356 MAN AS THE COTEMPORARY OF THE MAMMOTH 



for from no other source probably can we derive sucli distinct ideas of the life 

 and habits of the reindeer hunters of southern France as from the remarkable 

 representations of the animal world which we find engraved chiefly on these 

 remnants of reindeer horn, but sometimes also on pieces of bone, ivory, or slate. 

 Thus far, indeed, and until further indications offer themselves, Ave must ascribe 

 the practice of this ])rimitive art solely to the population avIio, within a circum- 

 scribed space, inhabited Dordogne. The representation of real objects for the 

 purpose of orjiament is, in this case, the more remarkable, inasmuch as in far 

 later times, those namely of the pile-constructions of Switzerland and the stone 

 age of Denmark, no trace of such an application of art is to be met with ; on 

 the other hand, however, indicative in form of a certain degree of taste, the orna- 

 mentation of these later ages is altogether confined to a combination of different 

 lines, of angles, circles, zigzags, &;c., and never consists in an imitation of either 

 animals or plants. We should certainly have obtained a much clearer knowl- 

 edge of the social condition of men in the time of the pile-structures if we pos- 

 sessed in reference thereto representations similar to those Avhich the reindeer 

 caves of Dordogne have supplied ; for if these convey to a certain extent illus- 

 trations of the hunter and fisher life, the pile-builders, had their art taken the 

 same direction, would doubtless have l)equeathed to us images, carved upon 

 horn or other material, illustrative of their husbandry and domestic industry. 

 This difference can perhaps only be accounted for through the original genius of 

 the races, as it can hardly be supposed that in the narrow district of Perigord a 

 particular jjopulation should have flourished, together with the whole northern 

 fauna, as it were upon an island, and onl}- at a later period attained that higher 

 degree of art which distinguished it ; and the less, as cotemporary deposits from 

 other caves show nothing of the sort. Thus the museum in Geneva contains a 

 truncheon of horn from a grotto at Saleve, which marks the eastern point of the 

 reindeer caves; and this instrument, while it is bored through the end, and the 

 general workmanship is the same as in Perigord, nowhere exhibits any other 

 than the common linear ornamentation of the period. 



It is a fact worthy of note that in all the figures yet found, no plants, but 

 only animals, are represented. This circumstance may not be without its signi- 

 ficance in the absence of all proofs of a vegetable diet on the part of these hunts- 

 men of the reindeer era. Yet it is to be observed that this defect of vegetable 

 forms plainly harmonizes with a certain vivid feeling of the artists for the repre- 

 sentation of movement. Animals stationaiy or in repose are extremely rare. 

 Beindeers, as Avell as other animals of the deer species, are shown in rapid flight, 

 as testified by the head bowed back upon the neck, the outstretched legs, some- 

 times by the gaping mouth and panting nostrils ; at other times they are repre- 

 sented in the act of springing, Avith the fore legs bent back beneath the body, 

 the hinder legs stretched stiffly out behind. The climax of this infant art seems 

 to have been reached on a sheet of slate in the possession of the Marquis of 

 Yibraye, Avhich is plainly intended to represent a group of fighting reindeers. 

 One of these struggles Avhile lying on its back Avith its legs in the air; another 

 clraAvs itself together as in the act of onset; a third, Avith head sunk down, has 

 CA'idently just overthrown the first. 



Assuredly Ave do not mean to claim for these delineations anything like uni- 

 form merit, or an exact appreciation of characteristic peculiarities ; the figures 

 present sometimes but a stiff and wooden appearance, and Ave are even left in 

 doubt Avliether we have before us an ox, a horse, or a reindeer. It is, hoAve\^er, 

 but just to say that such enigmatical figures are fragmentary only, and Ave should 

 doubtlessly recognize them more readily if the pictm-e had remained entire. Most 

 of the figures, on the other hand, evince no mean facility of the artist in seizing 

 on distinctive traits, so as to enable us at the first glance to determine the species ; 

 though, of course, there can be no question here of finished execution, but merely 

 of a successful rendering of the most essential details : the characteristic outline 



