THE CAVE-DWELLERS OF FRANCE. 



73 



proves just nothing, because it proves too much. By parity of reason- 

 ing, the Greeks would have gone naked also. But we find in the caves 

 all the necessary outfit of the (Troglodytic) tailor. There are needles 

 of bone and of reindeer-horn, some of them being mere awls, but 



Fig. 8. 



Drawing of a Fish on Reindeeb-Horn. (From La Madelaine.) 



others having an eye to hold the thread. Some of these needles 

 were very slender, and a needle-case, made of a bone from a bird, has 

 been found, which might contain several of them. Lartet and Christy 

 discovered the mode of manufacturing these needles. They give an 

 engraving of the metacarpal of a horse, having a number of parallel 

 cuttings lengthwise, all executed with a fine saw. The work was 

 incomplete, but it is evident that here we have needles in process of 

 manufacture. 



Fig 4. 



Drawing of an Ibex. (La Madelaine.) 



The threads they used were doubtless of various kinds. But did 

 they employ for this purpose vegetable fibres, or fine strips of hide ? 

 It is possible, or even probable, that they used both ; but this at least is 

 certain, that they made threads, or, at all events, cords, out of tendons. 

 They removed carefully from the members of animals the long ten- 

 dons, as is shown by the scratches on the bone at the point of inser- 

 tion. 



Needle-work implies clothing, not simply that primitive garment 

 which consists of an animal's skin thrown over the shoulders, but a 

 more complete vesture, made up of sundry skins. The quantity of 

 needles and awls, and of scrapers for preparing skins for use, which 

 we meet with in the caves, shows that the use of clothing was general 

 among our Troglodytes. 



