m m UNIVERSirr OF CA RIVERSIDE LIBRART 3 1210 00^79 12^8 PRBHISTORIC TIMBS Lord Avebury ■ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE PREHISTORIC TIMES H 5 o 3 H PRE-HISTOEIC TIMES AS ILLUSTRATED BY ANCIENT REMAINS jjV ' AND THE Imanners and customs of modern savages The Rt. Hon. LORD . AyEBURY, (I D.C.L. (Oxon.), LL.D. (Cantab., Dubl. ct Edin.), M.D. (Wurzb.), F.R.S., V.P.L.S., F.G.S., F.Z.S., F.S.A., F.E.S., Trust. Brit. Mus. ; Assoc. Acad. Roy. des Sci. Brux. ; Hon. Mem. R. Irish Acad., Amer. Ethnol. Soc, Anthrop. Soc. Wash. (U.S.), Brux., Flerenze, Anthrop. Verein Graz., Soc, Entom. de France, Soc. G60I. de la Suisse, and Soc. Helv6t. des Sci. Nat. ; Mem. Amei-. Phil. Soc. Philad. and Soc. d'Ethn. de Paris ; Corresp. Mem. Soc. Nat. des Sci. Nat. de Cherb., Berl. Gesell. fur Anthrop., Soc. Roinana di Antrop., Soc. d'Emul. d'Abbeville, Soc. Ciunt. Argentina, Soc. de Geog. de Lisb., Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., Numis. and Ant. Soc. Philad. Anier. Entom. Soc. For. Assoc, Mem. Soc. d'Anthiop. de Paris ; For. Mem. Amer. Antiq. Soc. SIXTH EDITION REVISED WILLIAMS AND NOEGATE 14 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON" 20 SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH AND 7 BROAD STREET, OXFORD 1900 PRINTED BT NEILL AXD COMPANT, LIMITED. EDlSBVRQa PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION TN this Work I present to the public some essays on Pre-historic Archaeology, parts of which have appeared in the Natural History Review, viz. those on — The Danish Shell-mounds, in October, 1861. The Swiss Lake-dwellings, in Januar}^, 1862. The Flint Implements of the Drift, in July, 1862. North American Archeology, in January, 1863. Cave-men, in July, 1864. Messrs. Williams and Norgate suggested to me to republish these articles in a separate form ; and I was further encouraged to do so by the fact that most of them had re-appeared, either in France or America. The conductors of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles did me the honour to translate those on the Danish Shell-mounds and the Swiss Lake-dwellinirs. The latter also appeared in Silliman's Journal ; and the VI PKEFACE. iirt'u'lo on Anierirnn AivluDology, witli the exception of tlie last paragraph, was reprinted in tlie Smithsonian Keportfor 18G2.* At first I only contemplated reprinting the papers ;is they stood ; but having, at the request of the managers, delivered at the Royal Institution a short course of lectures on the Antiquity of Man, it was thought desirable to introduce the substance of these, so as to give the work a more complete character. My object has been to elucidate, as far as possible, the principles of pre-historic archaeology, laying spe- cial stress upon the indications which it affords of the condition of man in primeval times. The tumuli, or burial-mounds, the peat-bogs of this and other coun- tries, the Kjokkenmoddings or shell-mounds of Den- mark, the Lake-habitations of Switzerland, the bone- caves and the river-drift gravels, are here our principal sources of information. In order to qualify myself, as far as possible, for the task which I have undertaken, I have visited, not only our three great museums in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh, but also many on the Continent, as, * The article on Cave-men was also translated in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Fifth Ser. vol. ii., and that on North American Archteology in the Revue Archdologitjue for 1865, PREFACE. Vll for instcance, those at Copenhagen, Stockholm, Lund, Flensburg, Aarhuus, Lausanne, Basle, Berne, Zurich, Yverdon, Paris, Abbeville, etc., besides many private collections of great interest, of which I may particu- larly specify those of M. Boucher de Perthes, Messrs. Christy, Evans, Bateman, Forel, Schwab, Troy on, Gilli^ron, Uhlmann, Desor, and, lastly, the one re- cently made by MM. Christy and Lartet in the bone- caves of the Dordoo-ne. Sometimes alone, and sometimes in company with Messrs. Prestwich and Evans, I have made numerous visits to the Valley of the Somme, and have examined almost every gravel-pit and section from Amiens down to the sea. In 1861, with Mr. Busk, and again in 1863, I went to Denmark, in order to have the advantage of seeing the Kjokkenmoddings themselves. Under the guidance of Professor Steenstrup, I visited several of the most celebrated shell -mounds, particu- larly those at Havelse, Bilidt, Meilgaard, and Fanne- rup. I also made myself familiar with so much of the Danish language as was necessary to enable me to read the various reports drawn up by the Kjokken- modding Committee, consisting of Professors Steen- strup, Worsaae, and Forchhammer. Last year I went to the north of Scotland, to examine some via PREFACE. similar shell -mounds discovered by Dr. Gordon, of Biruie, on the shores of the ]\Ioray Firth, ^vhich appear, however, to belong to a much later period than those of Denmark. In 18G2, i\L Morlot very kindly devoted himself to me for nearly a month, during which time we not only visited the principal museums of Switzerland, l)ut also several of the Lake-habitations themselves, and particularly those at Morges, Thonon, ^^'auwyl, Jiloosseedorf, and the Pont de Thiele. In addition to many minor excursions, I had, finally, last spring, the advantage of spending some time with ]\Ir. Christy among the celebrated bone-caves of the Dordogne. Thus, by carefully examining the objects themselves and the localities in which they have been found, I have endeavoured to obtain a more vivid and correct impression of the facts than books, or even museums, alone could have given. To the more strictly archaeological part of the work I have added some chapters on the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages, confining myself to those tribes which are still, or were, when first visited by travellers, ignorant of the use of metal, and which have been described by competent and trustworthy observers. This account, incomplete as it is, will be PREFACE. IX found, I think, to throw some light on the remains of savage life in ages long gone bv. Fully satisfied that Religion and Science cannot in reality be at variance, I have striven in the present publication to follow out the rule laid down by the Bishop of London, in his excellent lecture delivered last year at Edinburgh. The man of science, says Dr. Tait, ought to go on, " honestly, patiently, diffidently, observing and storing up his observations, and carry- ing his reasonings unflinchingly to their legitimate conclusions, convinced that it would be treason to the majesty at once of science and of religion if he sought to help either by swerving ever so little from the straight rule of truth." * Ethnology, in fact, is passing at present through a phase from which other sciences have safely emerged ; and the new views with reference to the Antiquity of Man, though still looked upon with distrust and apprehension, will, I doubt not, in a few years be regarded with as little disquietude as are now those discoveries in astronomy and geology which at one time excited even greater opposition. I have great pleasure in expressing my gratitude * Lecture on Science and Revelation, delivered at Edinburgh. See the Times, 7 th November 1864. X PREFACE. to ni;inv aivhirolosfical fiicutls for tlic lil)eral maniier •I o in whii-h tlu'ir niusoiims liavc been thrown open to mo, and fur iniu-li valuable assistance in other ways, ^ly thanks are due to Professor Steenstrup for many of the figures by which the AVork is illustrated. Others, through the kindness of Sir W, R. Wilde, Mr. P'ranks, and Dr. Thurnam, have been placed at my disposal by the Society of Antiquaries and the Roj^al Irish Academy. To Professor Steenstrup, Dr. Keller, M. Morlot, and Professor Eiitimeyer, I am indebted for much information on the subject of their respec- tive investigations. Finally, Mr. Busk, Mr. Evans, and Professor Tyndall, have had the great kindness to read many of my proofs, and to them I am indebted for various valuable susjojestions. JOHN LUBBOCK. Chislehurst, February f 1865. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. TN preparing a New Edition of Pee-Historic Times, I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to avoid unduly increasing the size of the book ; and although the present Work will be found to contain a great number of new facts, some of the chapters being, indeed, almost re-written, still it is only increased in size to the extent of one hundred pages. Nearly half of these are occupied by the addition of more than seventy new figures, which will tend to diminish, rather than increase, the time occupied by its perusal. This course has compelled me to omit all reference to many researches of much merit and interest, while in other cases I have been obliged to treat the labour of years in a few short sentences. The true force of the evidence in support of archaeological conclusions is thus materially weakened, by being deprived of its cumulative character ; but I have endeavoured in XU PREFACE. many cases to meet this objection by the introduction of statistical tables. Since the First Edition was published, I have visited the principal German and Italian museums, and have been in correspondence with the most active archneologists both in Europe and also across the Atlantic. I cannot attempt here to express in any suitable manner my gratitude for the assistance which I have received. Every museum which I have visited has been thrown open to me with the greatest liberality, and every archaeologist whom I have consulted has ffivcn me the readiest and fullest information. No one can be more sensible than I am of the many shortcomings of this Work. Those, however, who perceive them most clearly, will, I am sure, be disposed to judge them leniently, because they will best be able to appreciate the difficulty of keeping pace with a science which has so many and such enthusiastic votaries ; the results of whose earnest labour are to be found scattered through a number of periodicals, published in many different countries and in various tongues. JOHN LUBBOCK. High Elms, Down, Kext, March, 1869. CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. INTRODUCTION. PAGE Division of Pre-liistoric arclipeology into four periods — First dis- covery of metal — Allusions to bronze in ancient writers — Lucretius — Tiefenau — Find of iron objects at Nydam, in Slesvick — Owner's marks — Inscriptions at Nydam — Nature of archaeological evidence — Statistics — Pottery of the different ages— Bronze weapons not of Roman origin — Geographical distribution of bronze weapons — Summary of argument — Bronze weapons not Saxon — Hallstadt . 1 CHAPTER II. ON THE USE OF BRONZE IN ANCIENT TIMES. Bronze celts — Bronze swords — Bronze spears — Bronze fish-hooks and sickles — Bronze knives — Bronze ornaments — The metallurgy of the Bronze Age — Gold ornaments — List of Bronze objects — Dress — Burial during the Bronze Age — Hut-urns — Pen-pits — Picts' houses — Beehive houses — The Burgh of Moussa — Staigue fort, Kerry 28 CHAPTER IIL THE BRONZE AGE. Similarity of bronze implements in different countries — The Bronze Age and the Phoenicians— Ancient voyages — Himilco — Pytheas — Phoenician colonies and commerce — Copper — Tin — Traces of Baal worship in Northern Europe — Objections to the Phoenician theory 53 XIV CONTENTS, CHAPTER IV. THE USE OF STONE IN ANCIENT TIMES. PACK The great alimulance of stone impk-inents — Stone iinplenieuts ased after the discovery of metal — Materials preferred— Jade — Flint — Grimes' Graves — Pivssigny — The fracture of Hint — Modern Hakes — Manufacture of flakes in Mexico, and among the Esijuimau.v — Ancient manufactories — Stone axes — Pierced liatche Is— Scrapers — Shell-mound axes — Chisels — Awls — S])ears — Daggers — Sliug- stones — Arrow-heads — Saws — Bone im2)lements — Awls — Har- poons — Flint finds 72 CHAPTER V. MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS AND TUMULI. Tumuli — Menhirs — Stone circles — Mention of stone circles and tumuli in ancient history — Megalithic monuments not Druidical — Avebury — Silljury Hill more ancient than the Roman road — Stonehenge — Carnac — Megalithic monuments in India — Modern Indian dolmens — Modes of burial in tumuli — Use of tumuli as dwellings — Yurts and gammes — Hut-burial among modern savages — Picts' houses — The mound -builders — Long barrows — Ol^jects buried with the dead not always intended for actual use — List of interments — Tabulated interments — Statistics — Models of implements sometimes buried — Barrows belong to very different 2>eriods — Difficulty of determining the period to which a tumulus belongs — Danish tumulus in the Island of Moen — Description of a barrow at West Kennet — Pottery from the West Kennet tumulus — Breton tumuli — Sepulchral pottery — Rock sculptures — Bones of animals in tumuli — Sepulchral feasts — Sacrifices — Pre-historic races of men — Desirability of preserving megalithic monuments . 98 CHAPTER VL THE ANCIENT LAK.E-HABITATION.S OF SWITZERLAND. Lake-dwellings mentioned by Herodotus — Modern Lake-dwellings — Irish crannoges — Pile-dwellings in other parts of Europe — Lake- dwellings found in most of the Swiss lakes — Attempt to make a census — Construction of the platforms — Comparison of Lake- dwellings of different periods — Condition of the objects found — ■ CONTENTS. XV PAGE Preparation of tlie piles — Number of the piles used — Description of the remains at Wauwyl — Weapons and imjjlements of the Lake- men — Implements of bone and wood — Pottery — Dress — The fauna of the Lake-dwellings — Comi^arison of bones belonging to wild and domesticated races — Oxen — Absence of extinct species — Aurochs — Elk — Ibex — General character of the fauna — Com- parison of the different Lake villages — The flora — Grain — Fruits — Flax — Ancient agriculture — Scarcity of human remains — Olijects of bronze — The worship of Lakes — Pottery of the Bronze Age — Inhabitants of the Lake villages — Character of the objects foiuid in different Lake villages — Antiquity of Lake villages . 16G CHAPTER VII. THE DANISH KJOKKENMODDINGS OR SHELL-MOUKDS. Danish tumuli — Kjokkenmoddings, or shell-mounds — Description of the shell-mounds — Distribution of the shell-mounds — Shell- mounds in Scotland — Shell-mounds in other countries — Flora of the Danish shell-mounds — Fauna of the shell-mounds — Condition of the bones — Prevalence of certain bones — Habits of the mound - builders — Flint implements — Absence of polished flint implements — Food of the shell-mound builders — The Fuegians — The relation of the shell-mounds to the tumuli — The opinions of Messrs. Steenstrup and Worsaae — Antiquity of the shell-mounds . , 213 CHAPTER VIII. NORTH AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY. Bibliography — Classification of antiquities — Implements — The use of copper — Ancient copper-mines — Pottery — Ornaments — Fortifi- cations — Earthworks — Enclosures ■ — Sacred enclosures — Earth- works of the Scioto Valley — Aztalan — Vitrified walls — Modern earthworks — Chunk yards — Sepulchral mounds — So-called sacri- ficial mounds — Grave Creek mound — Temple mounds — Animal mounds — Rock carvings — Wampiim — The mound-builders — Evi- dence of ancient population — Traces of ancient agriculture- Antiquity of the remains — Condition of the bones — American forests — Indications of four periods — Man and the mastodon — Antiquity of man in America 237 XVI CONTEXTS. ClIArTKR IX. QUATKRXARY MAMMALIA. PAGE Succession of species — The cuve-bear — The cave-hyania — The cave- liou — The mammoth — Existence of the African elephant in Europe — The quaternary species of rhinoceros — Rliinoceros Tichorliinus — The musk-ox — The liippopotamus — The Irisli elk — Wild horses — The reindeer — The aurochs — The urus — Elk — Lenuning — Snowy owl — Mollusca — Links between existing species — Climate of the quaternary period — Probable fluctuations of climate 268 CHAPTER X. riilMEVAL MAN. Caves in the South of France — Belgian caves — Kent's Hole — Brix- ham cave — Sicilian caves — Gibraltar caves — Aurignac — Wokey Hole — Caves in the Dordogne — Fauna of the Dordogne caves — Absence of domestic animals — Flint implements — Relative anti- quity of the remains — Absence of polished implements — Bone implements — Representations of animals — Drawing of reindeer and mammoth — Sculpture — Habits of the cave-dwellers — Human remains — The Engis skull — The Neanderthal skull — Cave-men . 