INSTANCES OF SAVAGE SKILL. 151 



of mineral substances suitable for the purpose. 

 That skill is also eminently displayed in the 

 use made of those stone implements after 

 they had been fashioned. The smaller imple- 

 ments of bone, or of horn, or of wood, which 

 the stone knives and hatchets were employed 

 to make, are often highly ingenious, and 

 sometimes eminently beautiful. The truth is 

 that high qualities of reasoning and ready 

 faculties of observation are called forth in 

 the inverse ratio of the acquired knowledge 

 with which they are provided and from which 

 they start. The great ingenuity and resource 

 shown by many of the rudest tribes in their 

 weapons, and the sense of beauty evinced by 

 them in the choice and in the invention of 

 ornamental forms, have hardly been suf- 



