248 THE EEV. J. MAGENS MELLO^ M.A., P.G.S.^ ETC., 



with regard to the cave dwellers of Europe, as to their 

 probable connection Avitli a race of man now in existence. 



We have gathered from what has already been observed 

 that the Palgeolithic man was a hunter and a fisherman. He 

 had not as yet learnt the art of taming any of the wild 

 creatures around him, unless we may venture to suppose that 

 some of the numerous reindeer were, as they are to-day 

 amongst the Laplanders and Esquimaux, in a domesticated 

 state, but apart from these, and in the absence of dogs, it 

 is very doubtful whether they could have been tamed ; none 

 of those animals which we now term domestic appear in the 

 cave deposits of Pleistocene age. But the man of those days 

 made use of portions of the animals, such as the reindeer and 

 the hare, which he killed, clothing himself, we may believe, 

 in their skins, which he prepared with his ilint knives and 

 scrapers, and sewed together with the tendons of the animals, 

 using Buch needles of bone as are so often found. It is 

 possible also that horse- hair may have been used as thread,, 

 for in one of the Belgian caves, the Trou de Chaleux, a very 

 large number of the caudal vertebras of horses were found, 

 the corresponding bones of the other animals being absent, a 

 fact which seems to suggest that the tails of the horses were 

 preserved for some special purpose ; either the hair was used, 

 or the tail itself, it has been suggested, may have been worn, 

 as amongst certain American tribes as well as by the Kaffirs, 

 as an ornament. We knoAv also that the antlers of the rein- 

 deer, as well as other bones, were ground or cut into various 

 shapes, such as lance heads and harpoons ; some of these 

 latter were remarkably well made, and very closely resemble 

 in form those in use amongst the Esquimaux of to-day, as do 

 also certain other implements, some of which indeed may 

 have been symbols of tribal authority (batons de commande- 

 ment), but some seem undoubtedly to have been similar to the 

 arrow straighteners of the Esquimaux and of some of the 

 Siberian tribes. 



The Palaeolithic cave dwellers were not altogether Avith- 

 out ideas of personal adornment, fragments of red oxide of 

 iron or ruddle being frequently found in the caves, and we 

 may well suppose that this may have been used as amongst 

 the American tribes mixed Avith grease as a paint. In the 

 caA'e of La Biche-aux-roches, near Spy, in Belgium, a small 

 hollow bone filled Avitli ruddle Avas I'ound : avc may look 

 upon this as the earliest paint-box in existence. 



Ornaments of A'arious kinds have been found, such as 



