Primitive Man. 53 



his specimens to the Institute, with the usual consequence of 

 arousing skepticism, and, in this case, ridicule. But he 

 laughs best who laughs last, and prejudice and obtuseness 

 finally yielded to scientific examination. It is not so many 

 years indeed, since men ceased to regard these strange, 

 but by no means unusual objects, as preternatural, if not 

 supernatural, or "freaks of nature" as they were once 

 termed. The ancients, indeed, classed them with the 

 supernatural, and had called them ^^lapides fulminis,^' 

 implying that they had fallen from the sky with the 

 thunderbolt and ^^ ceraunioi gemmce,'" i.e. heavenly gems, 

 on the theory that they had been formed on the earth by 

 the fire of Jove; so, also, "lightning-stones." They were 

 used in certain religious ceremonies by Egyptians and 

 Romans. Even to-day they are objects of superstitious 

 regard among some of the more ignorant of the peasantry, 

 and kept by them carefully as having power to ward off 

 disease or witchcraft. But even among scientists these 

 implements had not received the attention which they 

 deserved. As soon as investigation was commenced and 

 interest aroused, many collections were found to have been 

 already made, available for further study, and wliich have 

 materially contributed to the advancement of prehistoric 

 archaeology. 



Following Sir John Lubbock and others, the division of 

 the age of primitive man which has been generally approved, 

 is that into the palaeolithic, or old stone, and the neolithic, 

 or new stone periods, and the periods of bronze and of 

 iron. To the palaeolithic are assigned the eras of the men 

 of the river-drift and of the cave men ; but it should be 

 here remarked that the points of transition between these 

 various epochs, as well as the length of the periods them- 

 selves, are extremely vague and indeterminate. Old and 

 new stone implements are, in numerous instances, found in 

 the same locality, and neolithic and bronze objects are also 

 frequently associated and both these, in some cases, with 

 implements of iron. To definitely differentiate the periods 

 is equally impossible the earlier extend into the later, 

 so that any chronological arrangement, except of the most 

 general kind, is out of the question. So far, likewise, 

 from these epochs being contemporaneous in all parts of 

 the world, we have numerous of the lower and some of the 

 higher of the savage races of to-day, and some of the 



