It will now be well to mention some of the other Irish specimens of this class.
The knives with the projecting rib upon the tang are by no means uncommon, and there are several in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy and elsewhere. Canon Greenwell has one (6⅜ inches) from Ballynascreen, Co. Tyrone, much like that from the Heathery Burn Cave (Fig. 252).
Fig. 252.—Heathery Burn Cave. ½ — Fig. 253.—Harty. ½ — Fig. 254.—Ireland. ½
The knife or dagger with a plain tang and an ornamented blade engraved as Fig. 254 is in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. Another, simply ridged and with a single rivet-hole in the tang, found at Craigs,[747] Co. Antrim, is in the collection of Mr. R. Day, F.S.A. It is less round-ended than the blade with a central rib along it and one rivet-hole in the tang, shown in Fig. 255. This is in my own collection, and was found at Ballyclare, Co. Antrim.
A mould for blades of this character will subsequently be mentioned.
Another form of knife, unless possibly it was intended for a lance-head, is shown in Fig. 256. This specimen is also from the Reach Fen hoard, but is of yellower metal and differently patinated from the objects found with it. Canon Greenwell has a knife of the same form (4¾ inches), found at Seamer Carr, Yorkshire. Another, smaller (3⅜ inches), is in the British Museum, but its place of finding is not known. A nearly similar blade, found near Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, is shown in Fig. 257.
Another example of this form (5⅜ inches) is in the British Museum.
Sir W. Wilde[748] has figured some other examples of the same kind, from 3 to 4 inches long, which he regarded as arrow-heads. They appear to me, however, too large for such a purpose.