Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/61

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remains of the stick were found in one of them; a very perfect small dagger of bronze, one foot in length; two bronze arrow-heads, double pointed ; a bronze gouge or chisel, rarely found in Ireland; the head of a bronze hunting spear; part of a bronze sword or dagger; a bronze cap, apparently the end of a wooden hilt of some weapons; the bronze handle of a javelin or spear, with loop attached, for the purpose of a leathern thong or string being fastened to it, to recover after projection. [This thong or string is called in ancient manuscripts suaineamain, a name still preserved by the fishermen in the south of Ireland, as applied to the bolt-ropes of their nets.] The boss of a shield, of bronze; a bronze knife, which appears to have been gilt; a bronze knife or dagger, measuring ten inches and a half in length; a smaller one, seven inches in length; a bronze bolt, with loop, to which a thong is supposed to have been attached, measuring sixteen inches and a half in length; this was found sticking in the mud, close to the island on Lough na Glack; another, twelve inches in length, has been since found in the island itself. Walker, in his description of the weapons of the Irish, says that "in very early times the fiadhgha or crannuibh was used in the chase, a thong was affixed to it, by which it was recovered after having pierced the wild beast ."