THE MENTONE CAVE MEN. 
127 
:the Standard .at about this time the old man was stated to be 
eight feet and the woman six foot three inches high. On the 
other hand M. Riviere estimates the height of the old man at 
z'08 metres and one of the others at about 1*85 m. But it 
.is difficult to judge what would be their true heights when 
extended at full length for they were lying on their left, sides 
with their legs crossed, and a measurement from head to foot 
would make them far too short. 
The skulls are of a most remarkable oblong shape, showing 
them to belong to the dolicocephalic or long-skulled type, being 
of a very ^rectangular shape. The teeth are in a very perfect 
state of preservation. 
Two of the skeletons had the left arms raised and in the hands 
were placed large flint scrapers on which the heads were resting. 
The scraper behind the skull of the old man measured eighteen 
centimetres long by 8*5 centimetres broad. The right arms of 
both were in a position of rest, lying on the bodies. The third 
skeleton had the left arm extended and the hand held another 
flint scraper. All the bones were coloured red with bright spots 
of the oligistic iron which evidently served to cover up the 
bodies when they were being interred ; it is supposed that the 
use of this iron formed a part of the funeral rites. 
A great many other objects were found accompanying the 
remains, and most of these were hardly less interesting than the 
skeletens themselves. Each of the three had a necklace, one 
being formed of shells of a species of Nassa , while another 
consisted of the canine teeth of a stag with holes drilled through 
for stringing together, and the third was made out of the vertebrae 
of a fish of the genus Salmo. Both the teeth and the vertebrae 
are of the same brick-red colour as the skeletons. 
On the legs were found two cowrie shells Cyproea one being 
placed just above the instep. But perhaps the most remarkable 
object ofallwasan hour-glass shaped body fashioned out of stag’s 
horn. Its form might be more accurately described as a double ovoid, 
resembling two eggs fastened together by their ends. The length 
of this object has been stated by M. Riviere in his report as three 
hundred and ninety six millimetres but this is certainly an 
exaggeration. From memory I should say it was not more than 
four inches long at the most. The whole surface was engraved 
with fine parallel and regular equidistant grooves or scratches 
running longitudinally from end to end, and M. Riviere has 
given no judication of its probable use, of course it may have 
been merely an ornament, but even so the constriction in the mid¬ 
dle and the fine grooving would be difficult to account for. “Highly 
finished flint implements prove the present remains, as well as 
those discovered by Riviere in 1872, to undoubtedly belong to 
the neolithic or later Stone Age, but M. Bonfils is very intent on 
proving his “nouveThomme^-of *884 to belong to the far older 