292 CHAPTER XI. RIVER-DRIFT GRAVEL-BEDS. M. Boucher de Perthes — Mr. Prestwich and Mr. Evans — !Mr. Frere's discovery in 1800 — Similar discoveries elsewhere — Similar dis- coveries in other countries — Antiquity as shown by physical geo- graphy — The questions at issue — Evidence derivable from the flints themselves — The forgeries — Character of the true drift im- plements — Drift implements never ground — Scarcity of human bones — Scarcity of men in ancient times — Proportion of men to other animals in the Hudson's Bay Territory — The mammoth and rhinoceros — Cliaracteristics of the drift-beds — Physical geography of the Sorarae Valley — St. Acheul — Organic remains — Minera- logical constituents of the river-drift gravels — Objections to the proposed theory — Ice action — Fresh -water origin of the gravels — Inapplicability of cataclysms — Alteration of the river level — CONTENTS. XVU PAGE Gradual excavation of the valley — The lower level gravel-beds — Their fauna — The peat — Objects found in the jjeat — Relation of the loess to the gravel — Continual changes of river courses — Elevation of the land — Recapitulation 319 CHAPTER Xir. ox THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN. Historical evidence — Ethnological evidence — Evidence derivable from physical geography — The vegetation of Denmark — The cone of the Tiniere— The Valley of the Tliiele — The formation of Egypt — The gradual elevation of the country, owing to the annual deposit of Nile mud — Mr. Horner's Egyptian researches — Age of the Mississippi delta — Lapse of time, as indicated by the change of climate — Sir J. W. Lubbock on the earth's axis — Effect of a change in the Gulf-Stream — Astronomical causes — Precession of the Equinoxes — M. Adhemar's argument — The cupola of ice at the South Pole — Objections to M. Adhemar's theory — Probable effect . of precession — The excentricity of the earth's orbit — Date sug- gested for the glacial epoch — Effect of rivers on the level of con- tinents — The obliquity of the ecliptic — M. Adhemar on changes in the sea-level — Geological changes in the Quaternary period — Geological time — Reported evidence of man in the Pliocene period . — Miocene man 360 CHAPTER XIII. MODERN SAVAGES. The imtrustworthiness of tradition — Tendency to the marvellous — No evidence of degradation — Progress among savages — Hottentots : dress ; food ; weapons ; metallurgy ; customs ; character ; Bush- men — Veddahs — Andaman Islanders — Australians : houses ; food ; rock-engravings ; canoes ; implements ; clubs ; spears ; throwing- sticks ; the boomerang ; fire ; clothes ; ornaments ; tattooing ; initiation ceremonies ; games ; superstition ; modes of burial ; language ; marriage — Tasmanians — Fiji Islanders -. food ; weapons ; houses ; temples ; religion ; canoes ; pottery ; games ; agricul- ture ; women ; dress ; tattooing ; burial ; customs ; parricide ; horrible rites ; cannibalism ; character of the Fijians — Maories : food ; dress ; ornaments ; tattooing ; houses ; fortifications ; h XV 111 CONTENTS. PACK woajv^ns ; oJinoos ; liuri.il ; iiuisic ; cliaracter ; n-lij^ion ; cfinni- Iviilism — Tahiti : iniploinentj? ; fish-liooks ; nets ; l)askets ; mats ; l>)irk-clotli ; dress; camx's ; music; furniture; weapons; food; tii\> ; otwkerv ; ava ; a cliiefs dinner ; solitary meals ; surgery ; modes of hurial ; Olterea't? moral ; government ; ideas of right and vroug ; the Arreoy society ; general character — Tke Tongans . 404 CHAPTER XIV. MODERN SAVAGES — coiitinned. Esquimaux : tents ; houses ; lamps ; absence of cleanliness ; stores of food ; cookery ; difficulty of obtaining water ; fire ; imple- ments and weapons ; modes of hunting and fishing ; sledges lx)ats ; scrapers ; clothes, ornaments, cheek -studs ; music ; draw- ings ; religion ; modes of burial ; things buried with the dead character —A'oj'^/i American Indians : dress ; ornaments ; labrets : the practice of head-moulding ; religion ; social position of women character ; cruelty ; infanticide ; implements ; weapons ; boats fire ; dwellings ; agriculture ; maize ; rice ; animal food ; burial art — Paraguay Indians — Patagonians : stature ; huts ; dress weapons ; food ; burial ; religion — Fuegians : huts ; implements weapons ; food ; stature ; habits ; mode of fishing; cannibalism absence of religion ; canoes ; dress ; fire 470 CHAPTER XV. MODERN SAVAGES — concluded. Skilfulness of savages — Varieties of implements — Neatness in sewing — Art of drilling — Important works erected by savages — Differ- ences in the Stone Age — Diff"erent lines of civilization — Differences of weapons — Isolation of savages — Geographical distribution of weapons, etc. — Differences between savages — Different uses for the dog — Different modes of obtaining fire — Different modes of burial — Descent of property — Differences in prevalent sounds — Differences in signs — Ideas of decency — Ideas of virtue — Deifica- tion of white men — CurioiLS customs — Social position of women — Savages and children — Moral and intellectual inferiority of savages — Poverty of savage languages — Deficiencies in numeration — Absence of religion — Rudiments of religion — Low ideas of the deitv — Witchcraft — General wretchedness of savages . , . 519 CONTENTS. XIX CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUDING REMARKS. PAGB The higher animals — The primitive condition of man — Diffusion of man — Early races of man — Natural selection applied to man — The influence of mind — Increase of happiness — Sufferings of savages — Superstitious terrors — Self-inflicted sufferings — The blessings of civilization — The diminution of suffering — The diminution of sin — The advantages of science — The future . . 560 Appendix 579 Index 587 DESCRIPTIOX OF THE PLATES AND FIGURES. no. 1. Ancient Danish arrow-head, with owner's mark. Engelhardt, Denmark in the Earl}' Iron Age, p. xiii, fig. 35. 2. Modern Es<|iiimaiix arrow-head, with owner's mark. In my collection, one-half natural size. 3. Owners' marks from various ancient Danish arrows. Denmark in the Early Iron Age, pp. i-xiii. Plate I. 4. Copper (?) celt from "Waterford — 6 inches long, 3| wide at the broader end, and 1| at the smaller, which is about l-16th thick. Cat. of Royal Irish Academy, p. 363. 5. "Winged celt, or Paalstave, from Ireland. Ibid. p. 373. 6. Socketed celt from Ireland, one-third of the actual size. Ibid. p. 385. 7-9. The three principal types of celts, and the manner in wliich they are supposed to have been handled. Ibid. p. 367. 10. Kalmuck Axe. Iron. In the collection of the late Dr. Klenim. 11. Cojjper (?) celt from Ireland, one-half of the actual size. Cat. of Royal Irish Academy, p. 363. 12. Half of a celt mould from Ireland. It is of mica slate, 6| inches long, 4 -wide, and presents upon the surface the apertures by means of which it was adjusted by the other half. Ibid. p. 91. Plate II. 13. Decorated celt from Ireland — 8.} inches long, 4 wide at the blade end, and half-an-inch thick. Ibid. p. 365. 14. Simple celt from Denmark, one-third of the actual size. Nordiske Oldsager i det Kong. Mus. i Kjoljenhavn, No. 178. 15. Ornamental celt from Denmark, one-third of the actual size. Ibid. No. 179. 16. Socketed celt from Denmark, one-third of the actual size. Ibid. Ko. 195. DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES AND FIGURES. XXI PIG. 17. Bronze celt, Naples. In my collection, one-half natural size, 18. „ „ Le Puy. „ „ two-thirds „ 19. Stone Axe, Denmark. „ „ „ „ 20. Modern African Axe. In my collection, one-sixth natural size. Plate III. 21. Iron sword from a cemetery at Brighthampton in Oxfordshire, one- eighth of the actual size. Archoeologia, vol. xxxviii. pi. 2, fig. 1. 22. Sword from Ireland — 23 J inches long, 1§ wide in the centre of the blade, which is margined by a grooved feather edge. Cat. of Royal Irish Academy, p. 444. 23. Sword from Sweden, one-fourth of the actual size. Nilsson's Skandinaviska Nordens Ur-invanare, pi. 1, fig. 7. 24. Sword from Switzerland, one-fifth of the actual size. In the museum of Col. Schwab, Mitt. Ant. Ges. in Zurich, Bd. xii. H. 3. 25. Sword from Concise on the Lake of Neufchatel, one-fourth of the actual size. In the museum of Col. Schwab, Mitt. Ant, Ges. in Zurich, Bd. xiii. H. 3. 26. Sword from Scandinavia. Atlas for Nordisk Oldkyndighed, pi. 4, fig. 42. Plate IV. 27. Sword from Denmark, found in the Treenlioi tumulus. Afb. af. Danske Oldsager og Mindesmseker, H. 5. 28. Sword from Denmark, one-sixth of the actual size. Nordiske Oldsager i det Kong. Mus. i Kjobenha\ai, No. 121. 29. Sword from Denmark, one-sixth of the actual size. Ibid. No. 123. 30. Hilt of sword from Demnark, one-fourth of the actual size. Ibid. No. 128. 31. Hilt of sword from Denmark, one-fourth of the actual size. Ibid. No. 127. 32. Bronze dagger-blade from Ireland — 10| inches long by 2| wide. The four rivets by which it is fastened to the handle are still in situ. Cat. of Royal Irish Academy, p. 448. 33. Bronze dagger from Ii-eland, two-thirds of the actual size. Ibid. p. 458. 34. Bronze dagger-blade from Ireland, one-third of the actual size. Ibid. p. 463. XXli DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES AND FIGUKES. ri.ATK V. FIG. 36. Bronze spear -lit-ad fmni Inlaml — 11] iiiclu'S long by 1] broad. Ibid. p. 499. 36. Bronze spear-head from Ireland —13; inches long by 2j broad. Ibid. p. 496. 37. Bronze knife from Denmark, one-half of the actual size. Nordiske Oldsager i det Kong. Mns. i Kjiibi-nhavn, No. 1G7. 38. Bronze knife from Denmark, one-third of the actual size. Ibid. Xo. 1G9. 39. Bronze knife from Denmark, one-tliird of the actual size. Iljid. No. 166. 40. 41. Bronze knives from the lake-village of Estavayer, on the Lake of XL^ifchatel, one-half of the actual size. Keller, Mitth. der Antiq. Ges. in Zurich, Bd. xiii. Abth. 2, H. 3, pi. 5, figs. 19, 20. Plate YI. 42-45. Razor-knives from Denmark, one-half of the actual size. Nordiske Oldsager i det Kong. Mus. i Kjobenhavn, Xos. 173, 172, 171, 175. 46. Small bronze knife in a leather case, from Denmark, two-thirds of the actual size. Ibid. No. 164. 47. Bronze knife, actual size, Denmark. Ibid. No. 170. 48. Bronze knife, said to liave been found by Sir Gardner "Wilkinson, at Thebes, but probably European. Plate VII. 49. Bronze bracelet from Cortaillod, on the Lake of Neufchatcl, one- third of the actual size. Troyon's Habitations Lacustres, pi. 11, fig. 28. 50. Bronze bracelet from Cortaillod, on the Lake of Neufchatel, one- third of the actual size. Il)id. pi. 11, fig. 18. 51-54. Bronze hair-pins from the Swiss lakes, one-half of the actual size. Keller, I. c. Zweiter Bericht, pi. 3. 55. Bronze awl from the Swiss lakes, actual size. Iljid. pi. 3. 56-60. Various small objects of bronze from the Swiss lakes. Ibid. pi. 3. Plate VIII. 61. Bronze celt, one-half nat. size. Showing the line of junction of the two halves of the mould in which it was cast. Found at Aylesford, Kent ; and presented to me by Sir G. \V. Daijent. DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES AND FIGURES. XXUl via. 62. Bronze brooch, Mecklenburg, tliree-tentlis nat. size. Showing tlie manner in which it has been mended. Lisch. Alterthiimer, H. vii. pi. 4, fig. 2. 63. Bronze celt. Showing the air-vents bent over. 64. Gold torque, consisting of a simple flat strip or band of gold, loosely twisted, and having expanded extremities which loop into one another. It measures 5^ inches across, and was found near Clonmacnoise, in Ireland. Cat. of Royal Irish Academy, p. 74. Plate IX. 65. Gold fibula, one-half of the actual size. The hoop is very slender ; the cups deep and conical. Ibid. p. 56. 66. Smooth, massive, cylindrical gold ring, with ornamented ends, one- half of the actual size. Ibid. p. 52. 67. Gold fibula, one-third of the actual size. The external surfaces of the cups are decorated with circular indentations surrounding a central indented spost. There is also an elegant pattern where the handle joins the cups. It is 8f inches long, and weighs 33 ounces, being the heaviest now known to exist. Ibid. p. 60. 68. Iron ornament, Africa. 69. Inscribed celt. Museum Kircherianum, Rome, one-half of the actual size. Rossi Rap. Sugli. Stud, e Sulle Scop. Paleo. nel bacino delle, Campagna Romana. Plate X. 70. Woollen cap, one-third of the actual size. Found with the bronze sword (fig. 27) in a Danish tumulus. Afb. af. Danske Oldsager og Mindesmaerker. Madsen, H. 5. 71. Another woollen cap, one-third of the actual size. Found with the preceding. 72. A small coml), one-third of the actual size. Found with the preceding. 73. A woollen cape, one-third of the actual size. Found witli tlie pre- ceding. 74. A woollen shirt, one-third of the actual size. Found with the pre- ceding. 75. A woollen shawl, one-third of the actual size. Found with the preceding. X\1V IiESCllirTIOX OF THE TLATES AND FIGURES. Fli?. 76. A pair of loggings, oue-tliird of the actual size. Found witli the preceding. 77. Hut urn. AlKano. 78. Urn ai>parently representing a lake-dwelling. In the Munich collection. Lisch. Die Alterthiinier Unserer Heid. Vorzeit, 11. x. T. 3. 79. Group of beehive houses, Scotland. Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. i. part xii. Plate XI. 80. The Bur'di of Moussa. Shetlands. 81. Staigue Fort, in the county of Kerry. From a model in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy. Plate XII. 82. Nucleus from which long flakes have beeen struck in Pressigny, France. In my own collection. One-lialf actual size. Plate XIII. 83. Flint core or nucleus, from which flakes have been struck, Jutland. One-half of the actual size. In my own collection, 84-86. Three views of a flint flake from the Kjokkenmodding at Fanne- rup, in Jutland, one-half of the actual size, a represents the bulb of percussion, which is also shown by the shading in fig. 84. In my own collection. 87. Arrow-shaped flake from Ireland. It is worked up at the butt end, as if intended for a handle. Cat. of Royal Irish Academy, p. 72. Plate XIV. 88-90. Flakes from a Danish shell-mound, actual size. In my o\\'n collection. 91. Minute flint flake from Denmark, actual size. In my o^\^l collection. 9.J. Flake from the Cape of Good Hoije, actual size. In my ovra collection. ■DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES AND FIGURES. XXV FIG. 96. Australian flake, one-half actnal size. In my own collection. Actual size. 92. Sections of flakes, a is that of a simple triangular flake ; h is that of a large flat flake split oft' the angle from which the siiialler flake a had been previously taken. Consequently the section is four- sided. 93. North American two-bladed knife, made of two flakes. Reliquiae Aquitanicae, p. 43, fig. 16. 94. Australians making flakes. Geol. and Nat. Hist. Repertory, May 1866. Plate XV. 97. Flint flake from Loch Neagh, Ireland. In my own collection. Plate XVI. 98. Danish flint axe. In my omti collection. One-third actual size. 100. Danish chisel. „ „ One-half „ ,, Plate XVII. 101. Head of New Caledonian javelin, one-half of actual size. In my own collection. 102. New Caledonian javelin, one-sixth actual size. In my own collection. 103. Stone celt or hatchet. Formed of felstone, 5% inches long and 2 broad. Cat. of Royal Irish Academy, p. 41. 104. Stone celt or hatchet, actual size. Found in the river Shannon. One of the smallest yet found in Ireland. Ibid. p. 45. 105. Stone celt with a wooden handle, Monaghan, Ireland. Iliid. p. 46. J 06. Stone celt with wooden handle, one-third actual size. Found at Concise. From Desor. Plate XVIII. 107, 108. Danish axe, re-ground. One-half actual size. From my own collection. 109. Skin-scraper from Bourdeilles in the South of France, actual size. Found by me. 110. Ditto, under side. .NX VI DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES AND FIGURES. Plate XIX. FIO. 1 1 1-113. Skin-scraper used by the modorn Es(|nimaux of llie Poljir basin, witliin Bi'bring's Straits, actual .size. It was fasteiu'd into a handle of fossil ivory. In the Christy Museum. 114. Flint axe from the shell-mound at Meilgaard, in Jutland, actual size. Upper surface. 115. Ditto, under surface. 1 1 o. Ditto, side view. Plate XX. 117. Modern Xew Zealand adze, actual size. Upper surface. In the British Museum. 118. Ditto, under surface. 