these people were originally the despised slaves of the powerful Khan
of the Geougen. They occupied certain districts of the mountain-ridge
in the centre of Asia, called Imaus, Caf, and Altai, which yielded
iron in large quantities. This metal the Turks were employed by the
Khan to forge for his use in war. A bold leader arose among them, who
persuaded the ironworkers that the arms which they forged for their
masters might in their own hands become the instruments of freedom.
Sallying forth from their mountains, they set up their standard, and
their weapons soon freed them. For centuries after, the Turkish
nation continued to celebrate the event of their liberation by an
annual ceremony, in which a piece of iron was heated in the fire, and
a smith's hammer was successively handled by the prince and his
nobles.

We can only conjecture how the art of smelting iron was discovered.
Who first applied fire to the ore, and made it plastic; who
discovered fire itself, and its uses in metallurgy? No one can tell.
Tradition says that the metal was discovered through the accidental
burning of a wood in Greece. Mr. Mushet thinks it more probable that
the discovery was made on the conversion of wood into charcoal for
culinary or chamber purposes. "If a mass of ore," he says,
"accidentally dropped into the middle of the burning pile during a
period of neglect, or during the existence of a thorough draught, a
mixed mass, partly earthy and partly metallic, would be obtained,
possessing ductility and extension under pressure. But if the
conjecture is pushed still further, and we suppose that the ore was
not an oxide, but rich in iron, magnetic or spicular, the result
would in all probability be a mass of perfectly malleable iron. I
have seen this fact illustrated in the roasting of a species of
iron-stone, which was united with a considerable mass of bituminous