TRACKS OF A RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF PRIMEVAL MAN. 129 



the hones of the mammoth, the rhinoceros,* the horse, the 

 reindeer, and the hyaena. The Paleolithic age of this deposit 

 is therefore certain. In this deposit, lying by the side of the 

 bones of the extinct animals, were seven small statuettes in 

 ivory, all of which were elaborately carved, but not one was 

 quite perfect, as all were more or less broken. The most 

 important represents a human figure completely clothed, and 

 kneeling in the attitude of prayer. The head and shoulders are 

 wanting, but the attitude is unmistakable. The figure is dressed 

 in a long skirt, with a tippet or short cloak — resembling the 

 tippet of a clerical cassock — over the upper part of the body. 

 The upper part of the tippet, which reaches to the waist, is 

 ornamented. The knees are bent, so that the sculpture repre- 

 sents a man kneeling, and the arms are folded upon the breast : 

 the whole attitude of the statuette is therefore that of a man 

 in peaceful prayer and rapt devotion. In the same deposit near 

 this statuette was found a head and neck in ivory, which 

 probably belonged to the former figure. The neck was long, 

 the face calm, the nose prominent, and the countenance strongly 

 Mongolian. The head was covered with a thick cloth w T ig 

 which hung down in heavy plaited lappets upon the shoulders, 

 and resembled an Egyptian peruke. Here, then, was a man of 

 the Pakeolithic Age kneeling in prayer : what better proof 

 could be desired of the existence of religion in the Earliest 

 Stone Age ?f 



There are some theorists who maintain that Primeval Man 

 had no religion, because, according to the theory of Evolution, 

 he ought not to have any ! Eeligion is — we are told — only 

 possible at a certain stage of civilisation, so that the earliest, 

 men must have had no religion. If, therefore, we find traces, 

 of religious belief amongst the relics left by the earliest men 

 that science reveals to us, either these so-called traces are. 

 false, or some still earlier men must have existed who had no 

 religion ! 



This is one of those unhappy statements which we so often 

 meet with in modern scientific discussion. A thing ought to be 

 according to the theory of Evolution, therefore it really dial 

 occur, no matter if no evidence can be produced in its favour, 

 and no matter what amount of facts can be brought forward 

 against it ! Imaginary pedigrees are invented, and fictitious 



* i.e., the woolly rhinoceros. 



t These statuettes are figured and described in Bulletin de la Societe 

 d' 'Anthropologic de Paris, No. 9. November-December, 1894. 



K 



