Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/543

Rh that of modern hatchets; nor can it be denied that these crooked handles would be apt to break at the elbow, nor that they were ill suited in general to their supposed purpose.

Examples have, indeed, been discovered in France, of small stone celts, so encased as to make a kind of hatchet. The celt is inserted into the hollow of a short piece of stag's-horn, and by means of a hole drilled through the upper part of the horn, a wooden haft is fixed transversely into it. But these primitive instruments would have very little power, and it cannot be supposed that, except in very rare cases, such a mode of making a bronze hatchet would have been resorted to among those who were well acquainted with the art of casting in metal, and were in the habit of making in the metal itself the transverse hole for the admission of the handle. Hence, notwithstanding these curious attempts at making hatchets of stag's-horn and flint, I entertain no doubt that the bronze celts, the use of which we are now considering, were generally used with straight handles, as represented in the Assyrian bas-reliefs (see above, p. 368), and exemplified in the Spanish, Irish, and Scandinavian implements already referred to.

This point being established, I proceed to observe that the wooden handle was attached to the metal in two ways. Either it was cleft so as to inclose the upper part of the celt, or it was cut into the shape of a wedge, so as to be inserted into it. In the former case the celt was of Mr. Du Noyer's