On the Ancient Lake Habitations of Switzerland. 175 



subsequently, at every marriage (and polygamy was customary), 

 the bridegroom was required to add three piles to the structure. 

 These habitations, reared upon the bosom of the lake with 

 so much patient industry, unaided by any of those modern 

 inventions which make labour light, were not only intended 

 for places of safe retreat during hostile times, but were also 

 used by each community as their constant place of abode, and 

 all the relics exhumed tell of regular every-day life and perma- 

 nent occupation. 



From the position of these lacustrine dwellings, we should 

 have predicted that they were inhabited by a race of fisher- 

 men. The account given by Herodotus of the Paeonians, and 

 the discovery of fish-hooks and pieces of nets, and abundance 

 of fish bones beneath the pile-works, fully confirms this opinion. 

 But the ancient Helvetii were by no means dependent upon 

 the waters alone for their daily food ; they hunted and shot the 

 smaller game with bows and arrows, and probably took the 

 larger in pitfalls, as the Zulu Kaffirs do at the present day. 

 In these pursuits they were, from the earliest times, accom- 

 panied by man's first and most faithful friend, the dog. 



The bones of no fewer than thirty-two animals (most of which 

 were used as food) have been discovered in the various pile-works 

 of the Swiss lakes, and determined by Prof. Rutimeyer.* That 

 able zoologist has also recorded the occurrence of the bones of 

 eighteen species of birds, eight fishes, and two reptiles (these 

 last are the edible frog and the freshwater tortoise ; the latter 

 now quite extinct in Switzerland). But, as I have already 

 stated, the earliest of these Swiss settlements indicates a later 

 Stone period than that of the valley of the Somme. No trace 

 of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, hyaena, cave bear, 

 or lion (all of which appear to have co-existed with the makers 

 of the flint implements of the earliest Stone period) have been 

 found here; but the urus and bison, the elk and the red-deer, 

 were no mean cattle ; and for carnivora, they had to contend 

 with the brown bear, the wolf, the fox, and half-a-dozen smaller 

 denizens of the forest; whilst the fierce wild boar, and the 

 scarcely less formidable marsh boar, also abounded in the 

 woods and lowlands. These animals not only supplied them 

 with food, but their bones and teeth were afterwards converted 

 into weapons and ornaments of various kinds ; the horns of the 

 deer serving as hafts for stone implements, and the bones for 

 pins, augers, chisels, and gouges (see plate and description) ; 

 whilst their skins were doubtless used as articles of dress, etc. 

 Nor was agriculture entirely unknown. Of this we find most 

 conclusive evidence in the carbonized remains of wheat and 



* Of these, eight appear to have been domesticated, yiz., the dog, pig, horse, 

 ass, goat, sheep, and two species of oxen. 



