348 ETHNOLOGY. 



larly-shaped fragment of soft friable gray sandstone, bearing a part of 

 the natural impression of a bivalve shell which had ribs and prickles, 

 such as S2)ondylus santoncnsis; but these markings caused by the shell 

 have been nearly obliterated, .either by the natural action of water, 

 or by artificial rubbing, probably by both. Some slight ferruginous 

 stains remain in little hollows in the cavity ; but they may be due rather 

 to the imbedding material than to the use of this saucer-like stone as a 

 paint-mortar or ocher-pot."* It is safe, we judge, to presume such 

 stones to be true " relics " when found associated with others of which 

 there can be no doubt. Its i^resence with undoubted relics may have 

 been accidental, but probably not, and if brought to a cave-dwelling or 

 rock-shelter, it was for the purpose of using it just as has been suggested, 

 as a " i^aint-mortar or ocher-pot." 



The similarity of the weapons between the cotemporaries of the rein- 

 deer of France and the aborigines of North America has been frequently 

 pointed out by the authors of the Eeliquite Aquitanicte. It would seem, 

 too, that the custom of painting the face and body was also common to 

 the two peoples, if such hollowed stones as Messrs. Lartet and Christy 

 have figured from France, and the two figured in this chapter, were 

 used, as we believe, for paint-mortars. 



Messrs. Lartet and Christy remark : " With these early cave-dwellers 

 the art of painting was, as far as we know, limited to that favorite 

 aboriginal color, red. Various pieces of soft red hematite, covered with 

 scratches, indicate how thoy scraped off a red powder, which, mixed 

 with grease, would furnish as good means of personal adornment as is 

 employed by many Indians at the present day."t We should think 

 that the finding of the red hematite and the paint-mortars both would 

 render the fact of their having painted the face an absolute certainty, 

 and that the presence of the mineral indicated the use of the hollowed 

 stones as mortars. The particular one we have referred to, as figured 

 by Messrs. Lartet and Christy, appears more unquestionably a "mortar" 

 than do some of the discoidal stones which have merely flattened sides 

 and not a well-marked depression. 



Figure 192 represents a medium-sized paint-cup, made of a water- 

 worn pebble. Three and three-fourths inches long by two and one- 

 quarter inches wide, this specimen has sides and ends of a uniform 

 width of half an inch, giving thereby a large cupshaj^ed depression for 

 the total dimensions of the si)ecimen. It may be objected that the size 

 of figure 192 is too small for the supposed use. Undoubtedly many 

 paint-mortars were larger, but this specimen is not as small as some we 

 have found ; and, in favor of the theory of its having been used as a paint- 

 cup, is the fact that it was found in a grave, with a series of arrow-points, 

 an ax, a knife, and some fragments of pottery. The locally and the 

 evidently artificial character of the cup-shaped depression i^rovo beyond 

 a doubt that it is an Indian relic; and that its use was for paint- 



* Eel. Aquitan, p. 109, pi. xxiii, fig. 2. * L. c, p. 22. 



