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 Wood (John George), Natural History of Man, being an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Uncivilised Ways of Men, 2 vols., 1868–70, 8vo.

 Worsäae (J. J. A.), Afbildninger fra det Kon. Mus. for Nordiske Oldsager i Kjöbnhavn, Ordnede og forklarede af J. J. A. W. (aided by Magnus Petersen and Aagaard). Kjöbnhavn: Kittendorf, and Aagaard, 1859. The order is in careful accordance with the Three Ages. Worsäae’s Prehistoric Annals of Denmark were translated by W. J. Knox, 8vo., London, 1849, and there is a Leitfaden der Nordischen Alterthumerskunde by Worsäae, Kopenhagen, 1837.

 Wurmbrand (Count Gutaker), Ergebnisse der Pfahlbauuntersuchungen. Wien, 1875.

 Yule (Colonel Henry), The Book of Marco Polo the Venetian, 2nd edit. London: Murray, 1875. The learned and exact writer favoured me with a copy of his admirable work, without which it is vain to read of ‘The Kingdoms and the Marvels of the East.’

THE BOOK OF THE SWORD.

CHAPTER I.

PREAMBLE: ON THE ORIGIN OF WEAPONS.

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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]

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