172 FOSSIL MEN. 



(Fig. 32), as now, or lately, used by the Arickarees, 

 a people of the western prairies. Morgan, from whom 

 the illustration is taken, states that it is used to 

 drive stakes, and for cracking buffalo bones to extract 

 the marrow. I have seen similar hammers brought 

 by Dr. Bell, of the Canadian Survey, from the 

 country of the Dakotas or Sioux and other western 

 tribes, who constantly use them for breaking marrow- 

 bones of the buffalo. Thus, the grooved hammer 

 may be equally a relic of the civilized Egyptian or 

 Alleghan miner, or of the rude hunter of the plains. 

 But, even in the case of the latter, it may not be a 

 token of absolute barbarism. The American hunter 

 does not merely use it to break bones, that he may 

 at once devour their marrow. On the contrary, 

 he often breaks up the marrow-bones of his game, 

 that he may refine and preserve the precious oil 

 for future use, or may employ it as an ingredient 

 of his carefully prepared pemmican, which is his 

 dependence in his long journeys, and one of his 

 most valuable sources of income. As he says, the 

 agricultural white man may have plenty of bread, 

 but he is "hungry for buffalo meat/' while the 

 Indian, with plenty of pemmican, may be "hungry 

 for bread," or may be desirous of the goods of the 

 European trader. What if some of the old cave men 

 of Europe were not merely savage gorgers on flesh 

 and marrow, but industrious preparers of pemmican, 

 for future use or trade, and if the caves were their 

 temporary workshops at the season of preparing this 



