20 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



they had been buried in the cave in which, during their lifetime, 

 they had lived and consumed these animals whose remains 

 we find. 



M. Adolphe Mdgret suggests that, in the position in which 

 all the skeletons that have as yet been discovered were found to 

 have been buried, we are " in the presence of a funeral and reli- 

 gious rite that was perpetuated." Here we would further draw 

 attention to the little bone objects of various dimensions, but al- 

 ways of the same shape, that have each time been found with the 



Photograph of the Paleolithic Skeletons discovered in the Fifth Cave in the 

 RocHERS Rouges, near Mentone, in February, 1892. Reproduced by the kind permis- 

 sion of M. Bertrand, Mentone. 



ornaments that are supposed to have been around the heads or 

 necks ; we refer to the pieces of bone that measure from about 

 one inch and a half to three inches in length, cut in the center so 

 as to form two ovals joined together; they are slightly ribbed 

 longitudinally; these were supposed to have united the ends of 

 the necklaces of deer's teeth or shells and thus been suspended in 

 a prominent position; they probably were roughly cut "totems" 

 or objects of veneration of their " religious " instinct. Even the 

 same shaped " totems " have been found elsewhere. For further 

 and fuller explanation of a meaning that we can not express here. 



