64 ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 



bones of Carnivora were tlie most numerous ; whence it may be 

 supposed tliat tliese animals entered largely into the funeral rites, 

 of which analogous instances may be seen in sepiilchres of a more 

 recent period.* 



One cii'cumstance struck me as remarkable : that although we 

 collected a gi-eat many lower jaws, almost entire, of Carnivora, and, in 

 the interior of the cave, some of herbivorous animals, not a single 

 upper jaw in the entire state, nor any considerable portion of the 

 cranium of any of these animals were met with. Must we conclude 

 that the crania in general had been broken to pieces for the 

 extraction of the brain ? The North American Indians, accordmg to 

 Hearne, as quoted by M. Morlot, prepared the skins of animals with 

 a lye composed of the brain and marrow. " The Samoiedes," says 

 PaUas, " split up the bones of the Eeindeer, in order to devoiir the 

 marrow quite fresh and raw. Their favourite food consists of the 

 brain taken raw and steaming from the skull ; and they also devour 

 in the raw state, the young horna of the Eeindeer, when they are 

 beginning to sprout." 



In the soil within the cave at JB, were discovered, as has been said, 

 several human bones which had been left buried in it, after the 

 removal which had been effected, several years before, of the skeletons 

 interred in the burial ground of Aurignac. It was in the same 

 situation that were found the most highly finished flint implements 

 and the finest specimen of worked Eeindeer's horn, as well as an almost 

 entire horn of that animal. The only bones of Herbivora that we 

 obtained in a good state of preservation, were also procured in the 

 same deposit. The carnivorous bones constituted the majority, and 

 amongst these, those of the Fox were the most numerous, after which 

 came those of the Great Cave Bear ( Ursus spelesus). Of this species, 

 one specimen must have been introduced entire, since we found in 

 very close contiguity, the various bones of its skeleton. Amongst the 

 individuals of this great species of Bear whose remains had been 

 conveyed into the cave by the hand of man, one must have been a 

 female in an advanced stage of gestation, for in the loose earth out- 

 side the cave we met with several remains of a foetus nearly at the 

 period of birth. "Whilst the bones of the Herbivora found outside 

 the cave were all broken and comminuted, burnt and gnawed, both 

 those found in the ashes, as Avell as tliose lying in the layer of earth 

 above the ash-layer, the bones found in the interior had, on the 

 contrary, been well preserved, and, in particular, showed no mark of 

 their having been attacked by the teeth of Carnivora. "Whence it may 

 be concluded that these parts of animals had been introduced into the 

 sepulchre for a special purpose ; and, at the same time, that the 

 entrance had been constantly closed against the Hyaenas. 



* Tlie Laplanders of the ])resent day are not so dainty as we may suppose the 

 aborigmos of Aqiiitainc to have been, for, according to J. Acerbi, (Voyage au C;ip 

 Nord) they cat inditi'crcntly the Bear, Wolf, Fox, Otter, and Seal. 



