266 FOSSIL MEN. 



carved on their bone implements were not merely 

 works of arts, undertaken to amuse idle hours. As 

 interpreted by American analogies, they were the 

 sacred totems of primeval hunters and warriors, and 

 some of the rows of dots and scratches, which have 

 been called " tallies," may be the records of offer- 

 ings made to these guardian spirits, or of successes 

 achieved under their influence. Some of the strangely 

 formed bone sceptres of these ancient caves may have 

 had the further significance of being the batons or 

 rattles of medicine men or prophets, who were sup- 

 posed to be specially inspired by manitous, and hence 

 to be themselves veritable " Manties," or men identi- 

 fied with the manitous, and uttering their commands. 

 (Fig. 38.) 



Like the American nations, the pre-historic peoples 

 of Europe had also pictographs representing import- 

 ant events. In the first part of the " Reliquice 

 Aquitanicce " such a representation, on a piece of 

 deer's antler, has been figured. It is from the Dor- 

 dogne caves, and the learned editors avow themselves 

 unable to attach any meaning to it. An American 

 Indian would, however, readily decipher it, and his 

 reading, if I am not much mistaken, would be this : 

 It represents a man walking with a burden or weapon 

 upon his shoulder. Behind him is the sea (indicated 

 by marks representing the waves), and in it swims a 

 large eel. Meeting the man on the other side are two 

 horses (indicated by their heads). The intention is to 

 show the annual migration of the owner of the object 



