704 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But further, they wore ornaments, which perhaps served as marlc9 

 of distinction. Thus, they had collars and bracelets made of pierced 

 shells, hung on a string. Such shells have been found in most of the 

 caves, and they occur in great numbers in the ancient place of sepul- 

 ture at Cromagnon. Pieces of ivory, nicely fashioned, and bored with 

 two holes, would appear to have been used to fasten the collar ; and 

 no doubt this is not the only outcropping of petty vanity of attire 

 amono- our Troglodytes. Most savages have the habit of painting 

 and tattooing their bodies ; nor is the latter practice yet quite extinct 

 among civilized races. In the caves are found several pieces of the 

 bloodstone, showing signs of having been scraped. Hence we con- 

 clude that they prepared a red paint, and made constant use of it, 

 probably in ornamenting their persons. Probably they also practised 

 tattooing, for, when their artists picture, as they often do, the hand 

 and forearm on a man on reindeer-horn, the lower part of the forearm 

 bears a figure which may well be taken to represent a tattoo. 



It has been already shown that our Troglodytes were not nomads ; 

 and, though individuals may have wandered abroad, the tribe never 

 travelled to any distance away from their cave. Hence they must 

 have acquired by barter objects coming from remote parts. The shells 

 of their necklaces came from the Atlantic coast. They also used 

 rock-crystal, which must have come from the Pyrenees, the Alps, or 

 the mountains of Auvergne. Thus it is seen that the Troglodytes had 

 relations with distant localities. 



Fig. 5. 



Group of Figttres Snake or Eel, Man, and Two Horse-Heads. (La Madelaine.) 



If they had any religious belief, it has left no trace. They wore 

 talismans or amulets, however, the incisor-teeth of wolves or rein- 

 deer, the ox, or the horse, with a hole in them, through which a string 

 was passed. Similar talismans are still worn by savage huntsmen, to 

 insure good luck in the pursuit of game. In Italy, down to the pres- 

 ent day, a swine's tooth, set in silver, is attached to the swaddling- 

 clothes of new-born infants, as a charm against the Evil Eye, and 

 afterward serves as a hochet, when the child is cutting its teeth. If 

 the wolves' and other animals' teeth w T e find in the caves were talis- 

 mans, our Troglodytes had at least a superstition, and, though I am 

 no theologian, I will say that it is difficult to decide just where supersti- 

 tion ends and religion begins. 



