grove.[1] In Crete sacrifices were offered to Menedemus without the use of iron, because, it was said, Menedemus had been killed by an iron weapon in the Trojan war.[2] The Archon of Plataeae might not touch iron; but once a year, at the annual commemoration of the men who fell at the battle of Plataeae, he was allowed to carry a sword wherewith to sacrifice a bull.[3] To this day a Hottentot priest never uses an iron knife, but always a sharp splint of quartz in sacrificing an animal or circumcising a lad.[4] Amongst the Moquis of Arizona stone knives, hatchets, etc., have passed out of common use, but are retained in religious ceremonies.[5] Negroes of the Gold Coast remove all iron or steel from their person when they consult their fetish.[6] The men who made the need-fire in Scotland had to divest themselves of all metal.[7] In making the clavie (a kind of Yule-tide fire-wheel) at Burghead, no hammer may be used; the hammering must be done with a stone.[8] Amongst the Jews no iron tool was used in building the temple at Jerusalem or in making an altar.[9] The old wooden bridge (Pons Sublichis) at Rome, which was considered sacred, was made and had to be kept in repair without the use of iron or bronze.[10] It was expressly provided by law that the temple of Jupiter Liber at Furfo might be repaired
- ↑ Acta Fratrum Arvalium, ed. Henzen, pp. 128-135; Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii.2 (Das Sacralwesen), p. 459 sq.
- ↑ Callimachus, referred to by the Old Scholiast on Ovid, Ibis. See Callimachus, ed. Blomfield, p. 216; Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 686.
- ↑ Plutarch, Aristides, 21. This passage I owe to Mr. W. Wyse.
- ↑ Theophilus Hahn, Tstini-Goam, the Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi, p. 22.
- ↑ J. G. Bourke, The Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona, p. 178 sq.
- ↑ C. F. Gordon Gumming, In the Hebrides (ed. 1883), p. 195.
- ↑ James Logan, The Scottish Gael (ed. Alex. Stewart), ii. 68 sq.
- ↑ C. F. Gordon Gumming, In the Hebrides, p. 226; E. J. Guthrie, Old Scottish Customs, p. 223.
- ↑ I Kings vi. 7; Exodus xx. 25.
- ↑ Dionysius Halicarn. Antiquit. Roman, iii. 45, v. 24; Plutarch, Numa, 9; Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxvi. § 100.
