PREHISTORIC ART. 



437 



111! 



jiiiit 



Kl'Diil 



because of the extreme fineness of the point and the thinness of the 

 implement. It comes from San Marcos, Texas, and was collected by Mr. 

 H. von Beyer. It is the yellow beeswax Hint common to that country. 



It has been remarked 

 many times throughout 

 this paper that the pre- 

 historic artist possessed 

 sufficient confidence in 

 his ability, and displayed 

 such control over his 

 tools and materials as en- 

 abled him to make any- 

 thing out of flint that his h 

 fancy might dictate; he ^ , 

 did not confine himself | i 

 to utilitarian objects, but ~- \ 

 was an artist in the true ^ J 

 sense of the word; that j |- ; 

 is to say, he dealt with y. § ! 

 art for art's sake, for the | S ; 

 sake of making some- -^ 2 i 

 thing which should be J^ | ■ 

 beautiful and whose only r ^ | 

 purpose, according to the ? ^ ] 

 canon of art laid down I S 

 by Sir John Collier, would ? I i 

 be to please his eye and | i 

 to gratify his taste. The | : 

 prehistoric artist in flint ^ ' 

 obtained, in some way, = 

 we know not how, possi- b 

 bly by study and contem- 

 plation, possibly by edu- 

 cation, possibly by acci- 

 dent, an ideal which he 

 reproduced in flint. Plate 

 29 represents twenty ob- 

 jects taken at hazard 

 from the interior of the 

 United States, princi- 

 pally from the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, all of flint, in curious and 

 rare forms, believed to be entirely without utility and solely to gratify 

 an artistic desire. None of them are arrow or spear heads, and none of 

 them appear to have been made for any service. They are the work 

 of a master who, conscious of his ability, is playing with his art. One 

 represents a bird, one a snake, one an outstretched beaver skin, two of 



m 



