THE ADVANCE OF PREHISTORIC HUMANITY 105 



but apparently without language or religion, and wan- 

 dering naked along the banks of the broad rivers. What 

 strikes one most forcibly is the slowness with which his 

 intelligence has developed during two million years. 



This early race is so interesting that I will dwell on 

 it a little more fully, before we pass on to the more 

 swiftly moving panorama of later development. I have 

 handled the chief bones of its skeleton, and seen the 

 force of the conclusions that Dr. Munro, Worthington 

 Smith, Mortillet, Hoernes, and other constructive 

 writers draw from them. The low degree of intelligence 

 is admitted by all, and would be established by the 

 poverty of early Paleolithic man's handiwork if we had 

 not half a dozen skulls to show it. That he was naked I 

 infer from a circumstance which seems to be generally 

 overlooked. Long afterwards, at the close of the 

 Paleolithic period, this race developed an artistic faculty, 

 and has left us some scores of drawings on bone, horn, 

 etc. Amongst these are a few human figures, and these 

 are always nude and covered with indications of a hairy 

 coat. It is probable that clothing was being worn at 

 this time (the cave-man period), but if we have a 

 conspicuous hairy coat and a commonly nude condition 

 after three-fourths of the history of the race has run, 

 what should we expect at the beginning? That Nean- 

 derthal man had no religion is inferred from the 

 complete absence of burial and of religious symbols 

 until the Neolithic period. And that language was yet 

 undeveloped is a fair inference from the smallness of the 

 tubercle to which the chief tongue-muscle was attached 

 in the lower jaw. The hypoglossal muscle, which we 

 use so much in articulate speech, was evidently poorly 

 developed. 



The time when this naked race of lowly savages 

 wandered about the banks of our rivers, and penetrated 



