286 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



form of some object. It is embodied in this way, as 

 it was embodied in fetishes in the way described in 

 the foregoing chapters. Owing to this innate cause, 

 and by the instinct of imitation which results from it, 

 children as well as savages always attempt some rude 

 sketch of natural objects, or of the fanciful images to 

 which they have given rise. Drawings of animals 

 and some other objects are found among the lowest 

 savages, such as the Tasmanians and Australians. 

 Nor is this fact peculiar to the lower historic races, 

 and to those which are still in existence, but it is also 

 to be found in the dwellings and remains of prehistoric 

 man ; carvings on stone of very ancient date hava 

 been found, coeval with extinct and fossil animals, 

 prior to the age of our flora and fauna and to the 

 present conformation of laud and water. There are 

 many clear proofs of the extreme antiquity of the 

 primitive impulse to imitative arts. A stag's meta- 

 tarsal bone, on which there was a carving of two 

 ruminants, was found in the cave of Savigny : in a 

 cave at Eyzies there was a fragmentary carving of two 

 animals on two slabs of schist ; at La Madelaine there 

 were found two so-called staves of office, on which 

 were representations of a horse, of reindeer, cattle, 

 and other animals ; two outlines of men, one of a 

 fore-arm, and one of a naked man in a stooping posi- 

 tion, with a short staff on his shoulder ; there is also 

 the outline of a mammoth on a sheet of ivory ; a 

 statuette of a thin woman without arms, found by 



