ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERIODS. 17 



conclusion that the artistic tribe or people really pertained to 

 the closing stage of the Palaeolithic Period. The consideration 

 of this question, however, must be deferred to a subsequent 

 chapter. 



Fragmentary as are the relics of the Palaeolithic Period, they 

 yet enable us to form certain conclusions as to the conditions of 

 life in that far past age. The men who carved the bone and 

 ivory implements appear to have been a race of fishers and 

 hunters. The reindeer, the musk-sheep, the mammoth, and 

 other animals, were slain by them in the chase, and they pro- 

 bably clad themselves in the skins thus obtained. No trace of 

 any vestment has been preserved, as indeed could hardly have 

 been expected, but the presence of numerous bone needles shows 

 that tailoring of some kind was in vogue. The bone awls were 

 probably used for piercing holes in the tougher skins, an opera- 

 tion for which perhaps the needles were hardly strong enough. 

 The latter would thus be used simply for carrying the thread, 

 which, on the analogy supplied by modern races like the Eskimo 

 and the Lapps, we may- reasonably conjecture was formed of 

 sinews. ' A bone pin (3f inches long), which was found in 

 Kent's Cave, is supposed by Dr. Evans to have been employed 

 as a fastener of the dress. It bears a high polish, he says, as 

 if from constant use. It is probable also that the artistic tribes 

 wore gloves, for we have what appears to be the representation 

 of a long glove with three or four fingers, etched upon the canine 

 tooth of a bear found in one of the caves of the Pyrenees. The 

 earlier Palaeolithic races — those who occupied North-western 

 Europe before the appearance of the art-loving people — have 

 left nothing to show that they were acquainted with the art of 

 tailoring. All that we know of them in fact is that they used 

 rudely- worked flints, and lived on the proceeds of the chase. 



We have good reason to believe that the Palaeolithic carvers 

 and draughtsmen, notwithstanding their artistic ability, yet 

 lived in a low state of barbarism. There is nothing to indicate 

 that they cultivated the ground, and they seem to have had no 

 domesticated animals. Neither is there any unequivocal proof 



c 



