Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Aimutlets, ete. 137 
the Cro-Magnon type, and that all the bodies had been 
definitely interred. The discovery of cowries and the 
relation of these to the body, forms an interesting parallel 
to the Laugerie-Basse burial referred to above. 
The association of perforated cowry shells with men 
belonging to the Cro-Magnon group is not without interest 
when it is remembered that these people were members 
of our own species—Homo sapiens, and quite distinct from 
the earlier Neanderthal people. That they were men 
capable of formulating ideas and endowed with an artistic 
sense is unquestionable, The skeletons of this race all 
seem to have been ceremonially interred, which certain 
writers regard as implying that they were not without 
some idea of religion. The fact that they used perforated 
shells, teeth, and pendants, as amulets, also supports this 
conclusion. But, of course, the validity of the inference 
“ 
depends upon what is meant by the term “ religion.” 
How this race came into the south cf Europe and 
where it came from is not easy to determine ; but the 
slender evidence at present available disposes us to look to 
North Africa as its immediate source. It seems possible 
that these people may have been an early sporadic 
invasion from, or at least have been in direct or indirect 
contact with, the region where civilisation first developed— 
the valley of the Nile and Western Asia. 
The skull of the Cro-Magnon man has so many points 
of similarity to that of Neolithic man in England, that, 
in defiance of the archeological evidence, the former race 
was judged at one time to belong to the Neolithic period, 
Leading authorities now agree in relegating it to an 
earlier time, which includes the Magdalenian period.” 
4° The culture of the Cro-Magnon race is certainly quite distinct from 
that of the Lower Paleolithic people— Neanderthal man, and on this account 
Dr. Elliot Smith has suggested the term ‘* Neoanthrophic phase of culture,” 
in order to give specific emphasis to the profound break in human history 
