394 



BELGIUM. 



domestic animals whatever — not even dogs. Tliey were great meat eaters, feeding 

 upon forty-eiglit species of animals, the remains of which have been discovered 

 in the caverns which they inhabited. Probably they also eat human flesh, for 

 fractured human bones and skulls, still showing the marks of teeth, have been 

 found in the caverns of Chauvaux. These savage cave dwellers were fond of 

 ornamenting their persons, if we may judge from necklaces of shells and teeth, 

 red paint, and shaped bones, some of them carved in a rude fashion, which have 

 been discovered. They undoubtedly carried on some commerce, for flints are not 

 found in Condroz, and must have been procured from the environs of Maastricht, 

 or the country to the south of Champagne. The fossil shells which they used 



Fig. 222. — Linguistic Map of Belgium. 

 Scale 1 : 3,045,000. 



50 Miles. 



for their necklaces came from the hills around Eeims, the fossil polypes from the 

 neighbourhood of Youziers, and the slate from Fumay. Débris of such diverse 

 origin covered the floor of the caverns, and owing to an utter absence of clean- 

 liness and the moisture percolating through the roof, they must have been 

 unwholesome places to live in. In fact, the human bones bear evident marks of a 

 prevalence of rickets, and the men of that age did not exceed 55 inches in height. 

 The three successive levels of the Meuse mark as many stages in the civilisa- 

 tion of these cave dwellers. The upper caverns, such as those of Magrite and 

 Naulette, were accessible only at a time when the river was several miles in width, 

 and the men who found a refuge in them were the contemporaries of the mammoth. 



