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REV. D. GATH WHITLEY, ON 



great chief.* On one side of this baton (or sceptre) were 

 carved two monstrous serpents. These serpents are in a 

 threatening attitude, and their bodies, tails, and scales are 

 engraved with beautiful exactitude. These serpents are marine, 

 because on the other side of the baton were fish of the sea, one 

 of which was dead, being transfixed by a harpoon. 



Xow let us ask the question, why were the marine serpents 

 carved with such care on the sceptres of the chiefs of the 

 Palaeolithic A<ee ? It could not be because of their size, because 

 all the serpents of the Palaeolithic Age were very small and 

 insignificant. They could not, therefore, have been carved for 

 their importance : there must have been another reason. It is 

 certain also that there were no serpents of importance in the 

 sea, and why should great sea-serpents be engraved on the 

 sceptres of the chiefs of those primeval days ? The only reply 

 is, that these serpents were carved for a religious and mytho- 

 logical reason, and in order to represent some terrible divinity 

 which was supposed to have its home in the sea. 



It is readily admitted that a great deal of this is speculative. 

 Still, it is hardly possible to deny the indications that exist 

 and they ought not to be passed over. Let us take another 

 case. In a Palaeolithic deposit in the cave of Kesslerloch, in 

 Switzerland, amid other human relics, a long fragment of a 

 bone sceptre was found, on which was engraved by dotted lines 

 the body of an immense serpent.f The head and tail are 

 wanting, but the serpentine body cannot be mistaken. Any 

 serpents that may have lived in Switzerland in the Palaeolithic 

 Period must have been diminutive indeed. A religious motive 

 must have induced the artists to carve serpents on their wands 

 of office. It is also very unlikely that the serpent, which was 

 of a most diminutive character, could ever have been the Totem 

 of a tribe in Western Europe from its importance. The 

 python in South Africa and the rattlesnake in Xorth America 

 are tribal Totems. But the former is formidable because of its 

 size, and the latter because of its deadly poison. Hence the 

 reason for their selection and their adaptation as Totems. But 

 neither of these reasons apply to the diminutive serpents of 

 Western Europe. It may be that the round holes in the 

 Palaeolithic sceptres are representations of the sun, for they 

 can hardly have been meant for ornament. It is singular that 



* This baton is figured by Cartailhac in La France Prehistorique 

 p. 82. 



t Excavations at the KessleHoch, by Conrad Merk, Plate VI, Fig. 23. 



