PALAEOLITHIC MAN.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2903, 24 January 1911, Page 6

PALAEOLITHIC MAN.

A CULTIVATED AND HIGHLY-AD* VANGED RACE.

"I want to know whence came the tall, fair, conquering race of the West." It was the plaintive cry of a very distinguished artist, now gone to his rest without learning more upon this matter than my poor knowledge might communicate to him. In those days I didn't know ; I hadn't a theory. I may not know now, but I have a theory.

It is not very long ago that I was looking over a very royal book belonging to Sir E. Ray Lankester. There is a certain district in France where a cave with palaeolithic remains was discovered. This cave was purchased by a Frenchman, who devoted his life and his wealth to the problems involved in it. The book which he produced contains th» most elaborate drawings, to scale and magnified, of the relics of palaeolithic life carefully dug out of the cave. The period of the cave is that of the Cromagnard man, so called from the skeleton discovered in Cromagnon. Now the Neolithic period is reckoned roughly to go back beyond the historical horizon to 10,000 B.C. ; and the palaeolithic to axtend

BETWEEN 10,000 B.C. AND 100,000 B.C.

The cave, the contents of which were explored and meticulousfy tabulated and illustrated by M. Piette, may have dated from 50,000 B.C. What were the conditions of humanity prevailing 50,000 years ago in Europe ? What, evidences of civilisation were there, if any ? What stage of evolution had man reached ?

The human relics demonstrate this palaeolithic man to have been tall and well-made. He bad a very respectable brain, much superior to aboriginal Bushmen and to Australian or Tasmanian savages. He evidently was familiar with the horse, and probably hunted it for food at one time, as he also hunted the reindeer, which in those ages adjacent to the glacial epoch browsed over Central Europe. The hunting of animals necessarily precedes tlie.ir domestication arid there are evidences that tha Cromagnard man used horses otherwise than for food. M. Piette's book is full of innumerable DRAWINGS AND SCULPTURES

by the palaeolithic men of the cave. There are sculptures on bone, there are bas-reliefs, and there arc drawings, all displaying a singular artistic power. There are numerous heads of horses, drawings of reindeer, and pictures of other wild animals. It is possible to get some idea from these engravings of the fauna of those distant times in Europe. They are not the rude work of savages, but discover a definite instinct for art. And in the drawings of horses there are frequently lines which follow the lines of the modern hors? halter. It is impossible to examine these without being tempted to interpret them as representatives oi halters. If that be so, those palneo lithic men had learned to tame and employ the horse. Some of the drawings depict the human figure, male and female, but as a rule these are inferior. The greatest skill seems to have been expended on the reproduction of wild life. Perhaps this is natural, for these men were

MIGHTY HUNTERS, and would naturally turn their art to the habit of their lives. The modern sportsman's rooms are decorated with prints of the hunt and the steeplechase, and mounted with trophies of the gun. Yet there are some drawings of the human head which stand out, and in particular there is one production of a female head dress which is almost, startling. II seems to attach itself by a leap ol many thousand years to affinity with the ancient Greek coiffure. Therq is nothing of the savage about it. In fine, the conclusion one is driven to after studying these wonderful results is that the Cromagnard wen a cultivated and highly-advanced race of primitives.—H. B. Marriot Watson, in the "Evening Standard."