119. Ditto, side view. The Xew Zealand adze is partially polished ; this is not the case with tlie Danish adze, because flint naturally breaks with a smooth surface. The projection in fig. 110 is acci- dental, and owing to some flaw in the flint. They generally have the under side flat, as in fig. 113. 1 20. Hollow chisel from Denmark. In my own collection. 121. Triangular flint arrow-head, actual size. Ibid. p. 19. 122. Indented flint arrow-head, actual size. Ibid. p. 20. 123. Barbed flint arrow-head, actual size. Ibid. p. 22. 124. Leaf-shaped flint arrow-head, actual size. Showing the gradual passage into the spear-head. Ibid. p. 22. 125. Oval tool-stone. Cat. of Royal Irish Academy, p. 94. Plate XXI. 126. Danish dagger. In my own collection. 127. Flint dagger, one-half of the actual size. This beautiful specimen was found in a large tumulus with a second imperfect dagger, a rude flint core, an imperfect crescent-shaped knife, one or two flakes, two amber beads, and some bits of pottery. Denmark. In my own collection. 128. Another form of flint dagger. Also from Denmark. In my own collection. 129. French arrow-head, actual size. In my own collection. DESCEIPTION OF THE PLATES AND FIGURES. XXVll FIO. 130. Xorth American arrow-head, actual size. In my own collection. 131. Fuegian arrow-head, actual size. From Nilsson's Stone Age. Plate XXII. 132. Stone saw in wooden handle, Switzerland, one-half actual size. After Keller. 133. Bone pin or awl from Scotland, actual size. 134. Bone chisel, actual size. From Wangen, on the Lake of Constance. In my own collection. 135. Bone harpoon, actual size. Afb. af. Danske. Olds. eg. Mindesmaerker, 5 Heft, 136. Ancient bone harpoon, actual size. Dordogne. After Christy and Lartet. 137. Bone scraper, North America. Relicjuite Ar[uitania3, part v. p. 43, fig. 26. 138. A tumulus of the Stone Age, at Roddinge in Denmark. It contains two chambers. Nordiske Oldsager i det Kong. Mus. i Kjcibenhavn, pi. 4. 139. Groimd plan of ditto. 140. Stone circle, Denmark. Ibid. pi. 1. 141. Dolmen, Denmark. 142. Stone circle. Ibid. pi. 2. 143. Kit's Coty House, near Maidstone. After Col. Forbes Leslie : Early Races of Scotland. Plate XXIII. 144. Stonehenge. 145. Carnac, Brittany. From a drawing by Sir J. D. Hooker, F.R.S. 146, 147. Indian Dolmens. After Captain Meadows Taylor. 148. Summer and winter dwellings in Kamschatka. Atlas to Cook's Voyage, pi. 77. 149. Laplander's gamme or hut. 150. Kumbecephalic skull from Derbyshire. After Bateman : Ten Years' Diggings, p. 146. 151. Groimd plan of a sepulchral chamber in a large tumulus on the Island of Moen. Aim. for Nordiske Oldkyndighed, 1858, p. 204. XXviii DESCKIPTION OF TIIK PLATES AND FIGURES. via. 152. Bracliyceplmlic skull from the same tumulus, one-quarter of the natural size. 153. Ditto, side view. I am indebted for these two drawings to the kindness of my friend Mr. Busk. 154. Interior of the sepulcliral chamber in the long barrow near "West Kennet. Archajologia, vol. xxx\iii. p. 405. Plate XXIV. 155. 156. Flint scrapers from the above tumulus, two-thirds of the actual size. Ibid. 157. Flint flake from the same, two- thirds of the actual size. Ibid. 158. Flint implement from the same, two' thirds of the actual size. Ibid. 159. Fragment of pottery from the same, two-thirds of the actual size. Ibid. IGO. Fragment of pottery from the same, actual size. Ibid. Plate XXV. 161-163. Fragments of pottery from the same, two-thirds of the actual size. Ibid. 164. Fragment of pottery, actual size. Ibid. Plate XXVI. 165. Urn from Flaxdale barrow. Tlie original is 14 inches in height. Bateman's Ten Years' Diggings in Celtic and Saxon Grave- hills, p. 280. 166. 167. Two vases from Arbor Low, in Derbyshire. Ibid. p. 283. 168. Drinking cuj) from Green Low. Ibid. p. 286. 169. Sculptures on the Lower Eock at Auchnabreach, Argj-llshire. After Sir J. Y. Simpson : Proc. Soc. Ant. Sc. vol. vi. p. 23. 170. Crannoge in Ardakillin Lough, near Stokesto\\Ti, county of Ros- common. It is constructed of stones and oak piling. The toj:) line shows the former highest water level ; the second, that of the ordinary winter flood ; the third, the summer level. 171. Section of the lake-dwelling at Xiederwyl. From Lee's Keller, pi. 16, fig. 2. 172. Swiss axe of serpentine, actual size. From "Wangen, on the Lake of Con.stance. In my own collection. DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES AND FIGURES. XXIX FIG. 173. Spindle whorl, actual size. From Wangen, on the Lake of Constance. In my own collection. 174. Piece of pottery, showing the impressions of the finger-tip, and the marks of the nail, actual size. Lake of Zurich. 175. Piece of tissue, actual size. From Robenhausen. In my own collection. 176. Portion of the vertebra of a cow. 177. Corresponding portion of the vertebra of a bison. 178. Bronze pin, actual size. Found in a shell-mound near Elgin, and now in the museum at that place, Plate XXVII. 179. Flint awl from Denmark, actual size. After Worsaae. 180-182. Lance-heads (?) from Denmark, actual size. After Worsaae. 183. Rude flint axe from Denmark, actual size. After Worsaae. 184. Copper arrow or spear-head, Cincinnati, one-third actual size. Whittlesey : Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist. vol. i. pi. 16, fig. 6. 185. Copper lance - head, Ontarragon, one-third actual size. Ibid. fig. 4. 186. Molar tooth of E. antiquum, one-third actual size. After Lyell. 187. Molar tooth of the mammoth, one-third actual size. After Lyell. Plate XXVIIL 188. Flat stone implement of uncertain use, actual size. La Madeleine. 189. Stone implement, resembling in some respects those characteristic of the drift gravels, actual size. From Moustier. In my own collection. 190. Ditto, seen from the side. 191. Ditto, seen from the other side. 192. A cylindrical jjiece of reindeer horn, on which are engraved two outlines of fishes, one on each side. La Madeleine, Dordogne, After Lartet and Christy. 193. Piece of the palm of a reindeer's antler, on which is engraved the head and neck of an ibex. Laugerie Basse, Dordogne, After Lartet and Christy, 194. Group of figures. Dordogne. After Lartet and Christy. 195. Group of reindeer. From a photograph jiresented to me by the Marquis de Vibraye. 196. Poniard of reindeer horn. From the cave at Laugerie Basse. XXX DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES AND FIGURES. Plate XXIX. FIO. 197. Engraving of a mainiiiotli. From La Madeleine. Plate XXX. 198. The Engis skull, seen from above. Huxlej-'s Man's Place in Nature, p. 126. 199. Ditto, seen from the front. Plate XXXI. 200. The Neanderthal skull, seen from the side, one-half natural size. 201. Ditto, seen from the front. 202. Ditto, seen from above, one-half natural size. Ibid, jx 139. The outlines from camera lucida drawings hj Mr. Busk ; the details from a cast and from Dr. Fiihlrott's photographs, a, glabella ; b, occipital protuberance ; d, lambdoidal suture. Plate XXXII. 203. Rude flint implement from the drift gravel at Hoxue, one-half actual size. After Frere : Archteologia, 1800, pi. 15. 204. Ditto, side view. 205. Stone implement, Madras. From specimen found and presented to me by Mr. Bruce Foot. Plate XXXIII. 206. Palaeolithic Implement. After Frere. Ibid. 207. The same, side view. Plate XXXIV. 208. Reconstructed flint. Thames Yalley. After Spurrel. Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. 1880. 209. Section of Bank of Thames near Dartford, where fig. 208 was found. Plate XXXV. 210. 211. Palaeolithic Flint Implements. Plate XXXVI. 212-214. Palaeolithic Implements. In my owii collection. One-half actual size. DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES AND FIGURES. XXXi Plate XXXVII. FIQ. 215. Another specimen. In my own collection. One-lialf actual size. 216. Stone imj^lement, Madras. 217. Section across the Valley of the Somme at Abbeville, after Prest- wich ; the proportion of the length is reduced to one-third. 218. Section of St. Acheul, near Amiens. 219. Section taken in a pit close to the Joinville station. b. Red angular gravel, containing a very large sandstone block. d. Grey subangular gravel. 219*. Diagram to illustrate deposit of loess and gravel. a' Loess corresponding to and contemporaneous with the gravel a. b' Loess „ „ „ „ „ „ b. c Loess „ „ „ „ „ „ c. 1. Level of valley at period a. 2. Level of valley at period b. 3. Level of valley at present. Plate XXXVIII. 220. Australian knife. Presented to me by A. W. Franks, Esq. 221. Australian club, one-fifth of the actual size. 222. Australian spear and spear-caster. After Eyre. 223. Australian boomerang, one-sixth of the actual size. 224. Tasmanian fire-sticks, one-third actual size. From specimens presented to me by Mr. Robinson. 225. New Zealand patoo-patoo, one-fourth of the actual size. In my own collection. 226. Stone axe with wooden handle, one-fourth of the actual size. In my own collection. 227. South Sea axe of ceremony. In my own collection. 228. South Sea fish-hook, one- half of the actual size. In my own collection. Plate XXXIX, 229. Esquimaux knife. From a specimen presented to me by Mr. Flower. 230 a. b. Esquimaux knife. In my own collection. 231. Esquimaux arrow-head, actual size. Ibid. XXXU DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES AND FIGURES. KIO. •2'S'2. Esquimaux siwir-lu'ad, actual size. Iliid. 233. Mixleru Estj[uiiuaux chert harpoon. 234. Esquimaux bone-harpoon, one-third of the actual size. Il)id. 235. Esquimaux cheek-stud of stone. Presented to me by Dr. Rae. Plate XL. 236-238. Drawings on Esquimaux bone implements. Presented to the Ashmolean Museum, by Captain Beechy, 1832. 239. Dacotah fire-drill-bow. From Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes. 240. Iroquois fire-pump-drill. From the same. 241. Fuegian harpoon, one-half of the actual size. In my o\vn collection. 242. 243. Ogham stones. Found in Kerry. Cat. of Royal Irish Academy, p. 135. PRE-HISTORIC TIMES. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. THE first appearance of man in Europe dates from a period so remote, tliat neither history, nor tradition, can throw any light on his origin, or mode of life. Under these circumstances, some have supposed that the past is hidden from the present by a veil, which time will probably thicken, but never can remove. Thus our pre-liistoric anti- quities have been valued as monuments of ancient skill and perseverance, not regarded as pages of ancient history ; recognized as interesting vignettes, not as historical pictures. Some writers have assured us that, in the words of Palgrave, " We must give it up, that speechless past ; whether fact or chronology, doctrine or mythology ; whether in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America ; at Thebes or Palenque, on Lycian shore or Salisbury Plain : lost is lost ; gone is gone for ever." Others have taken a more hopeful view, but in attempting to reconstruct the story of the past, they have too often allowed imagniation to usurp the place of research, and have written in the spirit of the novelist, rather than in that of the philosopher. Of late years, however, a new branch of knowledge has arisen ; a new Science has, so to say, been born among us, A 2 DIVISION OF PRE-HISTOEIC which deals witli times and events far more ancient tlian any wliich have yet fallen within the province of the archaeologist. The geologist reckons not hy days or by years; the whole six thousand years, wliich were xnitil lately looked on as the sum of the world's existence, are to him but one unit of measure- ment in the long succession of past ages. Our knowledge of geology is, of course, very incomplete ; on some questions we shall no doubt see reason to change our opinion, but, on the whole, the conclusions to which it points are as definite as those of zoology, chemistry, or any of the kindred sciences. Nor does there appear to be any reason why those methods of examination which have proved so successful in geology, should not also be used to throw liglit on the history of man in pre-historic times. Archaeology forms, in fact, the link between geology and history. It is true that in the case of other animals we can, from their bones and teeth, form a definite idea of their habits and mode of life, while in the present state of our knowledge the skeleton of a savage could not always be distinguished from that of a philosopher. But on the other hand, while other animals leave only teeth and bones behind them, the men of past ages are to be studied principally by their works : houses for the living, tombs for the dead, fortifications for defence, temples for worship, imple- ments for use, and ornaments for decoration. From the careful study of the remains which have come down to us, it would appear that Pre-historic Archaeology may be divided into four great epochs. I. That of the Drift ; when man shared the possession of Europe with the Mammoth, the Cave bear, the Woolly-haired rhinoceros, and other extinct animals. This I have proposed to call the " Pakeolithic " period. II. The later or polished Stone Age ; a period character- ized by beautiful weapons and instruments made of fiiut and other kinds of stone ; in which, however, we find no trace of ARCHEOLOGY INTO FOUR PERIODS. 3 tlie knowledge of any metal, excepting gold, which seems to have been sometimes used for ornaments. For this period I have suggested the term " Neolithic." * III. The Bronze Age, in which bronze was used for arms and cutting instruments of all kinds. IV. The Iron Age, in which that metal had superseded bronze for arms, axes, knives, etc. ; bronze, however, still being in common use for ornaments, and frequently also for the handles of swords and other arms, though never for the blades. Stone weapons, however, of many kinds were still in use during the Age of Bronze, and lingered on even into that of Iron, so that the mere presence of a few stone implements is not in itself sufficient evidence that any given " find " belongs to the Stone Age. In order to prevent misapprehension, it may also be well to state, at once, that, for the present, I only apply this classification to Europe, though, in all proba- bility, it might be extended also to the neighbouring regions of Asia and Africa. The civilization of the south of Europe, moreover, preceded that of the northern Europe. As regards other civilized countries, China and Japan for instance, we, as yet, know but little of their pre-historic archaeology, though recent researches have gone far to prove that the use of iron was there also preceded by bronze, and bronze by stone. Some nations, indeed, such as the Euegians, Andamaners, etc., are even now, or were very lately, in an Age of Stone. It is probable that gold was the metal which first attracted the attention of man ; it is found in many rivers, and by its bright colour would certainly strike even the rudest savages, who are known to be very fond of personal decoration. Silver does not appear to have been discovered until long after gold, and was apparently preceded by both copper and tin ; for it rarely, if ever, occurs in tumuli of the Bronze Age ; but * These two names have met with general accejjtance. 4 FIRST DISCOVERY OF METAL. however this may be, copper seems to liavc been the nu'tal which first became of real importance to Man; no (l()ul)t owing to the fact that its ores arc abundant in many countries, and can be smelted without dilliculty ; and that, while iron is hardly ever found except in the form of ore, copper often occurs in a native condition, and can be beaten at once into shape. Thus, for instance, the North American Indians obtained pure copper from the mines near Lake Superior and elsewhere, and hammered it at once into axes, bracelets, and other objects. Tin also early attracted notice, probably on account of its great heaviness. When metals were very scarce, it would naturally sometimes happen that, in order to make up the necessary quantity, some tin would be added to copper, or vice versd. It would then be found that the properties of the alloy were quite different from those of either metal, and a very few experiments would determine the most advan- tageous proportion, which for axes and other cutting instru- ments is about nine parts of copper to one of tin. No implements or weapons of tin have yet been found, and those of copper are extremely rare, in Western Europe, whence it has been inferred that the art of making bronze was known elsewhere before the use of either copper or tin was intro- duced into Europe. Many of the so-called " copper " axes, etc., contain a small proportion of tin ; and the few exceptions indicate probably a mere temporary want, rather than a total ignorance, of this metal. The ores of iron, though more abundant, are much less striking in appearance than those of copper. Moreover, though they are perhaps more easily reduced, the metal, when obtained, is much less tractable than bronze. This valuable alloy can very easily be cast, and, in fact, all the weapons aod implements made of it in olden times were cast in moulds of sand or stone. The art of casting iron, on ALLUSIONS TO BRONZE IN ANCIENT WRITEUS. 