6io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that the neolithic peoples had an organized religious system. These 

 rude sculptures, ever repeated exactly, which represent a female divin- 

 ity upon the walls of the grottoes of Baye, even prove that the reli- 

 gion of Neolithic times had risen to the height of anthropomorphism. 

 Now, a clearly-defined deity, a god in human form, must have priests 

 that are regularly initiated ; and a surgical initiatory rite recurs over 

 and over again even among civilized peoples. Is it ohjected that tlie 

 cranial mutilations were of too dangerous a character to be practised 

 in religious ceremonies ? But per se trepanning is not a dangerous 

 operation. Very frequently, no doubt, it is fatal, but the reason is, 

 because it is resorted to only in the last extremity. It is not the tre- 

 2)anning which kills the patient, but the cerebral lesions, which we 

 seek to relieve in this way. Apart from these complications, its dan- 

 gers are not very great. On the other hand, religious enthusiasm 

 knows no bounds : and if certain deities exact human sacrifices, cer- 

 tainly those should be considered lenient who require of a man only 

 a piece of his skull. What is piercing the skull, compared with dis- 

 emboweling ? And yet it is known that, among the negroes of West- 

 ern Africa, certain individuals, to secure initiation in sainthood, and 

 to prove the virtue of their amulets or gree-grees, open their bellies 

 with their own hands, pull their bowels out, put them back, and sew 

 themselves up. Many succumb to this butchery, but others rally and 

 become the saints of their tribe." ("Bulletin de la Societe d'An- 

 thropologie," 2 serie, tome ix., p. 199.) 



Doubtless those who survived the piercing of the skull became 

 equally worshipful personages, held in honor during their lives and 

 after their deaths. Out of their sacred skulls were cut plates of bone, 

 as shown in the engraving. They were then kept as sacred relics, or 

 even worn as amulets, for many of them are pierced through the 

 centre evidently with the view of suspending them. The skull in the 

 figure has undergone three mutilations, D, E^ and F, doubtless for 

 the purpose of making amulets. Nor ought we to deride this super- 

 stition which attaches supernatural virtue to a bone from the human 

 head : as late as the last century, a powder made from certain bones 

 of the cranium used to be prescribed as a cure for epilepsy. It has 

 been remarked that all the skulls in which disks of bone were found, 

 were pierced during the life of the individual. If our hypothesis be 

 true, the only ones honored with this practice would have been those 

 consecrated to the service of the gods. If, on the other hand, motives 

 be sought wherefore the dead should be thus honored, we are irresisti- 

 bly conducted to their steadfast faith in the immortality of the soul. 

 A person who had been trepanned comes to die one or more pieces 

 are cut from his sacred cranium for amulets or relics ; but, inasmuch 

 as the man could not live in another world with a mutilated skull, 

 another piece of skull is given him to make him whole, when he reaches 

 the abode of tlie blest. La Nature. 



