32 



INTRODUCTION 



query is Breuil's — d. l'ha7ne(on. The gravure fails to convince, 

 chiefly because les hamefons figured do not recurve in the 

 proper sense. They seem to be more in the nature of gorges 

 curved back and much improved in the course of generations. ^ 

 The evolution of the primitive gorge, in particular those 

 with ends slightly curved, into a double fish-hook was, I 

 suggest, probably an easy process, more especially with the 

 discovery of the adaptabihty of bronze. But these gorges 



can never be properly 

 termed hooks. 



The function of the 

 hook is to estabhsh a 

 hold by penetration, 

 that of a gorge by re- 

 sistance — once down, 

 vestigia nulla retrorsum. 

 A shape with some but 

 not too great curvature 2 

 would increase such re- 

 sistance, one with more 

 would possibly give the 

 I. 2. 3. 4. additional safeguard of 



BONE GORGE OR BAITHOLDERS. P . .* 



I. FromLaMadelaine. 2. FromLaMadelaine, Meditation on this 



grooved for attaching the line. 3 and 4. dupHcation of functions 

 From Santa Cruz, California. The slight ■ -i ■, ■, 



curving of 3 may be possibly the first might lead an enquinng 



step towards the more rounded gorge, and j^i^d tO COncludc that 



eventually the bent hook. 



penetration alone might 

 suffice for what was required. Thus farther curve might 

 be added for this ostensible purpose, with the result that in 



^ L'Anthropologie, tome xix. pp. .1S4-190, especially p. 187, where the 

 author attempts ime reconstitution hypothitique de la fofon, dont cette inter- 

 prilation admise, on pourrait conf avoir la fixation de ces " hamefons." The 

 inverted commas do not suggest confidence. 



2 If both the ends of the gorge were as much bent i:p as a hook, the tendency 

 would be for the gorge, when its points got fast, to be rotated by the pull on 

 the line and to assume, owing to greater curvature, a bent-back position, 

 which would allow of its easy withdrawal and defeat the object — the capture 

 of the fish. Some Santa Cruz gorges are of an angular type, but with the 

 points turned somewhat down. The double hook of bronze or copper, e.g. 

 of Ancient Peru, seems to support my suggestion of gorge evolution, although, 

 fair to add, it was suspended from the centre. 