5 the other hand, was unknown until a comparatively late period. In the writings of the early poets, iron is frequently cliarac- teri^ed by the epithet TroXvKjULrjTOf, and its adjective, aioy'ipeo^, is used metaphorically to imply the greatest stubbornness. These considerations tend very much to remove the a priori improbability that a compound and comparatively expensive material like bronze should have been in general use before such a common metal as iron, and the evidence that it was so seems conclusive. Hesiod, who is supposed to have written about 900 B.C., and who is the eaiiiest European author whose works have come down to us, appears to have lived during the transition between the Bronze and Iron Ages. He distinctly states that iron was discovered later than copper and tin. Speaking of those who were ancient, even in his day, he says that they used bronze, and not iron. To2lliai'dt, Curator of the Museum at Fleiisborif. One of these, in the Moss of Nydani, comprises clothes, sandals, brooches, tweezers, beads, helmets, shields, shield bosses, breastplates, coats of mail, buckles, sword-belts, sword-sheaths, 100 swords, 500 spears, 30 axes, 40 awls, 100 arrows, SO knives, various articles of horse gear, w^ooden rakes, mallets, vessels, wheels, pottery, coins, etc. Without a single exception, all the weapons and cutting implements are made of iron, though bronze was freely used for brooches and other smiilar articles.* In tlie summer of 1862, M. Engelhardt found in the same field a ship, or rather a large flat-bottomed boat, seventy feet in length, three feet deep in the middle, and eight or nine feet wide. The sides are of oak boards, overlapping one another, and fastened together by iron bolts. On the inner side of each board are several projections, which are not made from separate pieces, but were left when the boards were cut out of the solid timber. Each of these projections has two small holes, through which ropes, made of the inner bark of trees, were passed, in order to fasten the sides of the boat to the ribs. The rowlocks are formed by a projecting horn of wood, under which is an orifice, so that a rope, fastened to the horn and passing through the orifice, leaves a space through which the oar played. There appear to have been about fifty pairs of oars, of which sixteen have already been discovered. The bottom of the boat was covered by matting. I visited the spot about a week after the boat had been discovered, but was unable to see much of it, as it had been taken to pieces, and the boards, etc., w'ere covered over with straw and peat, that they might dry * See Lubbock in Nat. Hist. ing this interesting spot witli M. Eev., Oct. 1863, and Stephens in Engelhardt in 1862. See also Gent. Mag., Dec. 1863. On one of " Denmark in the Early Iron Age," the arrows were some Rmiic char- by C. Engelhardt. acters. I liad the pleasure of visit- lEOX IN NORTHERN EUROPE. 11 slowly. In this manner, M. Engelhardt hoped that they would perhaps, at least in part, retain their original shape. The freight of the boat consisted of iron axes, including a socketed celt with its handle, swords, lances, knives, brooches, whetstones, wooden vessels, and, oddly enough, two birch brooms, with many smaller articles. Only those, however, have yet been found which remained actually in the boat ; and, as in sinking, it turned partly over on its side, no doubt many more articles will reward further explorations. It is evident that this ancient boat was sunk on purpose, because there is a square hole about six inches in diameter hewn out of the bottom ; and it has been suggested that these objects were sunk as offerings to the Lake, but, on the whole, it seems more probable that in some time of panic or danger the objects contained in it were thus hidden by their owner, who was never able to recover them. Even in recent times of dis- turbance, as, for instance, in the beginning of this century, and in 1848, many arms, ornaments, household utensils, etc., were so effectually hidden in the lakes and peat mosses, that they could never be found again. Much interest is added to this vessel and its contents, by the fact that we can fix almost their exact date. The boat lies, as I have already mentioned, within a few yards of the spot where the previous discoveries at Nydam were made, and as all the arms and ornaments exactly correspond, there can be little doubt that they belong to the same period. Now, the previous collection included nearly fifty Eoman coins, ranging in date from ad. 67 to A.D. 217, and we cannot therefore be far wrong in referring these remains to the third century, A very similar discovery has been made at Thorsbjerg in the same neighbourhood, but in this case, owing to some chemical difference in the peat, the iron has been almost entirely removed. It may naturally be asked why, then, this should be quoted as an instance of the Iron Age ? And the 12 H!ON IN NORTHERN EUROPE. iuiswor seems quite salisfactory. All the swords, lance-heads, and axe-bl;ules have disappeared, while the handles of bronze or wood are perfectly preserved, and as the ornaments and ot.her oltjects of bronze are well preserved, it is evident that the swords, etc., were not of that metal ; and it is therefore reasonable to conclude that they were of iron, more especially Fi". 1. ri ■* . N j;^ •S3AIU3 (M T^i Cs O M iH ri M •S3XV "It-'V'X •siogfqo J3V0 o 'M C: O -/5 l:: :^ CC *l o c: t» o r^ ^ c ic r^ CO ^ CO ^ -^ -<* Om t-l CO c 1 5 ^ "^ c-i ^ •sa^iBi.i o o o o c o o o •BMOJJV ir^ o o . •88XV O O O CO CO -3 & S ■73 - « s > to O W THE BEONZE AGE. 17 Col. Schwab's splendid collection from Nidau tells the same tale. When I saw it he had only 33 stone axes, and yet as many as 335 corn-crushers. The ruder articles of stone he had not apparently collected. He had nearly 200 spindle-whorls, and many earthenware rings, specimens of which have also been found at Morges, but which are entirely wanting at the Pont de Thiele, at Wauwyl, at Moosseedorf, and at Wangen. It is, of course, possiljle that very different states of civi- lization may co-exist in different parts of the same country; but in this case we must remember that the settlement at Nidau is only about fifteen miles from Moosseedorf. Nor can we suppose that the differences were merely a question of wealth ; the bronze fisli-liooks, axes, small rings, pins, etc., which are found in such large numbers, show that bronze was used not for the articles of luxury only, but also for the ordinary implements of daily life. Nor is it only in the presence or absence of bronze that the Lake-dwellings differ from one another ; there are many •other indications of progress. We cannot expect to find much evidence of this in the implements of bone or stone ; but, as has already been mentioned, the better forms of stone axe, and those which are perforated, are very rare, if not altogether absent, in the Stone Age, none having Ijeen found •at the Pont de Thiele, at Moosseedorf, or at Wauwyl, and ■only two at Wangen. Again, it is not only by the mere presence of l»ronze, but by the numljer, beauty, and variety of the articles made out ' •of it, that we are so much struck. In a collection of olijects made at any of the Stone Age settlements, no one can fail to remark the uniformity which prevails. The wants of the artificers seem to have l)een few and simple. In the Bronze Age all this is altered. We find not only axes, arrows, and knives, but, in addition, swords, lances, sickles, ear-rings, bracelets, pins, rings, and a variety of other articles. The B 18 THE BRONZE AGE. list on page 16 gives an idea of tlie objects found in some of tlie Swiss Lake settlements, whilst the nnmljer of Ijronze objects found in the lakes of IMenne and Neufchatel alone exceeds 20,000. As regards France, M. Chantre gave the following numbers: — Celts, 9153; swords and daggers, 727 ; lances, 513 ; knives, 342 ; sickles, 225 ; pins, 1220 ; needles, 204; bracelets, 1086; rings and chains, 1572; arrow-heads, 213; hammers, 23; anvils, 5 ; chisels, 58; gouges, 31; razors, 62 ; saws, 8 ; hooks, 172 ; moulds, 74 ; and a variety of other articles, making altogether no less than 20,000 objects, since which time many more have been discovered. The bronze objects, therefore, evidently cannot be regarded as mere isolated and exceptional specimens, l)ut represent a special and somewhat advanced phase of civilization. The pottery also shows a considerable advance. The potter's wheel indeed seems to have been unknown during both the Bronze and Stone Ages, l3ut the material of which the Stone Age pottery is composed is rough,* containing large grains of quartz, while that used during the Bronze Age is more carefully prepared. The ornaments of the two periods show also a great contrast. In the Stone Age they consist of impressions made by the nail or the finger, and sometimes by a cord twisted round the soft clay. The lines are all straight, or if curved are very irregular and badly drawn. In the Bronze Age all the patterns present in the Stone Age are continued, but in addition we find circles and spirals; while imitations of animals and plants are charac- teristic of the Iron Age. So again the distinction between the Bronze and Iron Ages rests by no means merely on the presence of iron. The * The extreme coarseness of the the vessels found in tumuli of the Swiss Lake pottery is, perhaps, Stone Age, the material was often jiartly owing to its ha\dng been more carefully prepared, intended for kitchen purposes ; for BKONZE WEAPONS NOT OF ROMAN ORIGIN. 19 pottery is different, the forms of the implements and weapons are different, the ornamentation is different, the knowledge of metallurgy was more advanced, silver and lead were in use, letters had been invented, coins had been struck. The entire absence of silver, of coins, and of inscriptions, in the bronze finds, is very remarkable. This class of evidence is by no means confined to the Swiss lake discoveries. In various parts of Europe more or less extensive deposits of bronze implements have been found. They may he divided into two principal classes — (1) treasures, which were hidden away by their owners and never recovered, and (2) founders' stocks. The former consist of implements, weapons, and ornaments, entire, and often almost new ; the latter principally of worn and broken objects, often with lumps of rude metal. In the table given on page 16 I have given two of these finds, one (Eeallon) a treasure, the other (Larnaud) a founder's stock. These finds are particularly instructive, because the objects contained in them are evidently contemporaneous. It will be seen from the lists on pp. 16, 18, 25, and 38 that the numbers of bronze objects are very considerable ; indeed, for France and Switzer- land alone they amount to between 30,000 and 40,000, and the number is continually increasing.* The value of this evidence will be better appreciated after reading the following extract from Air. Wright's Essays on Archaeology : -f " All the sites of ruined Koman towns with which I am acquainted present to the excavator a numerous collection of objects, ranging through a period which ends abruptly with what we call the close of the Roman period, and attended witli circumstances which cannot leave any doubt that this was the period of destruction. Otherwise, surely we should * Chantre, Age du Bronze, vol. ii. t Essays on Archajology, p. 105. p. 275. 20 BRONZE WEAPONS NOT OK ROMAN OKKHN. timl S(.nio objoots wliicli would remind lis of the subsequent jierictds. I will only nienlion one class of articles which are generally found in considerable numbers, the coins. "We in- variably find these presenting a more or less complete series of Koman coins, ending at latest with the emperors who reigned in the first half of the fifth century. This is not the ease with Eoman towns which have continued to exist after that period, for then, on the contrary, we find relics which speak of the subsequent inhabitants, early Saxon and Mediaeval. I will only, for want of space, give one example, that of Pdchborough, in Kent. The town of Ptutupise seems to have capitulated with the Saxon invaders, and to have continued until its inhabitants, in consequence of the retreat of the sea, gradually abandoned it to establish themselves at Sandwich. Now the coins found at Eichljorough do not end with those of the Eoman emperors, but we find, first, a great quantity of those singular little coins which are generally known by the name mmimi, and which, presenting very bad imitations of the Eoman coinage, are considered as belonging to the age immediately following the Eoman period, and preceding that of the Saxon coinage." We may assume, then, on the authority of ]\Ir. Wright him- self, that if all the bronze arms which are so abundant in our museums were really of Eoman origm, many of them would have been found from time to time in conjunction with other Eoman remains ; whereas bronze weapons are never found in a&sociation with coins, pottery, or other relics of Eoman origin. Elsewhere, indeed, he has called this fact in question, but in spite of his profound acquaintance with archaeological literature, he has only been aljle to Ijring forward three cases in support of his argument, not one of which appears to me to be satisfactory. For a full statement of his views I must refer to his Memoir on Bronze "Weapons, in the Transactions of the Ethnological BRONZE WEAPONS NOT OF ROMAN ORIGIN. 21 Society * which, in conjunction with my brother Frederic, I have endeavoured to answer before the same learned body.-f I will, however, refer to the only three cases which Mr. Wright has been able to discover. The first is that of the bronze sword figured in Stuart's Caledonia Eomana, PL V. " This sword," says Mr. Wright, " is stated to have been found at the Eoman station of Ardoch, in Scotland, on the wall of Antoninus, and there appears no reason to doubt the statement." In truth, however, there is no such statement ; Mr. Wright has been misled by the fact that the sword is figured on the same plate with some Eoman remains from Ardoch. The second case quoted by Mr. Wright is that of a sword described by Mongez liefore the French Institute, on the " 16th Prairial, An. 9," i.e., 5th June 1801. It is stated to have been found in a peat-moss at Heilly, near Abbeville, with the skeletons of a man and a horse, and four coins of the Emperor Caracalla. " This sword, therefore," says Mr. Wright, " was that of a Eoman cavalry soldier, not older, and perhaps a little later, than this reign, who had sunk in the bog to which this turbary had succeeded." Mongez, on the contrary, concluded that the skeleton could not have been that of a cavalry soldier at all, because a cavalry soldier would not have been armed with a short sword ; and so far from regarding the sword as Eoman, " On ne pourroit," he says, " egalement pas I'attribuer aux Eomains, si Ton ne raisonnoit que d'apres la matiere dont elle est f aite." I And in the next page he adds, " We are therefore certain, that after the second Punic war the Eoman swortls were made of iron." § * Transactions of the Etlmologi- § "Nous voila done certains que cal Soc, N.S. vol. iv. p. 176. I'epee des Eomains, depuis la se- t Ditto, N.S. vol. V. p. 10.^. conde guerre Puuique, fut fabriquee I Loc. cit. p. 193. en fer," p. 194. 