THE CAVE-DWELLERS OF FRANCE. 



705 



In burying their dead, the contemporaries of our Troglodytes in 

 other localities practiced certain funeral rites; and consoled them- 

 selves for their loss by partaking of a feast on a little platform in front 

 of the sepulchral cave a kind of solace not yet quite out of vogue. 

 Only one place of burial has as yet been discovered in the neighbor- 

 hood of the Vezere, namely, at Cromagnon. This is a mere nook be- 

 neath an overhanging rock ; and flints and shell ornaments are found 

 buried with the bodies. We find here no remnants of any 6tone 

 enclosure. 



Society among the Troglodytes had its hierarchical organization, 

 with dignitaries of various grades. The three caves at Les Eyzies, 

 Laugerie-Basse and La Madelaine contain the proofs of this assertion, 

 in the shape of large pieces of reindeer horn, artistically fashioned, and 

 commonly known as bdtons de commandement, commanders' trun- 

 cheons. Several of these instruments have been found ; they are 

 all of one common type, their surface being highly ornamented with 

 figures of animals, or of hunting-scenes, and are pierced with large 



Fig. 6. 



GRorp or 'RsiNDEsn. 



round holes, from one to four in number. The purpose of these re- 

 markable objects is matter of much dispute. It is true they much 

 resemble the pogamagan, or tomahawk of the Mackenzie River Esqui- 

 maux, but the pogamagan is both longer, thicker, and far more solid, 

 than the bdtons de commandement. The latter are too frail to be used 

 for any mechanical purpose, and therefore they were most probably only 

 insignia of rank, like the king's or the chiefs sceptre, or the marshal's 

 bdton. But thei'e are so many of them, that we cannot regard them 

 as regal insignia, and hence they may have been marks of hierarchical 

 dignity, the holes denoting the rank, like the bars or stars on a mili- 



VOL. II. 45 



