THE CANNIBAL IN EVOLUTION 171 



present time, as his average height was less (5' 4"). His 

 inferior stature may, perhaps, have been compensated 

 for by greater weight, so that the portion of the brain 

 devoted entirely to bodily functions, and not to intellectual 

 qualities, may be rather more than that indicated. Yet 

 here was a species of man, distinct from our own type by 

 the possession of simian characters which are not ours, and 

 the absence of some which we still retain, who had a 

 greater brain than the average modern man. According 

 to Keith, the teeth of this species are of the taurodont 

 type seen in herbivorous or graminivorous animals. " On 

 the evidence of the teeth and palate one is inclined to 

 regard Neanderthal man as specially adapted to live on 

 a rough vegetable diet. . . . His skill as a flint artizan 

 shows that his abilities were not of a low order. He had 

 fire at his command, he buried his dead, he had a dis- 

 tinctive and highly evolved form of culture." In spite 

 of this culture, and the structure of the teeth, it is said 

 that he was also a hunter, which is held to be proved by 

 the remains found in the Krapina cave. He has indeed 

 been accused of cannibalism, as split human bones were 

 found with other scattered Neanderthal bones and teeth. 

 The evidence is assuredly not altogether convincing, but 

 it excites speculation, especially as the implements, though 

 not typically Mousterian, certainly suggest that culture. 

 May it not be said that if cannibalism there was, it must 

 be ascribed, not to a typically vegetarian race, but to 

 the contemporary ancestors of modern man, who have 

 descendants practising it ? In any case, whether such 

 a hypothesis is regarded as mere fancy or real suggestion, 

 the fact remains that a powerful and highly cultured 

 race, which was obviously graminivorous and had prob- 

 ably reached the agricultural stage, with a cranial capacity 