22 GEOGHAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF BRONZE WEAPONS. It is true that five months later he changed his mind, and (.'anie to the conchision that, after all, the bronze swords were Konian, bnt I cannot consider that much weight slu»uld be attached to this opinion, which was in dii-ect opposition to that which he entertained a few months previously. Finally, Mr. Wright cites an instance of a bronze sword found with some Eoman coins of Maxentius, w'ho reigned from 306 to 312 a.d. This sword was discovered in a turbary at Piquiguy, near Abbeville, in a large boat, which it would seem had been sunk, and in which were several skeletons. The reason for referring this bronze sword to the Eoman epoch was the presence in this case, as in the last, of Eoman coins. But it is somewhat remarkable that the antiquaries who recorded the discovery attributed so little importance to the presence of these coins that they did not in either case take the trouble to specify the exact position which these occupied with reference to the bronze weapons ; in fact they only mention the coins casually, and as it were by an after- thought, in a foot-note. I may be pardoned, then, if T do not myself look upon them as being certainly of the same date as the weapons near which they are^- said to have been discovered. But even if it be admitted that in these two ca.ses bronze weapons were actually discovered near some Eoman coins, still, when we consider the great abundance of Eoman coins on the one hand, and of bronze weapons on the other, we cannot be surprised that there should be one or two cases in which they have been found associated together. Again, the geogi'aphical distribution of bronze weapons and implements does not favour such a theory. The Eomans never entered Denmark; it is doubtful whether they ever landed in Ireland; no Eoman road, masonry, or earthwork has ever been found there. Yet while more than 350 bronze SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT. 23 swords have been found in Denmark * more than 400 in France, and a very large number in Ireland,-]- the Italian museums only contain about 50. Indeed, tlie rich museums at Florence, Eome, and Naples do not appear to possess a single specimen of those typical, leaf-shaped bronze swords, which are, comparatively speaking, so common in the North. That the bronze swords should have been introduced into Denmark by a people who never occupied that country, and from a part of Europe in which they are very rare, is, I think, a most untenable hypothesis. I may add that no swords or celts of bronze have been found in the excavations at Pompeii.;]: Moreover, the use of the word " ferrum" (iron) as synony- mous with a sword, clearly proves that the Eoman swords were made of that metal. I have already mentioned that silver and lead do not occur in Bronze Age finds, that coins and letters are equally absent, and that the ornamentation of the Bronze Age, though some- times very beautiful, is not of a Eoman character. Lastly, the bronze which was so largely used by the Eomans for ornaments, etc., was composed partly of lead, whereas that of the Bronze Age consists of copper and tin only. Other metals, indeed, such as iron, silver, nickel, and lead itself, are present ; but in small quantities, not having been purposely introduced, but only occurring as impurities. In Plutarch's Essay on the Pythian Eesponses, Philinus describes certain ancient bronze statues which were of a peculiar colour, and says : Was " there then some mode * If daggers are inchided the tioned by Mr. Wright, who j)ointed nvimber would reach nearly 1200, out that two bronze celts in the and 480 for Sweden. — Chantre, Age museum at Naples have been du Bronze, vol. i. p. 134. figured and described as coming t The Museum at Dublin con- from Pompeii. During a visit to tains 282 swords and daggers ; the Naples, I looked out these celts, number of swords is not stated and found that they did not come separately. from Poanpeii, but from an ancient X This statement has been ques- tomb in Magna Greecia. 24 URONZE WEAPONS NOT SAXON. of ulloyiii^i,' iiiul preparing the bronze used by the ancient iirtiticei-s, like the traditional tempering of swords, which process being lost, bronze obtained exemption from warlike employment"?* The reasons, then, which satisfy me that our bronze weapons cannot be referred to Koman times, may be summed up as follows: — Firstly. They have never been found in company with Koman pottery, or other remains of the lionian period. Secondly. They are very abundant in some countries, as, for instance, in Denmark and Ireland, which were never invaded by Eoman armies. Thirdly. The bronze swords do not resemlile in form those used l)y Roman soldiers. Fourthly. The Lathi word " ferruni " was used as synony- mous with a sword, showing that the Eomans always used u'on. Fiftlily. The ornamentation is not Eoman in its cliaracter. Sixthly. The Ijrouze used by the Eomans contained, gener- ally, a large proportion of lead, which is never the case in that of the Bronze Age. Nor is there any subsequent period to which we can refer the weapons and implements of bronze. Great numbers of iSaxon interments have been examined both in this country and on the Continent, and we know that the swords, lances, knives, and other weapons of that time were all of iron. Besides this, if the Ijronze implements and weapons had belonged to post-Eoman times, we should certainly, I think, have found some of them in the ruined towns, and with the pottery and coins of that period. Moreover, the similarity to each other of the weapons found in very distant parts of Europe, implies more extended intercourse between different countries than any which existed in those centuries. On the * Plutarch. On the Pjiihian Responses. HALLSTADT. 25 o s o kO 03 & rt< CO o f:^ i 00 o a e8 B A o «D S r-l » cjiS ^ B B u a V OI 5o •S8At!.I£) am JO 'Okl ■S3AH,I{) ai[} JO "OSJ lavisnvH 26 HALLSTADT. whole, then, tho evukMice is conclusive that the use of bronze weapons characterizes a particular phase in the history of Eurojiean i-ivilizatiou, and one which was anterior to the iliscuvery of iron, or, at any rate, to the general use of that metal for cutting purposes. Tt is, moreover, I think, clearly established that the use of iron N\as general throughout Northern Europe long before the invasion of Ctesar. Evidently, however, the transition from the use of bronze weapons to those of iron must have been gradual, and there must have lieen a time when the two were in use together. M. Eamsauer, for many years director of the salt-mines at Hallstadt, near Salzburg, in Austria, has discovered an exten- sive cemetery belonging to this transitional period. He has opened no less than 980 graves, evidently of those who even at that early period worked the salt-mines which are still so celebrated. The objects discovered are described and figured in an all)um, which has unfortunately never been published, but of which Mr. (now Sir John) Evans and I secured a copy. The foregoing table will sufficiently prove the import- ance of the discovery. That the period to which these graves belonged was that of the transition between the Bronze and Iron Ages, is evident; both because we find cutting instruments of ii'on as well as of bronze, and also because both are of somewhat unusual, and we may almost say of intermediate types. The same remark applies to the ornamentation. Animals are frequently represented, but are very poorly executed, while the geometrical patterns are well drawn. Coins are entirely absent. That the transition was from bronze to iron, and not from iron to bronze, is clear ; because here, as elsewhere, while iron instruments with bronze handles are common, tliere is not a single case of a bronze blade w^th an iron handle. This shows that, when Ijoth metals were in use, the HALLSTADT. 27 roil was preferred for blades. Another interesting point in the Hallstadt bronze, as in that of the true Bronze Age, is the absence of silver, lead, and zinc (excepting, of course, as mere impurities in the bronze). This is the more significant, inasmuch as the presence, not only of the tin itself, Ijut also of glass, amber, and ivory, indicates the existence of an extensive commerce. Moreover, as Morlot well pointed out, the absence of silver cannot Ije accidental, because the bronze of Hallstadt contains no lead, and the absence of lead entails that of silver, since the latter could not, at least in Europe, be obtained without the former.* * For further information on tlie Bronze Imialements of Gt. Britain subject of this chapter, I may refer to and Ireland," which has ajjijeared Sir John Evans' admirable "Ancient since the 4th edition of this work. ( 28 ) CHAPTER 11. ON THE USE OF BRONZE IN ANCIENT TIMES. niHE commonest and, perhaps, most characteristic objects J- Itelctnging to the Bronze Age are the co-called " celts " (figs. 4-lG), which were probably used for chisels, hoes, war- axes, and a variety of other purposes. Implements similar, though not identical, and made of iron instead of bronze, are even now employed in Siberia (fig. 10) and some parts of Africa.* The French Museums contain more than 10,000 bronze celts. More than two thousand are known to exist in the different Irish collections, of which the great Museum be- longuig to the Eoyal Irish Academy at Dublin contained in the year 1860 no less than six hundred and eighty-eightt no two of uhich were cast in the same mould. They vary in size from an inch to a foot in length, and may be divided into tluree principal classes (figs. 7-9) according to the manner hi which they were handled ; though we must remember that there were many intermediate forms. The fii-st chiss (figs. 4, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15, and 18) is the simplest in form, and is considered by some antiquaries (as, for instance, l»y Sir W. E. WildeJ) to be the oldest, partly because they are " evidently formed on the type of the old stone celts " * Klemm's Culturgeschichte der are more than 100, at Copenhagen Meuschen, vol. iii. p. 160. Horai 350. Ferale.s, p. 77. + Cat. Irish Acad., p. 361. t In the Museum at Edinburgh ^LATE L] [p. 2i For description of figures vide p. xx. It: It] [p. 2H 19 3 - 1 t / ■'. '^'y^ ((A For description of tiguret- ovfn pp. xx, xxi. BRONZE CELTS, 29 (conf. figs. 11 and 18 with figs. 19 and 104), partly because some of them (nearly thirty, for instance, in the Dublin Museum) are of red, almost unalloyed, copper, and are " almost the only antique implements of any kind formed out of " this metal, and partly because the copper ones at least are always unornamented. On the otlier hand, the simplicity of form exhibited by the copper axes, which may be observed in those from other countries as well as from Ireland, is perhaps to be accounted for by the great difficulty of casting copper, so that the founders, when dealing with that metal, would naturally confine themselves to the simpler forms. There can he little doubt that these simple celts were handled in the manner indicated (fig. 7). Fig. 20 represents a modern African axe in my collection. Here, indeed, the blade is of iron. Fig. 20. Modern African Axe. Evidently, however, in such an axe the blade would tend to split the handle in which it was placed. To remedy this defect, a stop, or ridge, was raised across the celt, and the metal and wood were made to fit into one another (figs. 5 and 8). This second form of celt is known as a Paalstab, or Paalstave, and has often a small loop on one side (which was proljably used to attach the celt to the handle by a cord, (is indicated in the figure), and a wing on each side. A still further improvement consisted (figs. G, 9, 16) in reversing the 30 BRONZE SWORDS. pusiliou i)f the metal ami the handle, making the axe hollow nt one end, and so passing the handle into it. Bronze celts are generally plain, but often ornamented with ridges, dots, or lines, as in figs. 6, 9, 13, 15, and 16. That they were made in the countries where they are found is proved by the presence of moulds (fig. 12), It is difficult to undei*stand why the celt-makers never cast their axes as we do ours, w"ith a transverse hole, through which the handle might pass. No bronze implement of this description has, however, so far as I know, been yet found in Great Britain, though a few have occurred in Denmark, where they are of gi-eat beauty and highly decorated. The swords of the Bronze Age (figs. 22-29 *) are more or less leaf-like in shape, double-edged, sharp-pointed, and in- tended for stabbing and thrusting rather than for cutting. This is evident, not only from the general shape, but also from the condition of the edges. They never have any hand-guards: the handles are sometimes solid (figs. 25-31); this is generally the case with those found in Denmark : sometimes (figs. 22-24) flat, thin, and evidently intended to be plated with wood or bone : while sometimes the sword expands at its base, and is fastened to a handle by from two to four rivets. Swords of this class are generally shorter than the others, and indeed we find every intermediate form between the true sword and the dagger (figs, 32, 33, 34) ; of the two classes together, the Dublin Museum contains nearly 300. The handles of the bronze swords are very short, and could not have been held comfortably by hands as large as ours, a characteristic much relied on by those who attribute the introduction of bronze into Europe to a people of Asiatic origin. The Museum at Copenhagen contains more than 350 bronze swords. * In Fig. 21 an ancient iron sword is represented, in order to show the difference in form. PLATE III.] SWORDS. 21. IRON. 22-26. BRONZE. 21 iill u 24 For description of figures vide p. xxi. i;i;(>\/K SWOKI'S ANP HAGGERS. U'- ol 30 31 33 32 For description of tlj^ures vide p. xxi. BRONZE SPEARS. • 31 The next classes of bronze objects are the heads of spears. (figs. 35, 36), javelins, and arrows; two hundred and seventy- six of which are in the Dublin Museum ; in length they vary from two feet and a half to an inch, and their shapes are also very various; but it is unnecessary to describe them in detail, because" they are repeated in similar weapons of all ages, countries, and materials. Bronze arrows, however, are not very common in Northern Europe, probably because flint was so much cheaper, and almost as effective. More than a hundred bronze fish-liooks have been found at Nidau in the Lake of Bienne, but elsewhere they appear to be rare ; the Museum at Dublin contains only one. Sicldcs are more numerous ; at Copenhagen there are twenty-five, at Dublin eleven; in the lake-village at Morges eleven have been found, at Nidau eighteen ; they are generally about six inches in length, fiat on one side, and raised on the other ; they were always intended to be held in the right hand. Bronze knives (figs. 37, 38, 40, 41) are frequently found in the Danish tumuli, and among the remains of the Swiss lake habitations ; twenty, for instance, at Morges, twenty-six at Estavayer, and about a hundred at Nidau ; in Ireland they appear to be very rare ; the Dublin Museum does not contain one. They were generally fitted into handles of bone, horn, or wood, and the blade was almost always more or less curved ; those of iron knives, on the contrary, being generally straight. Fig. 48 represents a bronze knife figured in Lee's transla- tion of Keller, page 276,* and said to have been found at Thebes by Sir Gardner Wilkinson. The type, however, is not Egyptian. It is just possible that the knife may have * See also for Egyptian Bronze a I'Hist. Prim, de rHomme, 1869, implements and weapons, Mr. A. p. 376. Arcelin's paper in the Mater, p. Ser. 32 BROX/.E KNIVES. been carried to tliat country in ancient times, but it seems more probable that there is an error as to the locality. The small bronze razor knives (figs. 42-45), indeed, have straight edges, but they are quite of a different character from the iron knives : from the ornaments engraved on them, 1 am disposed to regard them as belonging to a late period in the Age of Bronze, if not in some cases to the beginning of that of Iron. Indeed, the Flensborg Museum contains a razor-knife, said to have been found together with objects of the latter metal. A somewhat similar pattern occurs on the knife fig. 30, which, from the human figure forming the handle, I should also refer to the Iron Age. Ornaments of bronze do not, like the weapons of that metal, characterize a definite period, but may belong to any age. Some forms have maintained themselves almost un- changed for ages. "The safety-pin/' for instance, was in- vented in the Bronze Age. Before, therefore, we refer any particular ornament to this period, we must know the cu'cum- stances under which it was found. The following illustra- tions are, however, principally from the Swiss lake-villages, and may be regarded as belonging to the Bronze Age. The personal ornaments which may, I think, safely be referred to the Bronze Age, consist principally of bracelets (figs. 49, 50), pins (figs. 51-54), and rings. The bracelets are either simple spirals, or rings open at one side, and decorated by those combinations of straight and curved lines so charac- teristic of the Bronze Age. Like the weapons, they generally indicate small hands, but, like the Ijronze ornaments of various existing savages — for instance, of many Negro tribes, of the Khonds in Orissa, etc. — they are often extremely heavy. Bronze pins are very abundant : for instance, 239 from Estavayer, 600 from Xidau, and more than 6000 from the two lakes of Bienne and Neufchatel.