legend appears to have been written not later than the twelfth century. The tradition, however, is doubtless based on a much older belief; so that we cannot err in assuming that at the earliest period of the Northmen exercising an influence in Scotland sufficient to assimilate the popular superstitions, the period to which the flint implements pertain was only known as a state of society so different from every historic tradition with which the people were familiar, that they referred its weapons and implements to the same invisible sprites by whose agency they were wont to account for all incomprehensible or superhuman occurrences.

The Elf-arrow continued till a very recent period to be universally esteemed throughout Scotland as a charm equally effectual against the malice of Elfin sprites, and the spells of witchcraft. Dipt in the water which cattle were to drink, it was supposed to be the most effectual cure for their diseases; while sewed in the dress, it was no less available for the protection of the human race; and it is still occasionally to be met with perforated or set in gold or silver, for wearing as an amulet. Like other weapons of Elfin artillery, it was supposed to retain its influence at the will of the possessor, and thus became the most effective talisman against elvish malice, witchcraft, or the evil-eye, when in the hands of man. Such traditional myths of vulgar superstition are not without their value, however humble their direct origin may They are frequently only distorted images of important truths, and we shall find more than one occasion to recur to them for aid in reuniting the broken skein of primi tive history.

be.

Arrow-heads are found in Scotland in great numbers, and of a considerable variety of forms. They are for the most part made of flint, though also agate, cornelian, and other native pebbles.

met with of On Plate 11.

specimens of flint arrow-heads are grouped, the size of the originals, showing the progress from the first rude shaping of the flint in Figs. 11 and 12, to the small leaf-shaped and barbed heads, Figs. 13, 14, and the remarkably large example of the latter, Fig. 15, found in the Isle of Skye. Pennant has engraved a large cinerary urn, discovered along with three others, on opening a cairn on the hill of Down, near Banff, which contained, in addition to the incinerated remains, bone implements and flint arrow-heads. The largest of them had in it thirteen of the latter, all of the barbed shape, along with others of diverse forms, from the rude flint-flake to the most finished weapon that the material is capable of.

Among those, the barbed arrow

head, while it appears to involve the greatest amount of labour and skill in fashioning the material, is also a type of very frequent occurrence in Scotland. Those already referred to as found, along with an ancient wooden wheel, in the BlairDrummond Moss, are of the same shape. So also were some obtained on opening a tumulus in the parish of Killearn, Stirlingshire; and indeed they have been met with in nearly every district of the mainland, and of Lance and spear heads

the northern and western isles. of flint are also not uncommon, both in the tumuli and among objects turned up where the scenes of primitive population are subjected for the first time to the plough. A very fine flint spear-head, fifteen inches long, and beautifully finished, was discovered a few years since, on

the demolition of a cairn on the estate of Craigengelt, near Stirling. Another of somewhat smaller dimensions, also found in a cairn, on the estate of John Guthrie, Esq., Forfarshire, about 1796, is figured and described in the Gentleman's Magazine of the following year.1

Flint knives, though less abundant than in the different Scandinavian countries, and especially in Denmark, are frequently turned up in the course of agricultural operations. In no instance that has come under my notice have implements been found in Scotland exactly resembling the curious lunar flint knives and saws of such common occurrence in Denmark and Sweden; yet examples of similar form are familiar to American archæologists among the singular contents of the great mounds. explored of late years in the valley of the Mississippi, and in other districts of the North American continent. These are generally made of slate; and stone knives analogous to them appear also to have been used in the Scottish primitive periods, to supply similar necessities. In the Shetland and Orkney islands especially, stone knives are common; and in other districts, knives of flint, styled by the Shetlanders Pechs' knives, are found. These are shaped like a shoemaker's paring knife, with the semicircular line wrought to an edge, while the straight side is left broad and blunt. Others are oval or irregular in form, and thinning off to an edge round the whole circumference. One of the latter, in the Scottish Antiquarian Museum, formed of a thin lamina of madreporite, was found at one of the burghs or round towers of Shetland. It measures 4 by 4 inches, and does not exceed, in greatest thickness, the tenth of an inch. Similar implements, in the collection of the London Antiquaries at Somerset House, are mentioned by

1 Gentleman's Mag. 1797, Part 11. p. 200.

2 Catalogue of Antiquities, Soc. Antiq. Lond. p. 14.