388 



THE ANIMALS AND MAN 



tools, whether on sticks or sinews as fish hooks, or bound 

 to hafts or reeds, suffered greatly in use, and required periodi- 

 cal replacing. At this moment an esteemed implement 

 has come into the hands of one of the old fellows. It is 

 broken asunder across its center, and out of some respect 

 for it he is putting a new point to it, working off those delicate 

 minute flakes in the manner characteristic of the race. He 

 has run his bone flaker up one side, and left an edge such 

 as no other system of flint working can produce. He has 

 just begun the other, and apparently in a minute or two 



Fig. 191. Drawing of a feeding reindeer, on a piece of reindeer horn. 

 From the Cave of Thayngen, Switzerland. (After Mark.) 



bi-symmetry will again be obtained with a sharp piercing 

 point as a result, but he stops just as suddenly! Near him, 

 upon the hot ashes of a fire, stands the coarse earthen pot, 

 the prototype of our modern tar kettle — the earliest saucepan 

 we know; its bottom and sides are incrusted with a thick 

 layer of soot, teUing of the withstanding of the ordeal of 

 fire accompanying many an evening meal, while close by 

 is a pile of calcined flints beneath burning wood, cooking 

 a clay-invested rabbit. Near by are several flat-bottomed 

 vessels, the prototypes of our first saucers or basins, although 

 the ssot upon their bottoms tells the tale of their having 