* They are also very * See Appendix. PLATE v.] BRONZE SPEARHEADS AND KNIVES. [p 32. 37 fctte^w 'C?i> For description of figures vitie p. xxii. '/.) 42 4p) [/-. 3^ 44 47 For description of figures vide p. xxii. BRONZE ORNAMENTS. 33 ■frequeutly found in graves, where they were used, as pointed out by Sir 11. C. Hoare, to secure the linen cloth which ■enveloped the bones. Although brooches of bronze are very ■common, they have generally been found in conjunction with iron, and during the Bronze Age their place seems to have been generally filled by mere pins. Many of the latter articles found in the Swiss lakes appear, however, to have been hairpins. Some of them are nearly a foot in length, and two found near Berne even as much as 2ft. 9in. Many •of the pins have large hollow spherical heads, as in figs. 51, 52 ; the others vary so much that it is impossible to give any general description of them. There can be little doubt that these pins really belong to the Bronze Age ; but the fact that similar ones continued in use long after the introduction of iron is equally well established. One of these later bronze pins is represented in fig. 178. Some other small olijects of bronze, including two needles, from the Lake of Neufchatel, are represented in figs. 55-60. Bronze hammers are very rare ; it is probable that stones were used for this purpose. Gouges are more common. Small saws have been discovered in Germany and Denmark, but not, as yet, in Great Britain. Studs or l)uttons, though not very abundant, are found ])oth in Switzerland and Scandinavia.* Brooches were very rare in Western Europe, if; indeed, they had been invented, dur- ing the Bronze Age. No English specimens have l)een dis- covered which can with certainty be referred to this period. Almost the same may be said as regards the Swiss Bronze Age Lake Villages. They are said, on the contrary, to l)e common in Sweden. The earliest form resembled what is now known as a safety pin. Silver, lead,f and zinc appear * Fiutlier inl'oruiation as to the t Lead, however, is ineutioned objects of bronze from Switzerland in the inscriptions of Karnak. See will be found in the chapter on Lepsius, Les inetaux dans les Ins. •Swiss lake habitations. Egypt, p. 58. C 34 THE METALLURGY to have hocu unknown during the Bronze Age. Glass beads were in use, Init no vessels of glass have yet been discovered ; iu the sjime manner there are barbarous tribes now which are well supplied with European beads, but which possess no glass vessels. The weapons and ornaments of the Bronze Age are all cast, and show considerable skill in metallurgy.* Three modes of casting were employed. One was that in a mould,, either of stone or metal. Of course in this case the mould was necessarily in two halves, and the line of junction was generally visible, as iu fig. 61, representing a celt, which has exidently been cast in this manner. This specimen was foinid in Kent, and presented to me by Sir George Dasent. It is clear, however, that such an ol)ject as the knife in fig. 40 could not have been cast in this manner. Neither were the pins, figs. 51-54, for if they had been, the line of junc- tion between the two halves of the mould must have been traceable. Indeed, this mode of casting was evidently unusual. This is proved by the condition of the objects, by the scarcity of moulds, and also by the fact that we seldom find any two bronze objects exactly similar to one another. Thus, out of the six hundred and eighty-eight specimens in the Dublin Museum, no two were cast in the same mould, clearly show- ing that the moulds were not permanent. The second mode of casting was by making a model of the object in wood or some other hard substance, and press- ing it on fine sand, so as to obtain a corresponding hollow. The sand must of course have been contained in two boxes or frames, fitting like the solid moulds one on the other. Oljjects cast in this manner would therefore also show the • See Morlot's interesting me- les nietaux employes dans I'age da moir : " Sur le passage de I'age de Bronze." Copenhague, 1866. la pierre ii I'age du Bronze et sur PLATE viL] BRONZE ORNAMENTS AND OBJECTS. 49 52 56 57 59 ^MiODODCCiC^te 58 60 For description of figures vide p. xxii. OF THE BRONZE AGE. 35 line of junction. The advantage of this method is that sand can easily be worked into the required form, and wooden models were much more easily made than hollow moulds, either of stone or metal. Like the former, however, this method was applicable to very simple castings only. Speci- mens in which the line of junction is not exactly central, or symmetrical, were probably cast in this manner, the model having been pressed into the one mould rather more deeply than into the other. The third method of casting was with wax or wood. In this case, as in the former, a model was made and enclosed in prepared earth, made of some clayey soil mixed probably with cow-dung, or some other inflammable substance, in order that when subjected to heat it might become porous. The frame was then heated until the wax or wood dis- appeared. This mode of casting required fewer instruments, and did not, like the other two methods, involve a line of junction, which was a great advantage, because in the absence of steel the projecting ridge thus produced was very difficult to remove, especially when the objects were ornamented. In one case M. Morlot observed on an object of bronze the mark of a finger, evidently resulting from an impression on the soft wax. Occasionally, again, when the wax was heated carelessly, it burned and left a carbonized film, which of course produced a corresponding mark on the object cast. The use of wax in this manner, though presenting many advantages, does not appear to have been frequent in Great Britain. In some few cases the interiors of Ijronze vessels show the marks of the spatula with which the wax was worked. The evidences of imperfect metallurgical knowledge and appliances are also very interesting. M. Morlot has called attention to a striking instance of this presented by one of the large Schwerin brooches (fig. 62). This was evidently a chef d'muvre, but the intermediate bow connecting the two 30 THE METALLURGY ^'roAt discs luul boon accidentally broken. In order to mend it airain, tho two pieces were put into their proper relative |K«iti.)n. and the broken bow was covered with a layer of wax. The whole was then surrounded with the usual propjiration of clay, etc., the wax was melted out and replaced with bronze. Again, besides the orifice through wliich the bronze was jwured into the mould, it was necessary to leave one or more holes through which the air might escape. The first, being funnel-shaped, was easily removed, but the latter were fre- quently beaten over, as is seen at the top of fig. 63, for with- out steel it was almost impossible to cut them off. Indeed, the smiths of the Bronze Age seem to have been unable to pierce bronze, and the holes for rivets, as in the swords, etc., are cast, and not pierced. Even the ornamentation in circles, spirals, etc., on the bronze objects is mostly cast, and though beautifully drawn, was evidently done with the free hand ; compasses seem there- fore to have been unknown. In some cases, however, the ornamentation appears to have been engraved on the objects themselves. For this purpose short instruments were used, in which there was a much larger proportion of tin than usual. Such implements are very hard, but at the same time very brittle, and therefore not suited for ordinary purposes. Instruments of this character, though rare, have been met with in the great bronze find at Larnaud and elsewhere. On some of the bronze vessels the ornamentation has been produced by hammering. This, however, indicates a consider- able progress in metallurgy. Soldering seems to have been entirely unknown during the lironze Age, and even during the earlier times of the Iron Age. Thus the Hallstadt bronze vessels, when broken, were always riveted together. PLATE vni.] BRONZE CELTS AND BROOCH. U>. 36. 61 62 63 For description of figures vide pp. xxii, xxiii. '■' Ml (tKNAMKNTS. 05 r.7. col, I) (DKNMAKIO. liS, IKON (AFRICA). CO [/'. :i7. 67 68 fVfc&ion "" For description of tigurcs cidt p. xxiii. OF THE BRONZE AGE. 37 I have also figured a group (figs. 64-67) of Irish gold ornaments. The earlier ones probably belong to the Bronze Age; a torque much like fig. 64 formed part of the great Larnaud find, but they appear to have come down to a much later period. The fact is interesting that very similar ornaments, made, however, not of gold, but of iron, are now Fig. 64. Gold Torque. — Ireland. Found near Clonmacnoise. worn by the natives of Africa. One of these is represented in fig. 68.* The ornamentation on the objects of bronze is of a pecu- liar, and at the same time uniform, character ; it consists of simple geometrical patterns, and is formed Ijy combinations of spirals, circles, and zigzag lines ; representations of animals, and plants being very rarely attempted. Even the few ex- * ArchfC'ologia, vol. xliii. p. 442. 38 LIST OF TIROXZE OBJECTS. S s a § •E 8 1 1 a 1 g 8 'a % < O Total. Cflt3 anil Fmgments, 23 7 6 13 1 6 11 67 Swonls 4 4 Hammers, 4 1 5 Enires ami Fragments, . 102 19 14 22 19 8 9 193 Pins 611 53 239 183 237 22 22 1367 Small Rings, . 496 28 115 195 202 14 3 1053 Ear-riugs, 238 42 36 116 3 5 440 Bracelets and Fragments, 55 14 16 21 26 11 2 145 Fish-hooks, . 189 12 43 71 9 2 1 248 Awls 95 3 49 98 17 262 Spiral Wires, . 46 50 5 101 Lance-heads, . 27 7 4 2 5 2 47 Arrow-heads, , . 5 1 6 Buttons, 1 28 10 10 49 Needles, 20 2 3 4 1 30 Various Ornaments, 15 5 7 18 3 1 49 Saws 3 3 Daggers, 2 2 Sickles 18 12 1 2 7 1 4 45 Double-i»ointed Pins, 75 • .. 75 Small Bracelets, 20 11 31 Sundries, 96 3 5 16 4 124 Total, 2004 208 618 835 539 73 69 4346 OENAMENTATION. 39 ■ceptioiis to this rule are perhaps more apparent than real. Thus, two such only are figured in the Catalogue of the Copenhagen Museum ; one is a rude figure of a swan (fig. 37), the other of a man (fig. 39). The second of these forms the handle of a knife, which appears to be straight in the blade, a type characteristic of the Iron Age, but rarely found in that of Bronze. As regards one of them, therefore, there is an independent reason for referring it to the period of transition, or at least to the close of the Bronze Age. There is, indeed, one type of pattern, usually found on the razor- knives, but sometimes also on others, intended probably for a rude representation of a ship (figs. 42-45). Even, however, if we admit this to be the case, and if we accept these objects as belonging to the Bronze Age, this will only show how little advance had yet l^een made in the art of representing natural objects. The foregoing table, which I owe to the kindness of Dr. Keller, and the list given on p. 18, will give an idea of the relative numbers of the different objects. Since it was drawn up the numbers have considerably increased, and the total number of bronze objects recovered from the two lakes of Bienne and Neufchatel alone now exceeds 20,000. Dr. Thurnam gives the following list of the bronze objects found by Sir E. C. Hoare in the Wiltshire tumuli. oknamkntation. Objects of Bronze. With Uiiburnt With Burnt Bodies. Bodies. Total. Celts . ... 4 1 5 Hlftdes of knives, daggers, etc. . 16 44 60 Awls ami drills ... 5 29 34 (.'rutch-headed screws .1 2 3 Uirge pill with rings ... 1 1 Prong with lings ... 1 ... 1 Kivets and pieces of bronze- mounted shield (?) 1 ... 1 liracelet 1 ... 1 Buckle ... ... 1 1 Bead 1 1 Total . . 29 79 108 As already mentioned (ante, p. 19), the bronze objects were e^4deutly in many cases made by travelling pedlars who exchanged new ones for old, or for broken pieces. To save carrying about heavy and precious objects, they often con- cealed part of their stock, and many of their hoards have been discovered, in France alone over 400. There is, I believe, only one case in which any bronze weapon or implement bears an inscription ; a fact which is the more significant when we rememl.ter how often letters are met with on those of iron. Fig. 69 represents this iuter- e^sting specimen, which is a winged celt, and is in the Museum Kircherianum of the Collegio Eomano, at Eome. No explanation of the inscription has yet been given, nor do we even know to what alphabet the letters belong. It was found in the Campagna, but there is unfortunately no record (if the circumstances under which it was discovered. Tlio skill displayed in the manufacture of the objects de- DRESS DURING THE BRONZE AGE. 41 Fig. 69. Inscribed Celt. scribed in this chapter, as well as the beauty of their form and ornamentation, shows a considerable development of art. The discovery of a bar of tin at Esta- vayer, and of a mould for casting celts at Morges, has proved that some at least of these objects were made in Switzer- land, just as evidence of a similar nature shows that other countries in Europe, as, for instance, Denmark, England, Scotland, and Ireland, had also their own foundries. The similarity of form and ornamentation appears also to in- dicate some communication between different parts of Europe ; but each country presents special types ; but as Cornwall, Saxony, and Spain* are the only known European sources from which tin can be obtained in any quantity, the mere presence of bronze is in itself a sufficient evidence not only of metal- lurgical skill, liut also of commercial intercourse. We should hardly, perhaps, have hoped to ascertain much of the manner in which the people of the Bronze Age were dressed. Considering how perishable are the materials out of which clothes are necessarily formed, it is wonderful that any fragments of them should have remained to the present day. There can be little doubt that the skins of animals were extensively used for this purpose, as indeed they have l)een in all ages of man's history ; many traces of linen tissue also have been found in English tumuli of the Bronze Age, and in the Swiss Lakes. Fig. 175 represents a piece of fabric from Kobenhausen in Switzerland ; it belongs, however, in all probability, to the Stone Age. Even a single fragment * Tin is said to have anciently know whether the mines were ex- been obtained in Pannonia, near tensive. See Howorth, Stockholm the modern Temesvar, but I do not Pre-hist. Congress, p. 533. 