lances "framea," which has great resemblance to _ferrum_. (_Vide_ Wilson, 195.) The following passage from Wilson's "Archæologia" seems to prove this common terminology still more extensively--"The Saxon 'gold' differs not more essentially from the Greek '[Greek: chrysos]' than from the Latin 'aurum'; iron from '[Greek: sideros]' or 'ferrum'; _but_ when we come to examine the Celtic names of the metals it is otherwise. The Celtic terms are: Gold: Gael, 'or,' golden, 'orail'; Welsh, 'aur'; Latin, ' aurum.' Silver: Gael, 'airgiod,' made of silver, 'airgiodach'; Welsh, 'ariant'; Latin, 'argentum'--derived in the Celtic from 'arg,' white, or milk, like the Greek '[Greek: argos],' whence they also formed their '[Greek: argyros].' Now, is it improbable that the Latin 'ferrum' and the English 'iron' spring indirectly from the same Celtic root? Gael, '_iarunn_'; Welsh, '_haiarn_'; Saxon, iron; Danish, 'iern'; Spanish, 'hierro,' which last furnishes