PREHISTORIC JAPAN—BAELZ. ; 529 
to the period and peculiarities of the inhabitants. Perhaps they 
belonged to the cave dwellers or “ earth spiders ” mentioned in con- 
nection with the victorious marches of the first (legendary) emperor 
of Japan, Djimutenno. 
In later times the caves often served as places of refuge for robbers 
and fugitives, and it is not at all improbable that during the endless 
civil wars that raged in Japan in the middle ages many such caves 
were made as hiding places by vanquished refugees. They are dug 
in a very soft sandstone easily scratched with the finger nail, and 
from their position in the wooded foothills of the mountains their 
origin might at least partly be attributed to such a contingency. 
» The theory has also been put forward that the caves were cata- 
combs. But even the discovery of skeletons in such caves would not 
prove that they were the most primitive form of graves, for we know 
from the history of the Egyptians that they resorted to cave burials 
only after having erected the most artistic tombs in the open air for 
thousands of years. In fact, in Japan the rock graves, which occur 
in the southwestern and middle part of Japan surely belong to a 
higher period of culture, the iron age. Besides, even in our own time 
many inhabitants of Tonkin built themselves cave dwellings which 
could easily be confused with catacombs, although only a generation 
before they had lived in houses like their neighbors. These modern 
cave builders were Tonkinese and Chinese irregular troops, called 
pirates by the French. They dug caves in almost inaccessible cliffs 
to escape their European enemies. Perhaps in the next decade some 
learned investigator finding these caves will advance very profound 
theories about the aborigines of Tonkin. Let us therefore be cautious. 
Everywhere in Japan there are shell heaps and other relics of the 
stone age which give a rich return, and which, as already mentioned, 
have led to a spirited discussion as to the race of their originators. 
The first shell heap was found and thoroughly investigated by the 
zoologist, Professor Morse, in the environs of Tokyo in 1879. The 
finds were described by him as numerous stone and bone implements, 
animal and human bones, mollusk shells, and pottery. Most of them 
are at present in the Imperial Museum at Tokyo. To-day the number 
of shell heaps and other stone-age sites known in Japan amounts to 
four thousand. 
Even in the very outskirts of Tokyo some have been found, and 
near the city of Yokohama, close by the race course, I have myself 
collected a great number of primitive stone implements and pottery. 
Most of the implements consisted of roughly worked slate. There are 
among them, however, some well-finished stone celts, so that from 
the form alone we could draw no division line between paleolithic 
and neolithic. But, judging from the pottery, this whole culture is 
neolithic, Less frequently one finds well-fashioned arrow points, 
