THE EEMAINS OF CITIES OP THE STONE AGE. 109 



its explorers an age exceeding 7,000 or 8,000 years. 

 We are informed in the Book of Genesis, that in ante- 

 diluvian times, Jabal initiated the nomadic mode of 

 life. He was the father of those who dwell in tents. 

 This would seem to imply the domestication at that 

 period of some swift-footed beast of burden, probably 

 the horse or the ass. A tribe of such wandering 

 Jabalites might be expected to leave just such a 

 deposit as that of Soloutre. Thus we have here a 

 curious connection between this deposit and sacred 

 history. On the other hand, it has been remarked 

 that the most abundant te totem " engraved by 

 the (< Palaeolithic " cave-men of France on their bone 

 implements is the horse ; and this would so far 

 connect these cave-men with such a station as So- 

 loutre. Lastly, many of the flint weapons of Soloutre 

 are of the Palaeolithic type characteristic of the river 

 gravels, and the bones found with them are the ani- 

 mals of the gravels; while other implements and 

 weapons are as well worked as those of the later Stone 

 age.* Thus this singular deposit connects these two 

 so-called ages, and fuses them into one. But in doing 

 this, as explained above, and more fully illustrated in 

 subsequent chapters, it does precisely what a village 



* Eecent discoveries by M. Prunieres in caves at Beaumes 

 Chaudes, seem to show that the older cave-men were in con- 

 tact with more advanced tribes, as arrow-heads of the so-called 

 Neolithic type are found sticking in their bones, or associated 

 with them. This would form another evidence of the little 

 value to be attached to the distinction of the two ages of 

 Stone. 



