HUMAN BONES IN THE CAVE OP CRO-MAGNON. 87 



of his strength, ignorant of moderating his passions by a cultivated morale, he 

 could be violent, and turn against -the weaker sex the weapon intended to kill his 

 prey. Indeed, whether we regard the wound inflicted on the woman, described 

 above (page 79), as the result of a family quarrel, or of a combat between hostile 

 tribes, it must be noted that as yet nothing parallel has been found among the 

 human remains dating from that distant period. 



His ornament was in accordance with the grossness of his instinct. Like the 

 lowest savages of today, this old hunter had perforated shells for adornment 

 (see B. Plate XI. fig. 1). Nevertheless these shells could have scarcely been 

 within his reach, since they are marine. To acquire them he must have gone 

 afar, or he must have got them by exchange, or even have taken them by force. 

 At this period the abundant collection of Periwinkle-shells represents probably 

 quite as great a treasure as pearls and precious stones with us ; but it is scarcely 

 presumable that this was current money, as Cowries now are in Africa, but 

 rather a bijou of imaginary value. Lastly, some polished plates of bone, 

 which by their wedge-like shape resemble little polished and perforated axes 

 of a later age, were perhaps intended to serve as pendants (see B. Plate XI. 

 figs. 2-4). At least such 'was the use of these hatchets in the Period of Polished 

 Stone, when necklaces were made of disks of bone, polished stone, &c., in pre- 

 ference to shells, thus showing a progress in skill and industry. We may 

 remark, nevertheless, that in the Phoenix Park, near Dublin, there was found 

 under a dolmen a necklace of shells (Nerita \_Littorina\ littoralis), although the 

 associated Objects seem to belong to the Age of Polished Stone*. , 



Although endowed with an uncommon vigour, yet this old Cave-dweller was 

 affected with rickets in his infancy, and caries in his old age. The latter disease 

 is visible on the skull and jaw of the Old Man (page 74). As for the rickets, 

 the long bones of the lower extremities, some rib-bones, and even the processes 

 of the phalanges, bear evident marks of this disease : was it living in caves that 

 caused this ? This may have been the case, since the Cave-dweller of Neanderthal 

 and the Great Bear of the Caverns were also afflicted with rickets. 



If the field opened to the imagination in recalling the social state of the 

 ancient Perigordians is vast, it is not so as to the group and race to which he 

 belonged. Here we have for our guidance the osteological characters, and 

 notably those of the cranium. Moreover these characters agree in the majority 

 of the individuals, of both sexes, whose bones have here been best preserved ; and, 



* See 'Descriptive Catalogue of the Antiquities of Stone, Earthen, and Vegetable Materials in the 

 Museum of the Boyal Irish Academy.' By W. K. Wilde, &c., 8vo, 1857, pp. 180-183. 



O 



