284 THE KEY. J. MAGENS MELLO, M.A., F.G.S., ETC., ON 



skulls to l)e ■worn as talismans or amulets. M. Soren 

 Hansen rejects this latter view, and believes that those per- 

 forated skulls in which there is no sign of healing having 

 commenced, are simply those of persons to whom the 

 operations had proved immediately fatal, but however true 

 this may be in some cases, it does not apply to those where, 

 as we have seen, the hole in the skull was made with a saw, 

 an implement that would probably have been never used on 

 a living subject.* But there is yet another vieAV of the 

 matter suggested by M. Broca in presence of the fact that 

 the individuals who had been trepanned Avere almost always 

 the young, and therefore in such cases the operation may 

 have been of a ceremonial character, a rite of initiation into 

 some sacred caste. M. de Mortillet has traced a reflection 

 of this prehistoric rite in the tonsure of the Roman priest- 

 hood. Anyway, whatever view we take there seems to be 

 good reason to see in this Neolithic practice, as well as 

 in other usages amongst the prehistoric races, some 

 evidence that they were not quite devoid of religious 

 ideas. 



JVeolithic Race. 



Having thus reviewed some of the chief facts ascertained 

 in connection with the Neolithic men, and having made 

 ourselves acquainted with their manner of life, their varied 

 ornaments, and dwellings, as well as their burial places 

 and customs, we have in conclusion to make an effort to 

 discover, if possible, who these Neolithic people were, and 

 whether it is in our power to connect them in any way with 

 the existing populations of Eiu'ope. 



This part of the subject is involved in much difficulty, 

 for we have httle to guide us, save such anthropological 

 data as have been furnished by the human skeletons and 

 especially by the skalls in the burial places of this age. and 

 also by such indications as may be furnished by some of the 

 works of these men. 



As far as can be gathered from the evidence before us, 

 tlie Neolithic race was not simply the old Palteolithic race 

 advanced to a higher state of civihzation during the course 

 of long ages ; the facts which Ave have seen seem to show that 

 after the disappearance of the Paleolithic men, together with 



* M. de Mortillet, however, says that sometimes the flint saw was 

 used oil the living subject without fatal result. 



