A VERY OLD MASTER 117 



on archaeology, which forms one of the finest existing relics 

 of pre-Glacial art. In another sketch, less well known, but 

 not unworthy of admiration, the early artist has given us 

 with a few rapid but admirable strokes his own remini- 

 scence of the effect produced upon him by the sudden on- 

 slaught of the hairy brute, tusks erect and mouth wide 

 open, a perfect glimpse of elephantine fury. It forms a 

 capital example of early impressionism, respectfully recom- 

 mended to the favourable attention of Mr. J. M. Whistler. 

 The reindeer, however, formed the favourite food and 

 favourite model of the pre-Glacial artists. Perhaps it was 

 a better sitter than the mammoth ; certainly it is much 

 more frequently represented on these early prehistoric bas- 

 reliefs. The high-water mark of palaeolithic art is un- 

 doubtedly to be found in the reindeer of the cave of Thayn- 

 gen, in Switzerland, a capital and spirited representation 

 of a buck grazing, in which the perspective of the two 

 horns is better managed than a Chinese artist would 

 manage it at the present day. Another drawing of two 

 reindeer fighting, scratched on a fragment of schistose rock 

 and unearthed in one of the caves of Perigord, though far 

 inferior to the Swiss specimen in spirit and execution, is 

 yet not without real merit. The perspective, however, 

 displays one marked infantile trait, for the head and legs 

 of one deer are seen distinctly through the body of another. 

 Cave bears, fish, musk sheep, foxes, and many other 

 extinct or existing animals are also found among the 

 archaic sculptures. Probably all these creatures were used 

 as food ; and it is even doubtful whether the artistic 

 troglodytes were not also confirmed cannibals. To quote 

 Mr. Andrew Lang once more on primitive man, ' he lived 

 in a cave by the seas ; he lived upon oysters and foes. 

 The oysters are quite undoubted, and the foes may be in- 

 ferred with considerable certainty. 



