78 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



crouching posture (p. 79). The idea seems to have 

 been to place the body in the attitude of sleep or 

 of rest. The deceased was arrayed in the gar- 

 ments and ornaments worn during life, and not in- 

 frequently a quantity of red oxide of iron was buried 

 with, or has been scattered over, the body. Flint 

 knives and lances seem often to have been placed with 

 the dead. It is needless to say that all this recalls 

 the burial customs of many rude tribes of men up to 

 modern times. 



There is some reason to believe that occasionally, 

 at least, the flesh has been partially removed from 

 the bones before interment. This reminds us of the 

 custom of some American tribes, who were in the 

 habit of disinterring the dead after a temporary burial, 

 carefully cleaning the bones, and then placing them 

 Wrapped in skins in their tribal ossuaries. It would 

 seem, however, that the primitive men when they 

 removed the flesh did so in a recent state. Perhaps 

 this practice was resorted to only when the body had 

 to be kept for some time, or carried some distance for 

 interment. If the body was disembowelled and the 

 remaining flesh and ligaments dried, it would be 

 reduced very nearly to the condition of the imperfect 

 mummies of the Guanches of the Canaries and of the 

 Peruvians. Thus we may suppose that we have here 

 a rudimentary condition of the art of the embalmer. 



Some questions still remain as to the races of men 

 actually known to us in the palanthropic age. It 

 has already been explained that in the earliest part of 



