THE INSTINCT OF IMMORTALITY. 301 



interment of the oldest Palaeolithic or " Mammoth " 

 Age, the antediluvian age of history, we learn from it 

 that the people of that age were of very high physical 

 organization, and very closely resembled the American 

 type j and their manner of interment shows that they 

 shared with the Americans and with their successors 

 of the Eeindeer Age a belief in a hereafter, along with 

 its accompanying regard for the proper interment of 

 the dead. 



Before leaving this part of the subject, it may be 

 well to refer to the very small number of human re- 

 mains of the Palaeolithic Age found in Europe. Not 

 only have few burial-places been found, but those 

 discovered contain very few skeletons compared with 

 those found in American cemeteries and ossuaries. 

 This cannot be accounted for by supposing that the 

 dead were left unburied, since it is clear that in the case 

 of both the men of the Mammoth and Keindeer Ages 

 burial was practised, and this in the case of women 

 and children as well as men. It is, however, quite 

 possible that, like the Americans and Papuans, they 

 may have ordinarily placed their dead on wooden stages 

 or in shallow graves covered with wood and bark, and 

 that the cave interments may be exceptional. If not, 

 then it is evident either that these primaeval tribes, were 

 sparsely scattered over the country and very small, or 

 that the period of their occupancy was very limited. 



It is also worthy of remark that the different kinds 

 of burial, as in the earth or on stages, in the sitting 

 posture or extended, in caves, in ossuaries, or under 



