The handles of the lance or javelin--formidable weapons, if we may judge from the specimens in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy--were also formed of wood; but these have perished in the lapse of ages, and left only the strangely and skilfully formed implement of destruction.
Among primitive nations, the tool and the weapon differed but little.
The hatchet which served to fell the tree, was as readily used to cleave open the head of an enemy.

The knife, whether of stone or hard wood, carved the hunter's prey, or gave a deathstroke to his enemy.

Such weapons or implements have, however, frequently been found with metal articles, under circumstances which leave little doubt that the use of the former was continued long after the discovery of the superior value of the latter.

Probably, even while the Tuatha De Danann artificers were framing their more refined weapons for the use of nobles and knights, the rude fashioner of flint-arrows and spear-heads still continued to exercise the craft he had learned from his forefathers, for the benefit of poorer or less fastidious warriors.
[Illustration: CROMLECH IN THE PHOENIX PARK.
The urn and necklace, figured at page 154, were found in this tomb.] [Illustration: CLONDALKIN ROUND TOWER.] FOOTNOTES: [144] _Authors_ .-- Strabo, l.iv.p.

197; Suetonius, _V.