326 MM, Lartet and Christy on the Existence of Man 



At Laugerie-Basse, about a third of a mile lower down, but 

 still upon the banks of the Vezere, there was probably another 

 factory of weapons and tools in reindeer-horns, if we may judge 

 from the enormous quantity of the remains of horns of this ani- 

 mal accumulated there, nearly all of which bear traces of sawing, 

 by means of which the pieces intended to be worked up were 

 detached. It is there especially that we have procured, besides 

 arrows and barbed harpoons (such as occur in nearly all the 

 stations of this age), that great variety of utensils, some of which 

 are adorned with elegant sculptures, the workmanship of which 

 is truly astonishing when we consider the means of execution 

 which could be possessed by these people, who were ignorant of 

 the use of metals. Amongst them are some needles of reindeer^s 

 horn, finely pointed at one extremity, and pierced at the other 

 with a hole or eye for the reception of a thread of some kind. 



There are also some tools furnished at their extremity with 

 obtuse notches, which would lead one to suspect that they were 

 employed in the manufacture of nets. Teeth of various animals 

 (wolf, ox), perforated at the root, must have served as ornaments, 

 as also some other objects fashioned like ear-drops, sometimes 

 of the ivory-like part of the ear-bones of the horse and ox. 



Another object, previously found by one of us at the burying- 

 place of Aurignac, and upon which he thought it as well to say 

 nothing (distrusting the value of an observation still unique), 

 has occurred both at Laugerie and in the grotto of Les Eyzies. 

 It is a first phalanx, which is hollow in certain ruminants, and 

 which is here pierced artificially beneath, a little in front of its 

 metatarsal or metacarpal articulation. By placing the lower lip 

 in the posterior articular cavity, and blowing into the hole, a 

 sharp sound, like that given by a key-pipe of moderate size, is 

 produced. This was, no doubt, a call-whistle, in common use 

 amongst these tribes of hunters ; for we have now four speci- 

 mens, of which three are made of phalanges of the reindeer, and 

 the fourth of a phalanx of the chamois. 



At Laugerie-Basse, also, thanks to the intelligent supervision 

 and minute precautions of M. A. Laganne, who had the manage- 

 ment of our diggings, we have obtained portions of reindeer- 

 horn which, notwithstanding the alteration that they have 

 undergone by age, still retain very distinct representations of 

 animal forms. Some of them are simply engraved in outline 

 upon the palmature or terminal expansion of the frontal antlers 

 of the reindeer ; others are regularly sculptured, either in bas- 

 relief or even in complete relief, upon portions of the horn of 

 the same animal prepared for this purpose. 



One of these palmations, of which an ancient fracture has 

 caused the loss of a portion of the design, still presents us with 



