‘FIELD SPORTS IN ART. 247 
further, he can only do that if he possesses great natural 
genius—only a man who could draw the poacher’s dog 
could do it. Those who depend altogether on the pre- 
pared paper and liquid colours, patent easel and sketch- 
ing stool, could simply do nothing. 
It is nearly certain that if the primeval man sketched 
the mammoth he likewise carved his spear-shaft, the 
haft of his knife, the handle of his ‘celt,’ that chisel-like 
weapon whose shape so closely resembles the front teeth. 
The ‘celt’ is a front tooth in flint or bronze, enlarged and 
fitted to a handle for chipping, splitting, and general 
work, In museums celts are sometimes fitted to a han- 
-dle to show how they were used, but the modern adapter 
has always overlooked the carving. Wild races whose 
time is spent in sport or war—very nearly synonymous 
terms—always carve or ornament their weapons, their 
canoes, the lintels of their doors, the posts of their huts. 
There is in this the most singular difference from the 
ways of landscape civilisation. Things that we use aré 
seldom ornamented—our tables, our chairs, our houses, 
our carriages, our everything is as plain as plain can 
be. Or if ornamented, it is ornamented in a manner 
that seems to bear no kind of relation to the article 
or its uses, and to rouse no sympathies whatever. 
For instance, our plates—some have the willow pat- 
tern, some designs of blackberry bushes, and I really 
cannot see what possible connection the bushes or 
the Chinese summerhouses have with the roast beef of 
old England or the cétedette of France. The last relic of 
Art carving is visible round about a bread platter, here 
and there wreaths of wheatears; very suitable these 
to a platter bearing bread formed of corn. Alas! 
‘I touched one of these platters one day to feel the 
grain of the wood, and it was cold earthenware—cold, 
