ETHTS^OLOGY. 333 



show that they have been scraped. A red color was thus formed, which 

 was constantly used in personal adornments. It is likely that tattooing 

 also was practiced, since among the figures engraved upon various objects 

 of reindeer horn, there are several representing the hand and fore-arm 

 of a man, and ui)on the lower part of the fore-arm are designs in such 

 regular patterns they can hardly be anything else than tattooing. 



I have already said our troglodytes were not nomadic ; individuals 

 may have undertaken long journeys, but the tribe seldom or never 

 wintered far from the cave. They must have obtained, by exchange or 

 commerce, certain articles foreign to the locality, such as the perforated 

 shells, of which their necklaces and bracelets were made. These were 

 mostly of the species Littorina littorea, and came from the shores of the 

 Atlantic, where they are abundant. They were recent shells, tliat is, not 

 fossils, which is proved by the tints they retain to this day. There are 

 others also pierced with a hole for suspension, which belong to five ex- 

 tinct species of the Miocene age. They are entirely discolored; and 

 their niolecular condition and worn appearance prove that they had 

 beeu for a long time in the fossil state before they were unearthed to 

 assist in adornment, j^ow the places where these fossils were found 

 were not in the neighborhood of the Vezere ; the nearest were those 

 of Touraiue, and thence, in all probability, our troglodytes imported this 

 addition to their toilet. We also find at these localities, and especially 

 at Upper Laugerie, small objects of rock-crystal, which substance must 

 have come from the Pyrenees, the Alps, or the mountains of Auvergne. 

 The foreign relations of the troglodytes were therefore far extended. 



Had they religious belief? We found in their dwelling-places no 

 objects which could serve for worship ; but they wore a talisman, or 

 amulet, which consisted of a canine or incisor tooth of the wolf, the 

 reindeer, the ox, or the horse ; a hole was carefully perforated in one 

 end of the tooth to receive the suspending cord. Similar talismans are 

 worn at the present day to assist the fortunes of the chase, and M. de 

 Mortillet has observed in Italy an analogous custom. To counteract 

 the influence of evil spirits, the tooth of a hog, mounted in silver, is fast- 

 ened to the swaddling-clothes of the new-born child; and later, when 

 the teeth commence to appear, it is suspended from the neck of the 

 infant, and serves as a coral or rattle. 



The perforated teeth of the troglodytes were certainly not rattles; 

 they were, perhaps, protective amulets, but more probably talismans 

 for hunting. In either case, they were objects of superstitious venera- 

 tion. May it not then be said that these people had a religion ? I am 

 no theologian ; I cannot say. It is difficult to know where superstition 

 ends and religion begins. 



At the same period of time in other places certain funeral rites were 

 observed. The dead were deposited in a cave, the narrow opening of 

 which was closed with a stone slab. In front of the cave was a small 

 esplanade upon which the afflicted relatives comforted themselves with 



