THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 561 



In all the Russian Empire, from the Caspian Sea to Poland, and from 

 the Black Sea to the confines of China, there have been found in the 

 tombs of antiquity human bones colored red. The question is whether 

 this was the work of man after the destruction of the flesh, or was 

 due to impregnation from the layers of ocher or cinnabar with which 

 the corpses were covered. There was a variation according to the time 

 and place, and both of them are believed to have been part of the same 

 funeral rite. The date of these burials is more difficult to fix. The 

 kourganes were for centuries the habitual mode of burial.' If they 

 were posterior to the formation of the celebrated layer of black earth, 

 they certainly dated from a time when stone alone was employed for 

 arms and implements in the usages of life — that is to say, at the begin- 

 ning of the Keolithic period, and, we might add, subject to a certain 

 doubt, that the more ancient of them may have dated from the close of 

 the Paleolithic period. 



M. R. von Wenzierl tells us of a series of sepulchers near Lobositz, 

 a small town on the Elbe.^ One of the tombs or graves in the loess 

 contained the skeleton of a woman extended on her back, the skull, 

 subdolichocephalic, bore very app^irent traces of a dark-red coloring 

 matter. Bracelets of shells alternating with teeth of the dog and lynx 

 were found on the limbs. The neighboring tombs have furnished a 

 great number of pottery vases, often richly ornamented, polished stone 

 hatchets, and stone hammers. M. von Wenzierl is of the opinion that 

 these tombs belong to the Neolithic period. It is necessary to add 

 that he does not mention any coloration of human bones, other than 

 above cited. 



An analogous discovery has been reported from Brunn (Moravia), 

 but as no details have been given I can do no more than mention it. 



I know of no similar coloration to have been found in England, 

 whether in the alluvial, the caves, or the barrows (mounds).^ 



M. Dupont has found fragments of cinnabar in the caverns of the 

 Lesse, in Belgium, but there is nothing to show whether it was destined 

 for the toilets of the living or intended for the decoration of the dead. 



Africa furnishes but little light upon this question. The difficulty of 

 excavation is sufficient to explain a gap which probably the future 

 may fill. Lieutenant Hannezo, of the Algerian sharpshooters, is pur- 

 suing interesting researches at Mahedia, Tunis."* 



Mahedia is an ancient Phenician port which, judging from the num- 

 ber of burials, was imj)ortant enough in ancient times. The Phenician 

 tombs were utilized by the Romans, and the graves of the vanquished 

 became the resting places of the victors. But of this the determina- 

 tion is difficult. A well of square or rectangular form served as an 



^Zaborowski, 1. c. 



^Zeitschrift flir Ethnologie, 1895, page 49; L'Anthropologie, 1896, page 211. 

 ^ Possibly this may be owing to the failure of the seekers to either notice or report 

 the fact. 

 -^ L' Anthropologic, 1892, page 160. 

 SM 97 36 



