356 MAN AS THE COTEMPORARY OF THE MAMMOTH 



for from no other source probably can we derive sacli distinct ideas of tlie life 

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

 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, we mnst ascribe 

 the practice of this primitive art solely to the population who, within a circum- 

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

 purpose of ornament 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 he 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 which the reindeer 

 caves of Dordogne have supjilied ; 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 bequeatlicd 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 l;»e supposed that in the narrow district of Perigord a 

 particular population should have flourished, together with the whole northern 

 fauna, as it were upon an island, and only 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 veg'etable 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 stationary or in repose are extremely rare. 

 Reindeers, as well as other animals of the deer species, are shown in rapid flight, 

 as testified by tlje 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, with the fore legs bent back beneath the bod}^, 

 the hinder legs stretched stilily 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 

 Vibraye, which is plainly intended to represent a group of fighting reindeers. 

 One of these struggles while lyino; on its back with its lerrs in the air: another 

 draws itsell together as in the act of onset ; a third, with head sunk down, has 

 evidently just overthrown the first. 



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

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

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

 doubt whether we have before us an ox, a horse, or a reindeer. It is, however, 

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

 doubtlessly recognize them more readily if the picture 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 t(j 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 



