Note 100 — Chapter II · MAN’S FIRST WEAPONS—THE STONE AND THE STICK. THE EARLIEST AGES OF WEAPONS. THE AGES OF WOOD, OF BONE, AND OF HORN.

The word paalstab, palstab, or palstave is usually translated ‘labouring-staff,’ from at pula or pala, to labour, labourer. Dr. John Evans (Bronzes, &c., p. 72) prefers ‘spade-staff,’ the verb being at pæla, to dig, and the noun pall, a spade, spud, shovel; the Latin pala, the French pelle, and our (baker’s) peel, or wooden shovel. He confines the term ‘pal-stave’ to two forms; the first is the winged celt with the lateral extensions hammered to make a socket; the second is the spud-shaped form, with a thinner blade above than below the side-flanges.