ARTISTIC SENSE IN ABORIGINES 427 



3.— THE ARTISTIC SENSE AS DISPLAYED IN THE ABORIGINES 



OF AUSTRALIA. 



By CHARLES DALEY. 



In the later Paleolithic Age in Europe, that continent to which we 

 are indebted for most of the information which we possess concerning 

 the very ancient forefathers of the human race, there is abundant 

 and ever accumulating evidence that the cave-dwellers and workers 

 in flint of those far distant ages very gradually developed an in- 

 creasing skill in working their chipped stone implements and in 

 improving the weapons of war and of the chase. Between the rude 

 " eolith," whose human origin is questioned, and the polished stone 

 axe of the later Paleolithic Period ages probably elapsed, but the 

 record of progressive skill and constructive ability remaias. 



The flint arrow and spear-heads, the axes, knives and scrapers 

 of the same or similar material reached a high level of efficiency if 

 the nature of the material be regarded. The long-continued use of 

 flint, so suitable for cutting purposes, gave the skill in forming 

 implements from other materials, such as bones of animals, the 

 antlers of deer, the ivory tusks of the mammoth, which in the later 

 periods of the Paleolithic Age seem to have been wrought into 

 effective weapons or implements. Some of these latter to a great 

 extent replaced the earlier implements of chipped flint, the polished 

 stone weapon also, at the close of the Paleolithic period superseding 

 the chipped axe-head. 



With the effective cutting implements the faculty for repre- 

 sentation of familiar forms, such as those of animals, grew, and re- 

 sulted in that skill to carve in bone and ivory which reached such 

 a high standard of excellence, as shown in the Madelainian specimens. 

 With acquired skill in carving naturally followed engraving on 

 stone and wood. In some of the caves in France which those 

 Paleolithic men frequented numerous examples of this work, 

 depicting animals, and also men, occur, as at the famous Mas 

 d'Azil at the Dordogne. Naturally those animals used for food, or 

 with which the cave-dwellers came most in contact, are the subjects 

 of reproduction, such as the reindeer, the mammoth, the urus, the 

 horse, etc. The surfaces of rock were sometimes carved, and as 

 the sense of ornamentation grew the handles of implements made 

 of bone and ivory were often effectively carved. One specimen, 

 in particular, of a reindeer from La Madelaine is specially remarkable 

 for its artistic feeling. In general the forms of animals are better 

 represented than those of human beings, which are usually crude 

 in execution. At several places in Europe, besides the Dordogne, 

 rock-carvings have been discovered, as in the Pyrenean caves, and 

 at Altamira, in Spain. These show in many instances skilful 

 representations of animals, such as the horse, bear, seal, rhinoceros, 

 deer, etc., and also the more or less effective use of colours, such as 

 black, brown, red and yellow. It is extremely probable that, 

 besides artistic skill in carving and drawing, the Paleolithic man was 



