88 FOSSIL MEN. 



from an ancient British barrow given to me by Pro- 

 fessor Rolleston have been made of precisely similar 

 materials, and in the same way ; and as their ornamen- 

 tation is nearly the same, they show nothing, did we 

 not know their origin, to prevent the belief that both 

 might have been made in the same place and by the 

 same hand. 



The usual shape was that of a pot, round in the 

 bottom and curving upward into a cylindrical neck. 

 In some, however, the neck was square or octagonal, 

 and in this case there were sometimes projecting 

 ornaments or hooks at the corners for suspension. 

 This primitive Hochelagan pot is of the type of those 

 used by all ancient nations, from the old " Reindeer 

 Epoch" of Belgium and France, down through all 

 antiquity to our own round metal pots. Perhaps the 

 earliest known example is that found in the palaeolithic 

 cave of the Trou de Frontal, by Dupont, which closely 

 resembles the native American pots in form and 

 material, except that it is not ornamented and that 

 the projections for suspension are on the sides instead 

 of at the rim. The Hochelagan women, however, had a 

 very ingenious contrivance for hanging their pots over 

 the fire, which deserves notice. They had no doubt 

 found by experience that when an earthen pot was 

 hung over the fire by strings or withes tied to the out- 

 side, the flames would sometimes reach the perishable 

 means of suspension, and, burning it, allow the pot 

 to fall, and its contents to be lost. Hence they con- 

 trived a mode of fastening the cord with,in the throat 