4J nilKSS DUKlNi; TIIK HIJONZK AGE. siK'li jis this throws much lii^liL on the manufactures, if we may call them so, of the period to wliich it belongs ; but for- tr.natoly we need not content ourselves with any such partial knowlodjje us this, as we possess the wliole dress of a cliief belonging to the Ihonze Age. On a farm near liibe, in Jutland, is a tumulus known as Treenh<»i, which was examined in 1861 by MM. Worsaae and Herbst. It is about fifty ells in diameter and six in height, being composed of a loose sandy earth. In it, near the centre, were found three wooden coffins, tw^o of full size and one evidently intended for a child. The coffin with which we are now particularly concerned was about 9ft. Sin. long and 2ft. 2in. In-oad on the outside ; its internal measure- ments were Tift, long and 1ft. Sin. broad. It was covered by a movable lid of corresponding size. The contents were peculiar and very interesting. "While, as might naturally be expected, we find, in most ancient graves, only the Ijoues and teeth, all the soft parts having long ago decayed away, in some cases — and this was one of them — almost exactly the reverse has happened. Through the action of water, owing perhaps to the fact that it w\as strongly impregnated with iron, the soft parts of the body had been turned into a dark, gi-easy substance ; and the bones, with the exception of a few fragments, were changed into a kind of blue powder. Singidarly enough, the brain seems to have been the part which had undergone least change. On openmg the coffin, it was found lying at one end, where no doubt the head had originally been placed, covered by a thick hemispherical woollen cap, about six inches in height (fig. 70). The outer side of the cap was thickly covered by short loose threads, every one of them ending in a small knot, which gave the f-ap a ver}' .singular appearance. The body of the corpse had been wrapped in a coarse woollen cloak (fig. 73), which was almost semicircular, and hollowed out round the neck. It ITK -Y.l Cl.OTllKS TAKKN FKOM A DANISH TlMrLUS. [p. 71 70 ^ 72 l\[} IM^lHl 74 ( 76 4 For clfscription of figures vpJe pp. xxiii, xxiv, BURIAL DURING THE BRONZE AGE. 43 ^vas about 3ft. Sin. long, and broad in proportion. On its inner ■side were left hanging a great number of short woollen threads, which gave it somewhat the appearance of plush. On the right side of the body was a box, closed by a lid of the same diameter. It was 7|in. in diameter, 6|in. high, and was fastened together by pieces of osier or bark. In this box was a similar smaller one, without a lid, and in this again were three articles, namely, a cap 7in. high, of simply woven woollen stuff (fig. 71); a small comb 3in. long, 2 Jin. high (fig. 72); and a small simple razor-knife. After the cloak and the bark-box had been taken away, two woollen shawls came to view, one of them covering the feet, the other lying nearer to the head. They were of a square shape, rather less than 5ft. long, 3ft. 9in. Ijroad, and with a long fringe (fig. 75). At the place where the body had lain was a shirt (fig. 74), also of woollen material, cut out a little for the neck, and with a long projecting tongue at one of the upper angles. It was fastened at the waist hj a long woollen band, which went twice round the body, and hung down in front. On the left side of the corpse was a bronze sword (fig. 27), in a wooden sheath. It is 2ft. 3in. in length, and has a solid simple handle. At the feet were two pieces of woollen stuff, about 14jiu. long and 3|in. wide (fig. 76), the use of which does not seem c^uite clear, though they may he supposed to have been leggmgs. At the end of the coffin were found traces of leather, doubtless the remains of boots. In the cap, where the head had been, was some black hair, and the form of the brain was still recognizable. Finally, this ancient warrior had been wrapped round in an ox's hide, and so committed to the grave. The other two coffins were not examined by competent persons, and the valuable information which they might have ■afforded was thus lost to us. The more indestructil)le things 44 i;i KiAi, iM i;iM. riiK hronze age. wrre, liowevtM-, jdesorved ; CDnsistiiig nf a sword, a brooch, a knife, a doultlo-iMiiiitod iiwl, a i)air of tweezers, a large double l»utteing of late introduction. The ancient Egyptians and Assyrians were both acquainted with the art of eml)roidery at a very early date.* Leviticus (about 1500 B.C.) mentions garments of linen and wool. riiny attributes the invention of cotton weaving to the reign * See Cole on Ancient Embroideries. Soc. of Arts, Feb. 1895. Also. Yates' Textimum Anticj^uorum. HUT-UKNS. -15 of Semiramis. In one of the wall paintings at Beni-liassan on the Nile (about 2100 B.C.), a figure is represented in a spotted dress — apparently woven with a shuttle. On another tomb at Thebes, a personage is represented in a dress with red and blue spots, which, however, may have been darned on. On a wall painting in the Eamesseum (about 1400 B.C.) an Egyptian being is represented in a dress striped with blue and yellow, while his horse carries a cloth striped with blue, yellow, red and green. Herodotus describes a corselet sent as a present by Amasis to the Greeks as being of linen with " many figures of animals unwrought, and adorned with gold and tree wool." From 1000 B.C. we have actual specimens of embroidery. Finally, the mode of sepulture, though other similar cases ■are on record, is, to say the least, very unusual ; in the age of Iron, indeed, the corpse was generally extended, but in that of Bronze the dead were, with few exceptions, burned, or buried in a contracted attitude. In Denmark, cremation appears to have been almost universal ; in England, I have taken out the statistics of 100 cases of tombs con taming •objects of Ijronze, 37 recorded by Mr. Bateman and 63 by Sir E. C. Hoare ; and the following table shows the manner in which the corpse had been treated. Contracted. Burnt. Extended. Uncertain. Bateman . 15 10 5 7 Hoare . . 4 49 2 8 19 59 7 15 In 100 cases recorded by Mr. Greenwell, all were con- tracted or burnt. We may consider, therefore, that during this period the ■corpse was sometimes, though very rarely, extended on its back, and more frequently it was buried in a sitting or 4 1". IIUT-URNS. on>iU'hin<: position. ;iiul in a small chanibor formed liy large- stoiu's. l>ut that I he most usual practice was to burn the iloail, anil collect the ashes and fragments of bones in or untler an urn. The ancient funeral customs, however, will Ije more fully considered in a subsequent chapter. In the course of his excavations Gen. Pitt Kivers has investigated several small camps belonging to the Bronze Age. They are generally squarish in shape, and now of slight relief, though the ditch was originally from 6 to 10 feet in depth. The people boiled their food with red-hot flints. Tliey were a pastoral people, having cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, and hoi-ses. The cows were small, about the size of the present Kerry breed, standing 3 ft. 5 in. at the shoulder. Larger oxen sometimes occurred, but were not common. The sheep and horse were also small; but the pigs, though slender, were about the average size of modern specimens. There are indications that they cultivated the soil from the prevalence of lines of terrace near the camps, but on this point the BNidence is not conclusive. The camps were no doubt occupied for a long period, and from that day to this objects have been dropped in them, and especially in the ditch. Gen. Pitt Pavers, however, has carefully recorded not only when, but at what depth, every object, even every bit of pottery, was found, and the result is most interesting and instructive. He has also given average sections of the camps and the ditches, showing the position of the relics projected into them. We know as yet very little about the architecture of the Bronze Age. Ptougemont * considers that the Ptound towers belong to that period, but I know no sufficient reason for this opinion. In the next chapter I shall give my reasons for referring some at least of our so-called Druidical remains * L'Age du Bronze, pp. 12, 380. HUT-URNS. 47' to that period, and many of the Swiss lake-villages certainly belong to it. These remains,- indeed, give us little informa- tion as to the kind of houses then in use. Certain " hut- urns," however, or urns in the form of huts, which have been discovered in Italy and Germany, appear to belong to the close of the Bronze Age. The Italian " hut-urns " were discovered in 1817 * at Albano, near Eome, under an un- disturbed layer of peperino or consolidated volcanic ash, and belong, therefore, to a time when the volcanoes near Eome were still in a state of activity. The volume of the Archse- ologia for 1869 contains a full account by Prof. Pigorini. and myself of the numerous vases and other objects found with these hut-urns. The pottery is peculiarly dark and compact, and with it were found several bronze knives. The presence of some fragments of iron, however, appears to show that the huts belong quite to the close of the Bronze Age, or rather to the commencement of that of Iron. The following figure will give an idea of the urns themselves, as well as of the houses they were intended to represent. These cases are not isolated. In the year 1837 Dr. Beyer found near Parchim a somewhat similar hut-urn in a tumulus, which, both from its form and as containing jjronze, is con- sidered Ijy Dr. Lisch as certainly belonging to the Bronze Age.t In 1849 an urn, evidently intended to represent a house Hut-urn. — Albano. * See Lettera del Signer D. A. Visconti sopra alcuni vasi .sepol- clirali ^•in^-enuti nelle vincinaiize della antica Alba-Longa. Roma, 1867. t Ueber die Hausurnen. Sch- •\vcrin, 1856. 48 I'KN-I'IT.S. with a tall straw rnof, was t'ltuinl in a tumulus at Ascliers- lol>on. From its colour ami material Dr. Lisch refers this urn also to \ho l>ronzc Au'e. Thf ]\Ius('um at Munich contahis a very interesting piece of j.H»ttery (tig. 78), apparently intended to represent a Lake- hamlet com]irisin«,' seven small round huts. The huts are arrangeil in throe rows of three each, thus forming three sides of a sipiare. The fourth side is closed by a wall, in the centre of which is an opening leading into a porch, which is represented as being thatched. The platform on which the huts stand is supported by four columns represented as consisting of logs, lying one upon the other. The roofs are unfortun- ately wanting. The sides are ornamented with the double spiral so characteristic of the Bronze Age. In North Germany and Denmark also urns have been discovered somewhat resembling Fig. 78. LJru apparently representing a Luke-dwelling. that in fig. 77. In some cases the "door" is in the roof. Dr. Lisch considers that these last urns are the earliest, and represent a form of dwelling even more ancient than those in which the door is in the side. To me, I confess, it seems more probable that these urns belong to a later period, when the representation of the dwelling was more conventional, and the resemljlance consequently less. Many of the dwellings in use during the Bronze Age were no doubt subterranean or semi-subterranean. On almost all large tracts of uncultivated land ancient villages of this character may still be traced. A pit was dug, generally from PICTS' HOUSES. 49 C to 16 feet in diameter, and the earth which was thrown out formed a circular wall, the whole being then probably covered over with boughs. The " Pen-pits," near Gillingham, in Wiltshire, have been supposed to be of this character, but Gen. Pitt Piivers has clearly shown that they are merely ancient stone quarries. True hut circles, however, occur in many places. In Anglesea a group of such have been well descrilied by the Honourable Owen Stanley.* On Dartmoor and elsewhere, where large Ijlocks of stone abounded, the natives saved themselves the trouljle of ex- cavating, and built up circular walls of stone. In other cases, perhaps when concealment was an object, or for use in severe weather, the dwellings were entkely subterranean. Such ancient dwellings are in Scotland known as " weems," from " XJamha," a cave. In one of thtse, at Monzie, in Perth- shire, a bronze sword was discovered.-]- Such underground chambers, however, appear to have been used in Scotland as dwellings, or at least as places of concealment, down to the time of the Ptomans ; for a weeni described by Lord Eosehill + was constructed partly of stones " showing the diagonal and diamond markings peculiar to Poman workmanship." The so-called Picts' houses, which are so common in the north of Scotland, are Init slightly, and often not at all, sunk beneath the surface, though, being covered with earth, they are scarcely distinguishable externally from the larger tumuli : but on digging into the green mound, it is found to cover a series of large chambers, built generally with stones of consideraljle size and converging towards the centre, where an opening appears to have been left for light and ventilation. * On Remains of the Ancient t Wilson, Pre - Historic Annals Circular Habitations in Holyliead of Scotland, vol. i. p. 104. Island. By the Hon. W. 0. Stanley, J Lord Rosehill, Proc. of the Soc. M.P. ^ of Ant. of Scotland, 1869, p. 109. D 50 r.KKlllVK HOUSES. Tliesi' (litl'ev litiK' t'ldiii luiiiiy of the sul iteiTciuean vveems, I'xceiiliiiy; llmt lliev are erected on the natural surface of the soil, jiiid liave heeu Imried by means of an artificial numnd heaped over them, li may seem improhalde that a lieujik' livin;4 in such rude dwellings should possess a know- ledge of metallurgy, but the Katths and other existing African tribes present us with a similar case. From these we pass naturally to the Ijeehive houses, which are constructed of dry, thick walls ui the form indicated by the name.* No doubt many of these are very ancient, and some probably date from the Age of Stone ; Ijut on the other hand they also come down to the present day, and fig. 79 Fig. 79. Group of Beehive Houses. — Scotland. represents a group in Long Island, on the shore of Loch Eesort, which was inhabited down to the year 1823. Even now some few beehive houses are still occupied in the Island of Uig. The celebrated " Ijrochs" or " burghs" which abound in the north of Scotland, as well as in the Orkneys and Shetland?, are of a very peculiar character. They have been supposed by some to be Scandinavian, but no similar buildings occur in Norway, Sweden, or Denmark. Fig. 80 is from a photograph of the celeljrated Bourg * See Capt. Tlioma.s on Beehive also Petrie, Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot- Hou8^'.s, Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland, land, vol. vii. p. 201. vol. iii. p. 133 ; vol. vii. \>. 153. h'ee ILATE XL] [,,. 50. 80 From a I'lioto. liy Valuiitiiie. The Ultuuh uf Muus«a, Shetland. STAiaUE FORT, KEKKY. 51 of ]\Ioussa, in the Shetlands, the l)est preserved specimen of this curious style of architecture. I visited this most interesthig building in 18G7. It stands close to the sea, on the little Island of Moussa, and may be taken as a typical specimen. They are all circular, about 60 feet in diameter, with walls about 15 feet thick, enclosing a courtyard about 30 feet in diameter. The walls contain a staircase, which leads to the top of the l)uilding, several horizontal galleries, and some small conical chambers, all opening on the inside ; the only external orifice being the door, which is about 7 feet high. The absence of trees and alnmdance of stone probably led to this curious style of architecture. Although, moreover, so archaic in character, these burghs continued in use down to historical times, in fact until the introduction of lime, and Fig. 81. Staigiie Fort. — Kerry. the knowledge of the true principle of the arch enabled the natives to construct buildings of a more modern character ; they are extremely numerous in Caithness, in the Orkneys and the Shetlands ; but this Moussa Burgh is one of the few that are mentioned in history. Torfceus tells us that about the year 1150 Erling carried off the beautiful Margaret, mother of Harold, the then Earl of Orkney, and was besieged in Moussa by Harold, who, however, l>eing unaljle to take the place, at length thought it politic to consent to the marriage. By far the greater number of the burglis are mere ruins, and 52 star; UK fort, kekky. tlie so-i'allotl Dun of 1 )(>ni;uli]l;i, supposed to luive been erected l)y the jincient Scotch King of that name, is the only one whicli is at all as complete as that of Moussa. Whether any «if the liurgJLs are referable to the Bronze Age it is impossible t(i say. It Is remarkalile, however, that in the Island of Sardhiia there are archaic buildings known as " nurhags," which closely resemble the British l»urglis. In a future chapter I shall endeavour to show that Stone- henge and Abury belong to the Bronze Age. Some of the ancient fortifications also probably are of this period, but a large proportion, as well as many of the earthen forts known as Eaths and Duns and the stone forts known as Cashels or Cahii's, as for instance the Staigue Fort, in the county of Kerry, fig. 81, belong in all probability to a much later period. In Sligo alone there are said to be no less than 1800 forts.