LITERARY NOTICES. 



277 



limits of the volume forbid any detailed 

 account of discoveries outside of Western 

 Europe. The author disparages certain at- 

 tempts to estimate the number of years that 

 man has lived on earth, and the duration 

 of the stone, bronze, and iron ages, and 

 maintains that all peoples have not passed 

 through these three ages at the same time. 

 Hence such divisions can have only a rela- 

 tive, not an absolute, chronological value. 

 That human bones are found in strata where 

 they could not have been buried in later 

 time, and intermingled with bones of the 

 cave-bear, the mammoth, the reindeer, and 

 many other long-extinct species ; that the 

 bones of these beasts often bear wounds 

 sometimes partly healed which were plainly 

 made by the weapons found in the same 

 localities ; with other evidence still more re- 

 markable prove that man was present in 

 Europe during the Quaternary age. Relics 

 have been found that have convinced some 

 archaeologists of the presence of man during 

 the Tertiary period, and this opinion our au- 

 thor shares, though he does not deem the 

 assumption proved. 



Part II, " Primitive Civilization," re- 

 counts what has been learned from the rel- 

 ics of primitive man as regards his domestic 

 life, methods of industry, his progress in 

 domesticating animals, in drawing and carv- 

 ing, his religious ideas, and customs of hu- 

 man sacrifice and cannibalism. The author 

 concludes, from the data so far obtained, 

 that primitive European man dwelt for a 

 considerable period in caves. The flesh of 

 the mammoth, the great cave-bear, the horse, 

 the aurochs, and other animals, generally 

 eaten raw, together with wild fruits and 

 roots, formed his staple diet. The use of 

 fire was known, and -pottery had been in- 

 vented. He clothed himself in skins, which 

 he sewed by means of bone needles. Can- 

 nibalism was practiced to some extent, and 

 the horrors of war were already known. 

 But, in spite of his savage customs, <f he 

 was man in all senses of the word ana- 

 tomically, intellectually, and morally." 



On the Desert, with a Brief Review of 

 Recent Events in Egypt. By Henry 

 M. Field, D. D. New York: Charles 

 Scribner's Sons. Pp. 330. Price, $2.00. 

 We must confess to having read Dr. 



Field's book with great pleasure, and found 



it refreshing, entertaining, and instructive. 

 We say " confess " in honest acknowledg- 

 ment of an interest hardly expected in a 

 new book on the wanderings of the old 

 Jews. No doubt, we were prejudiced, as 

 Hebrew matters had been somewhat over- 

 done in our early education. Between the 

 horrible droning sermons, mostly about the 

 Israelites, which made the day of rest a 

 weariness and a burden, and the Sunday- 

 school exercises, which were worse because 

 sleep was impossible, and the pious books 

 about the patriarchs and prophets, which 

 had to be read all during the week, we got 

 an early surfeit of things Hebraic, and when 

 there came at length the happy liberty of 

 reading what we liked, the children of 

 Israel got a wide berth, and we naturally 

 failed to keep up with the progress of mod- 

 ern investigation into the profane aspects 

 of Jewish history. But early associations 

 are omnipotent, and we have accordingly 

 gone through Dr. Field's book describing 

 the present aspects of ancient sacred places 

 with an unusual degree of satisfaction. 



Dr. Field's volume, we observe, has been 

 criticised for its want of novelty. It is said 

 that he has gone over ground that has been 

 traversed many times before, until its inter- 

 est is exhausted, and that he has not been 

 able to add anything new or important to 

 what previous travelers had furnished. Very 

 likely those who have kept up with Pales- 

 tine explorations and antiquarian researches 

 into the old haunts and relics of the Jewish 

 people would find no important revelations 

 in this volume. But it was not intended to 

 enlighten those who have spent their lives 

 in the study of Jewish history. The author 

 offers his book merely as an introduction to 

 the learned works of those who have de- 

 voted themselves to the investigation of the 

 subject. 



He says : " The Peninsula of Sinai has 

 been a favorite ground of Biblical explorers. 

 In their zeal to visit scenes made dear by 

 connection with sacred history, they have 

 sought to follow the track of the children 

 of Israel from the time of their departure 

 out of Egypt ; to trace their marches on the 

 desert; to fix the place of their encamp- 

 ments, not only around the base of Sinai, 

 but even when wandering and almost lost 

 in the great and terrible wilderness. The 



