3 



EELIQULE AQTJITAJSKLE. 



B. BONE IMPLEMENTS, &c. 



B. PLATES III. & IV. (One Plate.) 



The dimensions of the objects we have at present to describe make it necessary 

 for the Plate to be of double the ordinary size. Hence Plates B. III. & IV. have 

 to be consolidated in one. 



Some of the specimens before us, showing to some extent the form that it was 

 intended they should take, can be regarded only as having been roughly begun 

 (if indeed they be not remnants from which material has been removed), as they 

 keep the ruggedness of fracture even where they would have to be held while 

 being completed. Such are specimens figs. 2 and 3. Many of those who have 

 examined the four almost complete specimens figured in this Plate have thought 

 that they may have been used as weapons by the primitive people; and this 

 interpretation, though not unsuitable for figs. 2 and 3, would be less applicable to 

 figs. 1 and 4. 



There have been found many stems or beams of Reindeer Antlers ornamentally 

 carved throughout their length. Some, moreover, are pierced with a hole in the 

 broad part near the base (fig. 4) ; and there are others that have two, three, and 

 even four such perforations. We shall subsequently figure a Reindeer Horn with 

 four holes, arranged in a row along its stem. Very flat and thin, its thickness 

 having been reduced by cutting, it could scarcely have been used either as a 

 weapon or as an implement for any work whatever. Others have not been 

 pierced at all. The holes referred to are sometimes large enough to admit of the 

 finger, frequently much smaller. 



It has been suggested that these Reindeer Horns, so fashioned, and sometimes 

 ornamented with careful and very numerous carvings, might have been either 

 symbols of authority, or simply marks of social position. With respect to this, 

 it may be remembered that among the ancients, as we find in Homer, kings and 

 chiefs constantly carried a sceptre, or staff of command. The sceptre, however, 

 was not always reserved to kings and princes ; for subsequently, in the towns of 

 Greece, the principal citizens hardly showed themselves in public without carrying 

 in their hand one of these marks of distinction. 



Herodotus (I. cxcv.), speaking of the Assyrians, says that " each person has a 



