PART II.
THE ARCHAIC OR BRONZE PERIOD.
"In those old days, one summer noon, an arm
Rose up from out the bosom of the lake,
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
Holding the sword Excalibur."
Morte D'Arthur.
CHAPTER I.—INTRODUCTION OF METALS.
The evidence adduced in the previous section furnishes the basis of the argument from whence we arrive at the conclusion, that Scotland and the whole British Isles were occupied by a human population many ages prior to the earliest authentic historical notices. Of the character and habits of the barbarian Briton of the primeval period we have also been able to arrive at some knowledge. His dwellings, the remains of which have lain unheeded around the haunts of so many generations, shew his domestic accommodation to have been of the simplest and most humble description. His imperfect tools and weapons furnish no less satisfactory evidence of his scanty knowledge, his privations, and his skill. Searching amid the records of that debateable land to which the geologist and the antiquary lay equal claim, we learn that vast areas of our country were covered at that remote era with the primitive forest; that oaks of giant height abounded where now the barren heath and peat-bog cumber the land; and that even, at a comparatively recent period, the fierce Caledonian bull, the wolf, and the wild boar asserted their right to the old forest-glades. The primitive Caledonian was, in fact, an untutored savage. The race was thinly scattered along the skirts of the continuous range of forest, occupying the coasts and river valleys, and retreating only to the heights or the dark recesses of the forest when the fortunes of war compelled them to give way before some more numerous or warlike neighbouring tribe. The vast forests which then occupied so large a portion of the soil, while they confined the primitive inhabitants to the open country along the coasts and estuaries, supplied them with more valuable fruits than the unoccupied grounds could have afforded to their scanty numbers and untutored skill. Besides the fiercer natives of the forest, we are familiar with the remains of the elk and the rein-deer, as well as of smaller beasts and birds of chase. In the Anglo-Saxon Ode on Athelstan's Victory, in which—
| Scotta leode, | The Scottish lads |
| And scip flotan | And the men of the fleets |
| Fæge feollon. | In fight fell, |
we have the following curious enumeration from the old MSS. in the British Museum, dated A.D. 937, in Gibson's Chronicle, and supposed to be written by a contemporary bard:[224]—
The war screamers
Left they behind;
The hoarse bittern,
The sallow paddock,
The swarth raven
With horned bill,
And the wood-housing heron
Eating white fish of the brooks,
The greedy gos-hawk,
The grey deer,
And wolf wild.
We are not without abundant evidence that the primitive Caledonian waged successful war with the wild natives of the forest. By arrow, sling, and lance, and also, no doubt, with help of gins and traps, the largest and fiercest of them fell a prey to the wild hunter. The horns especially of the deer supplied him with weapons, implements, ornaments, and sepulchral memorials. His wants were few, his tastes simple and barbarous, his religion probably as unspiritual as the most base of savage creeds. In the long wanderings of his nomade fathers across the continents of Asia and Europe, they had greatly deteriorated from the primal dignity of the race, they had forgotten all the heaven-taught knowledge of Eden, and had utterly lost the antediluvian metallurgic arts. It may perhaps be asked if the annals of so mean a race are worthy of the labour required in dragging them to light from their long-forgotten repositories? The answer is, they are our ancestry, even though we may question our lineal descent; our precursors, if not our progenitors. From them we derive our inheritance and birthright; nor, amid all the later mingling of races, can we assume that no drop of their blood mingles in our veins.