PREHISTORIC ART. 445 



lines of least resistance and contented liiniself with the thing- whicli was 

 cheapest and easiest made, and wonld have served his utilitarian pur- 

 pose. Nearly all work done by man for artistic purposes is in opposi- 

 tion to this law, for man's desire for beauty, his a'sthetic taste, his 

 artistic sense, induce him to expend an intinite amoujit of labor in the 

 production of an implement which would have been of equal utility 

 without it. Tlie fine flint chii)ping and the engraving on bone have 

 been mentioned. The decorations, the great number of which are set 

 forth in plates 13, 14, 15, 19, and 1*0, were not utilitarian. They were, 

 so far as utility was concerned, a useless expenditure of force, without 

 value, and in defiance of the law invoked. 



This statement applies with equal force to many other prehistoric art 

 works. Pottery and bronze objects were almost universally decorated 

 without regard to utility, and only to gratify the ;esthetic taste. The 

 jade implements, the polished stone hatchets, the entire list of forma 

 cnriosa, in fact all the "art for art's sake," and the labor expended 

 to gratify the esthetic taste of man and to satisfy his innate desire for 

 beauty, were in defiance of this rule. 



The foregoing argument can be upheld by many specimens, but its 

 truth is demonstrated by the implement shown in plate 31, and its 

 consideration in connection with the frontispiece. 



The arrow- and spear-head were the standard primitive projectile 

 weapons. The ax or hatchet was the standard ijrimitive cutting imple- 

 ment, performing its function V)y blows. The Paleolithic implements 

 corresponding to these were made usually of flint and solely by chip- 

 ping. In the ]S'eolithic period the hatchets, while chipped or pecked 

 into shape, were smoothed or polished by friction on a grinding or pol- 

 ishing stone. The various steps of the process are shown in figs. 93 to 

 99. These or similar implements have been found throughout the 

 world, wherever it was occupied by Keolithic man. -Their method of 

 use is shown in the frontispiece, where the original handle was found 

 with the hatchet inserted and ready for use. The discoveries of these 

 handles are rare, owing i)robably to the ease of their decomposition and 

 destruction, but they have been found in every country associated with 

 the hatchet in such a way as to identify their use in this manner. It 

 has therefore been decided that the primitive man thus used them, and 

 that practically all of the numberless polished stone hatchets found 

 throughout the world have each one had their handle similar to that 

 in the frontisi^iece. The specimen shown in i)late 31, while the same 

 implement as that in the frontispiece, differs from it in that it has 

 a stone handle and has been worked out of the solid. Whether it was 

 a i)iece of rock from a ledge or a water- worn bowlder, we have now no 

 means of determining, for the original surface has been removed in 

 the process of manufacture. It is hard stone, probably diorite; the 

 material is highly refractory and does not chip or flake as does flint. 

 It could never have been reduced ev^en approximately to its present 



