FLUTES OF THE ICE AGE.

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 56, 9 March 1929, Page 15

FLUTES OF THE ICE AGE.

There were cold days and long winter evenings in the Otshevi mountains of JugoSlavia 25.0001 years ago, but the cave dweller ot,_ that remote period had his joyful heurs^.hli moments of relaxation. Returning heme after ths chase of the caW, bear he played the flute to his VfffmfWJv^nd a few choice friends. , ':"::'":' ■;•'.■;." / ■

That is thosc«nej,which Professor. Brodar, who has.: been exploring* the Potocka Cave, brings before us. Beneath the deposits of centuries tit found the bones of the bear, worked into awls and needles End other; implements, with which the'cave man ititchsd the skins that protected him, from the blasts of the rctrcatino Ice Aoe.. ; ' .

Far more remarkable than these were bones rounded and:' carved and drilled with little circular holes—flutes without a doubt. From the Petecka Cavt the music of the ages tifhs plaintively to us across 250 centuries. :

Picture the scene.■ The lUlwirt hunter, home from the'hill, hat eaten his bear steak. His thildren ara gnawing the bones In a .distant corntr of the cave. The smoky tin gleams fitfully on the ceillni, arid on the a'avs man's wife stitching a new bearskin for her lord. The cave man,, at the. repeated requests of his friends .(who; 1 bain* well fed, are perhaps unduly .flattering), consents to play a piece.

He draws from a crevice one of his precious flutes. He putt his bearded lips to the bone *nd the thin shrill; notes of the flirt musical; instrument' echo throuih^eriiiotmi vh l*?:la. «),Wip»fuL scene; Every one Is satiifled. Musi* hath chirms to soothe the savage beast The only complaint might ceme from the bear, wnioh wUht" ttilillc It"liad- contributed too much to the entertilnment.