LAKTET O'S HUMAN EEMAINS, 67 



The Ehinoceros appears also to have been eaten by the Pyrenean 

 aborigines. Some molar teeth, and a certain number of bones 

 belonging to a young individual, were found at Aurignac in the 

 layer of earth above the ashes. All the vertebrae and the spongy 

 parts of the long bones had disappeared, devoured without doubt by 

 the Hyaenas ; but the thick and compact portions of the shafts of 

 the long bones were left. They are broken in the same manner as 

 those of the other Herbivora, and several fragments still bear the 

 traces of cutting instruments. Another proof, moreover, that when 

 the carcase of this young Ehinoceros was brought there, it had been 

 recently slain, is afforded by the circumstance that its bones, after 

 they had been broken by man, had afterwards been gnawed by the 

 Hyffinas, which would not have been the case had they not been still 

 fresh and filled with theii' gelatinous juices.* 



The rarity of the common Deer and of the Irish Elk, represented 

 at Aurignac, each by the remains of a single individual, might be 

 explained perhaps by the great abundance of those of the Eeindeer. 

 We know that in a wild state, antijjathies exist between certain 

 closely allied species, or sometimes between species belonging to the 

 same genus, which lead them to inhabit perfectly distinct districts. 



The Aurochs and the Eeindeer, then, are the species which have 

 figured the most often in the feasts of whose relics we find only what 

 was spared by the Hysenas. The situation of the hearth, on a plat- 

 form overlooking the valley and stream of the Eode, allow also of the 

 supposition that a great part of the bones might have been thrown 

 to the bottom of the valley, whence they wovild afterwards be 

 removed by the current of water, or decomposed by atmospheric 

 agencies. 



The long bones of these ruminants, so rich in marrow, have all 

 been broken for its extraction. Not one has been forgotten ; every 

 bone, down to the first phalanges of the Stags and Eeindeer, which, 

 like the long bones, contain a medullary cavity, has been carefully 

 opened. But the way in which this has been done is neither so 

 methodical nor so elegant as that noticed in the Danish kitchen- 

 middens, the bones in which have aU been split with remarkable 

 dexterity, in such a way as to expose, at a single blow, the whole of 

 the marrow they contained: as may be seen for instance in the 

 cannon-bone, or metatarsus, of the Aurochs, and of the Deer. At 

 Aurignac, as well as at Massat, this mode of fracture is rather rare, 



* Several African nations eat the flesh of the Ehinoceros, and amongst others 

 the Hottentots. " The ShangaUas," says Bruce, " are very fond of its tiesh, 

 although it is veiy hard, almost tasteless, and witli a strong musky smell; tlie most 

 delicate part in their estimation is the sole of the foot, which like that of the 

 Elephant and Camel, is of a cartilaginous and soft substance." According to 

 M. Boitard (Diet. Univ. d'Hist. Nat) the Indians hunt the Rhinoceros for their 

 horns, and to eat their flesh. The Chinese are of opinion that after swallows-nests, 

 the eggs of the lizard, and puppies, there is nothing so delicate as the tail of the 

 Ehinoceros, and a kind of jelly made from the skin of its belly. 



