412 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



and men in various attitudes. Some of the men are tattooed; others 

 wear crowns of feathers; and the picture is finished with arabesques 

 and scrolls. At La Sierra de Ouca are drawings in red ocher, isolated 

 and in groups, without apparent order; and the rocks of the province 

 of Ceara and those of Tejuco are covered with tracings not unlike those 

 on the rocks of Scandinavia. Humboldt describes intaglios on the 

 right bank of the Orinoco representing the sun, moon, pumas, croco- 

 diles, and serpents, ill-formed figures defined most frequently by a sim- 

 ple outline and manifesting slight advancement in art. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ART OF THE PALEOLITHIC PERIOD. 



A few words as to the characteristics of the art of the Paleolithic 

 period. It has been already said there were some geometric designs. 

 These were by lines or dots, and, curiously enough, never or rarely in 

 the form of a cross, triangle, square, or circle, concentric or otherwise. 

 They consisted of parallel lines, sometimes crossed, sometimes drawn 

 in different directions, zigzags, chevrons, and sometimes the double 

 chevron, giving it the appearance of the letter X. On some of the long, 

 straight instruments of bone appear undulating, wavy lines, and in a 

 few cases are round, slightly fjointed projections — j^rotuberances like 

 a mamelon. 



In all these combinations of figures none have been found which 

 seem to have any meaning or to have the form of any letter, word, or 

 hieroglyjih. They do not correspond to any sign, ideographic or hiero- 

 glyphic. The cross is not fo'ind ; there is no representation of sun wor- 

 ship, nor of the sea, nor of any divinity, good or bad. Apparently there 

 had been no thought other than that apparent upon the face of the 

 picture. For instance, when horses are represented following each 

 other we can understand there is a drove. When the mammoth is rep- 

 resented, we understand that the artist has seen the animal. When a 

 man is represented following the bison and in the act of throwing his 

 spear, we can understand that a hunting scene is meant. Beyond 

 these and similar views no ideas seem to have been attempted. But 

 we are to remember the paucity of the sources of our knowledge. 



The designs, whether of drawing, engraving, or sculpture, seem to 

 have been original in so far that they were neither copied from other 

 drawings nor adapted from other schools or masters. They do not 

 seem to have been composed pieces, but drawings made direct from 

 nature with the original before the eye of the artist. Those represent- 

 ing the two horses' heads and that representing the hind legs of the 

 reindeer and the naked woman would appear to have been of this kind. 



There have been found in western Europe about four hundred speci- 

 mens of this engraved and sculptured art work belonging to the Paleo- 

 lithic period. Of these, four fifths are representations of animals. How 

 many sketches — mere essays or attempts — have been found, the author 

 has no means of knowing. The>e are on fragments and are not sup- 



