AND THE REINNEER IN MIDDLE EUROPE. 351 



were also tlie rliinoceros and the great tiger. But the hyenas and the cave- 

 bears existed no longer in middle Europe. An entire fauna of the larger ani- 

 mals becomes extinct, and man witnesses its disappearance from the earth. 



The anthropological facts which we possess in regard to this far distant time 

 are of course not very numerovxs, but not the less do they enable science to gather 

 the general characteristics of the human race which lived at the reindeer era and 

 in the period of stone implements which followed it. The stature of that race 

 was small and the head round, (brachycephalous,) the face broad and square, the 

 hair black.* The skull was usually thicker than with men of the present day. 

 Nor is there anything which announces that the people of the reindeer era were 

 particularly intellectual. From negative proofs it may be inferred that man at 

 that remote period believed in another life, but there is nothing on which we can 

 found an inquiry as to forms of worship. We find no figures or symbols which 

 point to a veneration of idols. There has, indeed, been discovered a rude figure 

 of a woman, carved on an elephant's tooth, but the idolatrous destination of this 

 relic is not generally recognized. But while no religious idea can Avell be 

 attached to it, it affords a proof that an advance had been made in art, Avhich we 

 cannot but consider highly creditable for this da^\^l of its development. The 

 Marquis de Vibraye, to whom we owe this discovery, remarks : 



The man of the earliest age makes himself known throug'h his works ; he connects himself 

 through his relics with the extinct animals ; and finally becomes the revealer of his owu 

 existence by bequeathing us a representation of his corporeal figure. 



Besides this rude female image, there is also a naked human figure, which 

 seems to bear a staff on the shoulder, that has come down to us on a piece of 

 reindeer's horn. The meagreness of the haunches and thighs, the prominent 

 belly, somewhat reminds us of that type of Australian savages which we have 

 learned to recognize from frequent representations by travellers, as for instance, 

 from the atlas annexed to the voyage of Dumout d'Urville. The head is 

 delineated only by a circular line. Accompanying this figm'e are two horses' 

 heads, the neck of one horse being partially veiled by the human form, which 

 again is closely followed by what is apparently intended to represent a reptile of 

 considerable length, perhaps a serpent, but, judging from the shape of tlui head, 

 body, and tail, with some traces of fins, more probably a lai'ge eel trailed along 

 by the person in advance. 



To the human figures in question is limited the personal representation which 

 has so far descended to us, of the race of men living at the period of their execu- 

 tion, and it may well be supposed that they afford imperfect grounds for ethno- 

 logical deductions. Yet, rude as they are, they do not want a certain interest 

 arising from the consideration that in presenting the human form entirely nude, 

 they may, perhaps, indicate that such was the habitual condition of that ancient 

 population, an inference which the climate of the south of France, at least in 

 summer, would render credible. 



The discovery at Aurignac has already initiated us into the burial rites of the 

 oldest known period of our race, nor had the man of the reindeer age changed 

 the ceremonial which tradition had handed down to him. The grotto of Frontal 

 at Furfooz, in the neighborhood of Dimant, disclosed very nearly the same pecu- 

 liarities as the sepulchral cavern of Aurignac. The remains of thirteen human 

 bodies, thrown one upon another by the floods of the diluvial era, have l)een here 

 discovered at a depth of 51 feet under the gravel, and at an elevation of 390 

 feet. The entrance of the grotto had been originally closed with a flat stone, 

 but this barrier has been destroyed by the irruptive waters. Two skulls only 

 remain entire ; as yet, however, the conclusions to which these curious relics of 



*This round-headed race disappeared in great part after the immigration of the Aryschen 

 race (dolichocephalous or oval-headed) from Asia, but it has not wholly perished. Accord- 

 ing to Nicolucci, it is still found in Hungary (the Magyars,) in Liguria, in the country of 

 the Basques, in Finland, Lapland, «fcc. 



