Footnotes
[1] ] 'Odyssey,' xxi., 46-50. See translations by Pope, and by Butcher and Lang. I put aside all mention of knots and strings which as Mr. Syer Cuming has observed ('Journal of the British Archæological Association,' vol. xii., p. 117) must have formed the fastenings employed by dwellers in tents, and of which the Gordian knot was a complicated example. In early times seals must often have served as substitutes for locks, as we know was frequently the case in ancient Egypt and Assyria. The wooden door must have given rise to a totally different contrivance. It is possible, however, that something analogous to the Japanese book fastening, represented in fig. 1, Plate I., may have been employed under both systems.
[2] ] Mr. John Chubb in a paper read before the Institution of Civil Engineers, April 9, 1850, quotes a work by L. Molinus, "De Clavibus veterum," the date of which is, however, not mentioned, in which that author states that the use of keys was in his time still unknown in many parts of Sweden.
[3] ] 'Thebes, its Tombs and their Tenants,' by A. H. Rhind, F.S.A., London, 1862, p. 94.
[4] ] Mr. Bonomi states that he found a similar lock in one of the Palaces at Khorsabad. The word used for lock in the Scriptures, 'Muftah,' he says is the same in use in the East at the present time. ('Nineveh and its Palaces,' by Joseph Bonomi, F.R.S.L.)
[5] ] Wilkinson's 'Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,' vol. i., p. 355. The date of this passage in Judges is open to question. Inman ('Ancient Faiths,' vol. ii., p. 193) puts the earliest introduction of locks amongst the Jews at about 300 B.C.
[6] ] 'La Ferronnerie, Ancienne et Moderne,' par F. Liger, Paris, 1875, tome i., p. 266, fig. 213.
[7] ] 'La Ferronnerie,' tome i., p. 261, fig. 208.
[8] ] Ibid., p. 320.