Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/57

Rh Goths, or whatever name they bore, coming from Asia to Europe, to have got possession of Sweden; so important, indeed, that it is reasonable to believe that if ever an Asiatic people invaded Europe north of the Carpathian mountains, the invaders would first of all proceed north along the Vistula and other rivers falling into the Baltic, and put themselves in communication, by conquest or commerce, with the country which supplied their ammunition, and would then issue armed from the north, and break into the Roman empire, and be considered as a people coming originally from some northern hive. Scandinavia certainly never had food for more human beings than its present inhabitants, and could never have poured out the successive multitudes who, by all accounts, are said to have come in from the north upon the Roman provinces; but in this view it is likely that the flood of people actually did pour in from the north, to which the march must of necessity have been first directed from Asia. It may be objected to these views, that iron or metal was not of such prime necessity as we make it to these barbarians in their warfare; that flint or other stones were much used for arrow-heads, and that we find such commonly in museums, and even stones that have evidently been intended for javelins or battleaxes. If we look, however, at what exists out of museums, we find that stones which admit of being chiselled, sharpened, or brought to an edge or point that would pierce cloth, leather, or any defensive covering, and inflict a deadly wound, are among the rarest productions. Granite, gneiss, sandstone, limestone, all rise in lumps and cubical masses, scarcely to be reduced by any labour or skill to shapes suitable for a spear or arrow head. Countries of vast extent are without stone at all near the surface of the earth, and many without such a kind of stone as could be edged or pointed, without such skill and