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buildings, but took refuge in dens and caves of the earth, 
making them his abodes in life and his last resting-places in 
death. The cave-men, however, would seem to have been 
more advanced in the arts than those who planned and 
executed the grand avenues and other megalithic monuments 
of Brittany. The caves which they occupied have produced 
engravings and sculptures on stones, ivory, and reindeer 
bones, that are marvellous for accuracy of delineation and 
truthfulness of form, compared with which the carved stones 
of Brittany are rude and unmeaning. Some of these 
sculptures and engravings, preserved in public and private 
collections, are full of artistic life and vigour. Now it is 
said that there was a remoter period still of human existence, 
in which man simply chipped flints into rude implements 
and knew not how to polish them, nor did he know how to 
manufacture clay vessels and to procure fire. The antiquity 
of this people is supposed to be lost in the impenetrable mists 
of the post-glacial period. 
Not for the archaeologist alone, but for every sensible and 
intelligent person, these questions have a bright, an interest- 
ing, and instructive aspect. For although the ravages of 
time hava greatly marred these venerable relics of antiquity, 
still we are able to recognize in them the arts of primitive 
peoples, and to call up before the mind's eye the very peoples 
themselves ; to study their mental development, and to 
divine the uses many of their works were destined to serve. 
"We are able in this manner to catch a glimpse of the private 
life, and even the religious ideas, of peoples of whose great 
. antiquity we know absolutely nothing at present, because 
written history and tradition have not reached it. 
There are few countries so rich in stone monuments of 
pre-historic times as that portion of Western France which 
was formerly known by the ancient name of Armorica, 
and now bears the name of Brittany. These monuments 
