LEPTHANDEDNESS. 469 



in their indication of a preference given to tlie right hand by the 

 draughtsmen of that remote age. The mammoth drawing, and other 

 palseographic tablets representing groups of reindeers, horses, &c., are 

 executed in profile, looking to the left, as a righthanded draughtsman 

 naturally does, from the greater facility of execution, when no special 

 reason prompts him to deviate from that direction. They are, in 

 fact, righthanded drawings; and the examples thus far adduced 

 seem to point to this as the uniform characteristic of the etchings of 

 the Troglodytes of the Vez^re. 



As already shown in the former paper, the member of the body 

 designated the right hand among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks and 

 Latins, and probably among the Sanskrit-speaking Aryans, was the 

 same as we now understand by that term. But all of those were 

 civilized races, and in sufficient geographical propinquity to have 

 derived the same custom or usage from a common source. It is 

 otherwise with the primitive cave-dwellers. In the rudest states of 

 society man as a tool-using animal has the preferential use of one 

 hand .engendered in him, so soon as he engages with others in 

 combined operations. As he progresses in civilization,, and improves 

 on his first rude weapons and implements, the habitual use of them 

 in one hand leads to their adaptation specially for it, and thus the 

 lefthanded workman is placed at a further disadvantage ; and an 

 additional bias is given to righthandedness. Bub here, also, the in- 

 veterate lefthanded manipulator at times re-instates himself on a 

 fair equality with his rival, by providing himself with lefthanded 

 tools and other appliances. I have recently learned of two left- 

 handed carpenters, with benches so adapted to their own special use; 

 and am told of a scythe adapted to the requirements of a lefthanded 

 mower. But it is more frequently in the pastimes of leisure hours 

 that the lefthanded operator is tempted to put himself on an equality 

 with others in the special adaptation of his tools. The favourite 

 Scottish game of golf is one in which the implements are of necessity 

 righthanded, and so subject the lefthanded player to the greatest 

 disadvantage, unless he provides his own special clubs. The links at 

 Leith have long been famous as an arena for Scottish golfers. King 

 Charles I. was engaged in a game of golf on these links when, in 

 November, 1641, a letter was delivered into his hands, which gave 

 him the first account of the Irish Rebellion. According to the 

 anecdote, as recorded in the Archceologia Scotica by Mr. Tytler, of 



