THE OLD STONE -AGE 
identical, with the blood, and that any substances resem- 
bling the latter in color possessed, therefore, life-giving, 
strengthening, and auspicious power. The Neander- 
thalers also buried with their dead an abundance of finely 
worked flint implements, shells, and joints of meat from 
such animals as they most depended on for food. 
The original motive inspiring these grave-offerings, rep- 
resenting Neanderthal man’s richest treasures, was prob- 
ably the desire to keep the dead man or his ghost from 
suffering the pangs of want and so returning in an angry 
frame of mind to terrorize his survivors. The same wish 
to prevent the return of the ghost led in some cases to 
doubling up the body, with its knees close under its chin, 
and then tying it securely in that position before con- 
signing it to the grave. For thus it would be impossible 
for the dead to walk. 
We have mentioned (see Chapter VII) the finding in a 
cave in Croatia of deposits of Mousterian age, including 
the charred and broken bones of about a score of individ- 
uals, both adults and children, of a local type of the 
Neanderthal race. One theory of some plausibility explains 
these as the remains of a cannibal feast of perhaps a 
religious nature. But unless further discoveries of a simi- 
lar sort are made elsewhere, it would hardly be fair to 
stigmatize the Neanderthalers as habitual cannibals. 
Signs of any sort of artistic feeling in Mousterian times 
are almost wholly wanting. The Neanderthalers seem to 
have worn certain shells, and possibly they smeared them- 
selves with the red pigment already mentioned in connec- 
tion with their burial customs. But if so, they can scarce- 
ly have had any idea of enhancing their own personal 
charms. Rather they, like more recent savages, regarded 
such practices simply as “‘good medicine,” sure to place 
them in a more favorable relation to their environment. 
From time to time scientists have attempted to recon- 
struct the bodily appearance of Neanderthal man from his 
skeletal remains (see Plates 28, 42, and 54), often with 
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