Canon Greenwell has a specimen from Antrim (9½ inches), the end of which is worn obliquely, as if by trailing on the ground. It has a single rivet-hole.
A very long ferrule of this kind (14½ inches), but with a small disc at the base, is in the Museum at Nantes. It was found in the bed of the Loire.
A shorter form, somewhat expanding towards the base, is shown in Fig. 425. This, together with three others, none more than 4¼ inches long, was found, with spear-heads, &c., at Pant-y-maen, near Glancych.[1305]
In the Broadward find[1306] were six tubes, varying in length from 6 to 2 inches, of which one only was of this type. Some were so small that the diameter did not exceed ¼ inch.
A small ferrule of this kind was in the hoard found at Beddington, near Croydon,[1307] and part of one in that of Wickham Park. The latter is now in the British Museum.
What appears to be a ferrule of this kind, but more widely expanded at the end, like Fig. 425, is described in Gordon’s “Itinerarium Septentrionale”[1308] as “a Roman tuba, or trumpet.”
Another of these expanded ferrules is in the Museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.[1309]
In the Fulbourn find[1310] there were two ferrules expanding at the base to about 2 inches in diameter, which were regarded by Dr. Clarke as having been the feet of two spears. He points out that similar feet for spears may be seen represented on Greek vases.[1311] The οὐρίαχος or σαυρωτήρ of Homer[1312] appears to have been more susceptible of being driven into the ground. This point at the base was sometimes used for fighting when the spear-head proper was broken.
Among the African tribes on the shores of the Gambia, the spears, as Mr. Syer Cuming[1313] has pointed out, have a chisel- or celt-like ferrule at the base of their shafts; and this fashion extends all across Africa to Madagascar,[1314] and recurs in Borneo.