THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN 91 



After Cartailhac and Breuil. 



FIGURE 41. Diagram of Frescoes on the Ceiling of the Cavern of Altamira. 



and slow were at a disadvantage with the clever and the 

 quick. Docility of disposition, a readiness to take up 

 new methods of food getting and better appreciation of 

 the value of persistent activity along peaceful rather 

 than warlike lines must have counted for much. The 

 wholesale weeding out of the less vigorous physically, 

 of the sluggish intellectually, and in general of those 

 least adapted to the conditions which made for progress, 

 meant the survival and perpetuation of better racial stock. 

 But the process of selection operated to favor certain 

 lasting cultural elements as well as to exterminate ten- 

 dencies in unprogressive directions. The total conse- 

 quence was that from this seething riot of new experi- 

 ences and the constant testing of diverse physical, in- 

 tellectual, and cultural elements, there emerged a new 

 and higher culture, the neolithic. 



The neolithic men had learned the lesson of patience ; 

 they had domesticated the horse, ox, pig, sheep, goat and 

 dog. The men of the rough stone ages had failed to 



