ON PRIMITIVE MAN : I. HIS TIMES AND HIS COMPANIONS. 249 



pierced shells and teetli, as well as the vertebrte of fish, and 

 fossils, together with fragments of jet and amber. Some of 

 these objects testify to a certain amount of wandering 

 amongst the primirive inhabitants of these countries, and 

 possibly to the existence of some traffic. Some of the 

 materials in use could only have been brought from a 

 distance. Thus in the Belgian caves, flint implements occur 

 of a sort which could only have come from Champagne or 

 Touraine in France ; and the amber and jet must have been 

 brought from the coast, as Avell as marine shells; some 

 ]\Iediterranean species were found in the caves of the 

 Uordogne. 



That many of the tribes must have wandered far afield is 

 also proved by the discovery of engravings on bone of the 

 seal in tlie cave of Gourclan (Haute Garonne; and in other 

 French localities. 



The question has been discussed whether Pala3olithic man 

 Avas acquainted with the potter's art ? It has generally been 

 assumed that he was ignorant of it, or else if he practised it, 

 it must have been in such a rudimentary stage that every 

 vestige of it had perished. But in the cave of La Biche-aux- 

 roches, previously mentioned, it is said that in an undisturbed 

 bed containing Pleistocene remains, three fragments of hand- 

 made and burnt pottery were found ; if these Avere really, as 

 is supposed, contemporaneous Avith the mammalian bones and 

 Palgeolithic implements discovered Avith them, then Ave must 

 push back the art of the potter into an age in which it has 

 been hitherto thought to have been unknoAvn ; but there is 

 considerable uncertainty as to the exact circumstances under 

 which this pottery Avas found ; other examples of supposed 

 Palaeolithic pottery are equally doubtful in character. 



We can form very little idea as to the moral condition of 

 man in the Palaeolithic age ; some Avriters have supposed him 

 to have been of a peaceful disposition ; certain authorities 

 have held that he practised cannibalism ; but M. Cartailhac 

 considers the evidence has been misinterpreted. He says, " I 

 think I can again declare that Europe does not furnish us 

 Avith a single proof of prehistoric cannibalism" (^Materiaiuc^ 

 t. xix, 133). 



AVe should like to knoAv something of the social organisa- 

 tion of the early tribes, but unfortiniately this cannot be dis- 

 coA^ered. Then again, had Palaeolithic man any religious 

 ideas ? M. de Mortillet tells us that tAvo things Avere charac- 

 teristic of the Pak^olithic cave dAvellers, viz., that they did 



