PRESENT PERIOD 213 



tured though it was, testified to a well-advanced standard 

 of culture. 



The mollusc-eaters and the lake-dwellers both probably 

 came more or less directly from the East, having worked 

 their way up the valley of the Danube. And they were doubt- 

 less forerunners of that division of the White or Caucasian 

 group, known in history as Aryans. 



Other very distantly related tribes came in time from SEMITICS, 

 Africa, having availed themselves of the land connection 

 which obtained on the site of the Strait of Gibraltar. These, 

 it is supposed, were a dark-skinned people, belonging to the 

 Semitic division of the Caucasian group. And there is little 

 doubt that they had been pushed on by the great migratory 

 movements that had been proceeding along the coast-lands of 

 northern Africa. 



These men do not seem to have settled to any great extent 

 in the north of Europe, but they became numerous in Spain 

 and France. Like the early lake-dwellers, they tilled the soil, 

 but they were in a higher state of culture than those men. 

 They were well acquainted with the art of grinding and 

 polishing stone implements, and were certainly, therefore, 

 in what is known as the neolithic or new stone age of culture. 

 They were also, it would seem, in possession of bows and 

 arrows. Their domestic animals consisted of dogs, horses, 

 oxen, goats, and deer. And they were well acquainted with 

 spinning, and with the potter's art. 



In addition to these accomplishments, they were able to 

 construct canoes ; and this enabled some of the more adven- 

 turous spirits to visit Britain separated at this time from 

 the mainland. 



They buried their dead in regular graves a practice not 

 pursued, so far as is known, by the mollusc-eaters and the 

 early lake-dwellers. As they deposited various articles in the 

 tombs, they believed probably in an after-life, more or less 

 occupied with human pursuits. 



The warlike Silures, who so long resisted the Roman arms 

 in Britain, were, it is supposed, descendants of these 

 swarthy tillers of the soil. And the latter are probably still 

 represented in Europe by the Basques of France and Spain. 



