with iron tools.[1] The council chamber at Cyzicus was constructed of wood without any iron nails, the beams being so arranged that they could be taken out and replaced.[2] The late Raja Vijyanagram, a member of the Viceroy’s Council, and described as one of the most enlightened and estimable of Hindu princes, would not allow iron to be used in the construction of buildings within his territory, believing that its use would inevitably be followed by small-pox and other epidemics.[3]
This superstitious objection to iron perhaps dates from that early time in the history of society when iron was still a novelty, and as such was viewed by many with suspicion and dislike. For everything new is apt to excite the awe and dread of the savage. “It is a curious superstition,” says a recent pioneer in Borneo, “this of the Dusuns, to attribute anything—whether good or bad, lucky or unlucky—that happens to them to something novel which has arrived in their country. For instance, my living in Kindram has caused the intensely hot weather we have experienced of late.”[4] The first introduction of iron ploughshares into Poland having been followed by a succession of bad harvests, the farmers attributed the badness of the crops to the iron ploughshares, and discarded them for the old wooden ones.[5] The general dislike of innovation, which always makes itself strongly felt in the sphere of religion, is sufficient by itself to
- ↑ Acta Fratrum Arvalium, ed. Henzen, p. 132; Corpus Instripionum Latinarum, i. No. 603.
- ↑ Pliny, l.c.
- ↑ Indian Antiquary, x. (1881) 364.
- ↑ Frank Hatton, North Borneo (1886), p. 233.
- ↑ Alexand. Guagninus, “De ducatu Samogitiae,” in Respublica sive Status Regni Poloniae, Lituaniae, Prussiae, Livoniae etc. (Elzevir, 1627), p. 276; Johan. Lasicius, “De diis Samogitarum caeterorumque Sarmatum,” in Respublica, etc. (ut supra), p. 294 (p. 84 ed. Mannhardt, in Magazin herausgeg. von der Lettisch-Literär. Gesellsch. bd. xiv.)