* * T. R. Irish Soc. of Ant. 189]. J ( 53 ) CHAPTER III. THE BRONZE AGE. THEEE have been four principal theories as to the Bronze Age. According to some archaeologists, the discovery, or introduction, of bronze was unattended by any other great or sudden change in the condition of the people ; but was the result, and is the evidence, of a gradual and peaceable development. Some attribute the bronze arms and imple- ments found in Northern Europe to the Eoman armies, some to Phoenician, some to Etruscan merchants ; while others, again, consider that the men of the Stone Age were replaced by a new and more civilized people of Indo-European race, coming from the East, who, bringing with them a knowledge of bronze, overran Europe, and dispossessed — in some places entirely destroying — the original or rather the earlier in- habitants. M. Wibel * is of opinion that the ancient bronze was obtained, not by the fusion of copper and of tin, but directly from ore containing the two metals. This, I confess, seems to me extremely improbable ; f indeed, I was assured by the late Sir H. H. Vivian (afterwards Lord Swansea) than whom we had no higher authority in this covmtry, that hi his judg- ment it is almost impossible that bronze can ever have been so obtained. I cannot, therefore, l)ut agree with those who * Die Cultur der Bronze-zeit Nord- uud Mittel-Europas. Dr. F. Wibel, Kiel. t See Appendix. 54 slMll.AlilTY OF BHONZE IMPLEMENTS iiiainlain iliai the kiiowK'tlge of bronze iiuist necessarily have lieen precetkHl by the separate use of copper and of tin. Yet no single iniplonicnt of the latter metal has been hitherto found in Eurojie, while those of copper are extremely rare ; Hungary and Ireland, hideed, have been supposed to form partial exceptions to this rule. The geographical position of the former country is probably a sufficient explanation ; and as far as Ireland is concerned, it may be worth while to examine how far that country really forms an exception. In the gi'eat Museum at Dublin there are 725 celts and celt-like chisels, 282 swords and daggers, and 276 lances, javelins, and arrow-heads; yet out of these 1283 weapons, only 30 celts and one sword-blade have been supposed to be of pure copper.* I say " supposed," because they have not been analyzed, but are supposed to be copper only from the " physical properties and ostensible colour of the metal : " indeed one of these very celts, which was actually analyzed by Mr. Mallet, was found to contain a small percentage of tin. It is possible that for some of the purposes to which celts were applied, copper may have been nearly as useful as bronze, and at any rate it might sometimes have happened that, from a deficiency of tin, some implements would be made of copper only. M. De Pulszky has questioned this opinion which was ex- pressed in the earlier editions of this work, on the ground that if the existence of objects of copper were due to the occasional absence of tin, the types of the copper objects ought to be the same as those of bronze. To show that this is not so, he gives the following interesting table of the copper and bronze objects in the Museum at Buda-Pesth : — * One even of these is with good reason considered by Dr. Wilde to Ije an American specimen. IN DIFFERENT COUNTBIES. 55 Coins et haches a rebords . Haches a ailerons Haches a douille .... Ciseaux .... . . Gouges ... . . . Haches, marteaux primitifs et pics de mineurs . . . . . Haches ornementees Epees, poignards, tetes de lances Copper. Bronze. 51 18 1 79 186 37 5 , 74 1 60 3 203 129 589 It will be observed, however, that the types made in copper are the simplest, and this is perhaps due to the fact that it is much more difficult to cast copper than bronze. In the absence of tin, therefore, they would be compelled to content themselves with the simpler forms, and hence perhaps the difference of type. In Spain also copper was no doubt extensively used. Mr. Siret * states that in 2000 objects of the Bronze Age from the south-east of Spain, two-thirds, in round numbers, were of copper, and only one-third of bronze. Moreover, the hatchets halberds, knives and arrow-heads were always in copper. Of the poniards the majority were of copper, but nearly half were bronze ; of the onaments half were of copper, half of bronze ; while the swords, which indeed were not numerous, were all of bronze. The form of these copper implements, however, indicates that they belong to the Bronze Age. Even, however, taking these facts into consideration, Europe does not appear to present any strong evidence of an age of copper ; while no one has ever pretended to find either there, or anywhere else in Europe, a trace of any separate use of * Les Premier.s Ages du Mi'tal dans leSud-Estdel'Espagne, 1888. 56 S1M1LA1;1TY OF HHONZK I.Ml'LKMRNTS. tin.* aiul on tlir wliolt" the ovidence seems to me to indicate tlmL tlio art of niukinjj; lironzo was introduced into, not invented in. Europe. Another circumstance which strongly militates against the tlieory of a gradual and independent development of metal- lurgical knowledge in different countries, is the fact which, I hough perhaps somewhat too strongly stated by Mr. Wright, is substantially correct, that whenever we find the l)ronze swords or celts, " whether in Ireland, in the far west, in Scot- land, in distant Scandinavia, in Germany, or still further east in the Sclavonic countries, they are the same, not similar in character, but identical." The great resemblance to each other of stone implements found in different parts of the world may be satisfactorily accounted for by the similarity of the material, and the simplicity of the forms. But this argument cannot be applied to the bronze arms and imple- ments. Though there are certain differences, yet several varieties of celts found throughout Europe, as well as some of the swords, knives, daggers, etc., are so similar that they seem as if they must have been cast by the same maker. Compare, for instance, figs. 4, 6, and 1.3, which represent Irish celts, with 14, 15, and 16, which are copied from Danish specimens ; the three swords, figs. 22, 23, and 24, which come respec- tively from Ireland, Sweden, and Switzerland, and the two, figs. 25 and 26, of which tlie first is Swiss, the second Scandinavian. It would have been easy to multiply ex- amples of this similarity, and it is not going too far to say that these resemblances cannot Ije the result of accident. On the other hand, it must be admitted that each country has certain minor peculiarities. Neither the form nor the ornaments are exactly similar. In Denmark and Mecklen- burg, spiral ornaments are most common; farther south, * It was sometimes used for pur- course does not affect the present poses of ornamentation, but that of argument. i THE BRONZE AGE AND THE PHCENICIANS. 57 these are replaced by ring ornaments and lines. The Danish swords generally have solid and richly-decorated handles, as ui figs. 25-31, while those found in Great Britain (fig. 22) terminate in a plate which was riveted to pieces of wood or bone. Again, the British lance-heads frequently have loops at the side of the shaft hole, as in fig. 35, which is never the case with Danish specimens. The impurities in the bronze indicate, as was shown in the last chapter, that the copper ore was not all derived from one locality ; and lastly, the discovery of moulds in Ireland, Scotland, England, Switzerland, Denmark, and elsewhere,^ proves that the art of casting in bronze was known and prac- tised in many countries. Under these circumstances, it appears most probable that the knowledge of metal is one of those great discoveries which Europe owes to the East, and that the use of copper was not introduced into our Continent until it had been observed that by the addition of a small quantity of tin it was rendered harder and more valuable. I have already, in the first chapter, given the reasons which have convinced me that the bronze weapons are not of Eoman origin.* M. Wiberg f has recently attempted to show that bronze was introduced into the North by Etrurian merchants ;. but we have not, I think, any evidence that Etruria ever enjoyed so extensive a commerce as that indicated by the great number of bronze objects which have been found in northern and western Europe. We may, therefore, pass on to the views of those who attribute the Bronze Age civilization to the influence of Phoenician commerce, a theory which has been maintained with great ability by Professor Nilsson.J Sir George Corne- * This is now indeed generally, J Skandinaviska Nordens Ur-in- T might say vmiversally, admitted) vanare. Af. S. Nilsson, Stock- liy archajologists. holm, 1862. + Arch. f. Anthrop. 1870, p. 10. 58 ANCIKNI' V0YA(;KS. IIIMILCO. wall Lewis,* «in the oilier liaiitl, while admitting f that Corn- wall was the great scmree ol" tin in ancient times, has entlea- Vdinx'il to prove that this metui found its way " to the nations in the east of the Mediterranean by the overland route across CJaul, and that the Phoenician ships brought it frmu the nioutli of the IJhone, without sailing as far as Britain." He regards, therefore, the accounts of ancient voyages as being in many cases either mythical, or at least exaggerated, but he does not make sufficient allowance for the fact that our knowledge of them is often derived from unfriendly critics or political allusions ; nor need we go further than Sir G. Corne- wall Lewis's own work to show liow authors may suffer liy this mode of treatment. ;[: Take, for instance, the case of Himilco, w^ho was sent during the prosperous times of Carthage to examine the north-western coasts of Europe. His writings have unfortunately perished, and our knowledge of them derived from the " Ora maritima," a geographical poem by Avienus, is thus summed up Ijy Sir G. Cornewall Lewis : " The report of Himilco, that the voyage from Gades to the Tin Islands (i.e. to Cornw^all) occupied at least four months ; and that navigation in these remote waters was impeded by the motionless air, by the abundance of sea- weed, and by the monsters of . the deep — fables which the ancient mariners recounted of unexplored seas — would not be very attractive for the traders of the Carthaginian colonies." This argument is surely very weak, because, if Himilco really did make this voyage, then such voyages were possible ; and, on the other hand, if he did not do so, and if his statements were such mere fables, we may safely assume that the shrewd ■••■ All historical Survey of the quently met with in old Cornish A.stionumy of the Ancients. By minings. the Right Hon. Sir George Corne- % In the long chapter which he wall Lewis, 1862. devoted to the Egyptian Chrono- t Celts, spears, and other objects logy and Hierogh^hics, the name of of lironze have been not unfre- Dr. Young is not once mentioned. HIMILCO. 59 merchants of Carthage would detect the imposition, and would extract the truth, if not from Himilco himself, at any rate from some of those l)y whom he was accompanied. But let that pass : we will examine the four " fables " specially referred to by Sir G. C. Lewis. It is unnecessary to say anything about the " motionless air " ; it would be doing an injustice to Sir G. Cornewall Lewis to suppose that he regarded this as a serious oljjection. It may be an invention, but it is not an improbability. Neither is the time occupied by an exploring* expedition any test of that which would be required for a commercial voyage. Nor need we lay any stress on the statement that Himilco's ves- sels were "impeded" by the monsters of the deep. What Avienus really said was, as Sir G. Cornewall Lewis admits in another passage, that while becalmed and lying in a helpless state, the ships were " surrounded by marine monsters." * It is well known that whales were far more numerous on our coasts in ancient times than they are now ; the great mam- malia of the sea, as well as those of the land, have given way before the overwhelming power of man. But it is unnecessary to urge this hypothesis ; the great monsters of the deep have in all ages appealed strongly to the imagination of mankind, and no poet would fail to allude to them in describing the dangers which beset those " who go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters." The third point alluded to liy Sir (A. Cornewall Lewis, so far from throwing any doubt on the veracity of Himilco, appears rather to be an argument in his favour. His ships, he says, or at least Avienus says for him, were " surrounded by sea- weed." Where was he when this took place ? All that we can say in answer to this question is, that he sailed through the Pillars of Hercules into the Atlantic Ocean, and we know that a few days' sail in this direction would * See Appendix. GO PYTIIEAS. have I.nniu'ht liini to tlie "Mare ili Sargasso,'' a sea which hjis ja-tually taken its name from the quantity of seaweed (Sai-gasso) growing in it. Sir G. C. Lewis says, " The notion itf remote seas being impassable by ships, either from their shoals, or from the ol)stacles to navigation produced liy the semi-tiuid and muddy properties of the water, frequently recui-s among the ancients " ; and it is true, no doubt that, statements of this kind are made by many ancient writers, us, for instance, by Herodotus, Plato, Scylax, and even Aris- totle ; but not one of these writers alludes to " seaweed " as an impediment to navigation, and it can hardly Ije accidental that the only voyager by whom this is referred to was one who sailed on a course which, if persevered in for a few days, would have brought him to that which is even now known as the Sea of Seaweed.* Pytheas (the Humboldt of Antiquity) is another ancient writer whose character has suffered very much at the hands of Sir G. C. Lewis, who, relying on the authority of Polybius and Strabo, does not hesitate to stigmatize him as a menda- cious impostor. Polybius doubts the journeys of Pytheas, because Pytheas was a poor man; but the great travellers and explorers of the present day do not generally belong to our wealthy families. Strabo seems to have been prejudiced against Pytheas, because he i:)rofessed to have visited countries which ought, according to Strabo's theories, to have been uninhabitable. Moreover, we should remember that the first travellers in the North must have seen, and on their return would describe, many things which would appear impos-sible or incomprehensible to dwellers on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean. Sir G. C. Lewis refers specially to * May not the belief in the sunken land, as to any of the other "Atlantis" be as probably owing cattses which are usually as.signed to the " gulf-weed," which would for it ? po naturally suggest the idea of PYTHEAS. 61 four incredible assertions made by Pytheas. First, he is said to have related that "if any person placed iron in a rude state at the mouth of the volcano in the island of Lipari, to- gether with some money, he found on the morrow a sword or a,ny other article which he wanted, in its place." This, how- ever, merely shows that the myth of Valand, Wieland, We- land, or in our popular dialect, Wayland Smith, was current in the Lipari islands at the time of Pytheas.* This myth, moreover, is but a very slightly modified account of what actually has taken place more than once when an ignorant people, living by the side of a more civilized race, and attri- buting their superiority to magical arts, has been anxious to benefit by their necromancy, and yet afraid to come in con- tact with the magicians themselves. Thus " the Veddahs of Ceylon, when they wanted arrows, used to bring some flesh in the night, and hang it up in a smith's shop, also a leaf cut in the form they will have their arrows made, and hang by it ; which if the smith do make according to their pattern, they will acquire and bring him more flesh."-|- If our knowledge of this peculiar mode of barter had been derived from the Veddahs, it would undoubtedly have taken the form of the old European myth. The metallurgists of old, to preserve * On this interesting subject, see by Knox. Speaking of the caves Wright. Archseol. vol. xxxii. p. 315. near Liege, he says: " Ces ouver- + Knox's Historical Relation of tures sont connues des habitats de tlie Island Ceylon. London, 1861. I'endroit sous le nom de Trous des Quoted in the Ethnological Society's Sottais. lis pretendent que jadis Trans, vol. ii. p. 285, N.S. See also ces grottes serv'aient d'habitation a Sir J. E. Tennent's Ceylon, vol. i. uneespecehumained'unetr us petite p. 593. See also for a similar case taille, Sottais, nains, pj'gmees, qui Forbes' account (Notes of a Nat. in y vivaient de leur industrie, et the Eastern Archipelago) of com- restauraient tout ce qu'on deposait merce with the Kubris of Sumatra. pres des ouvertures, a condition qua The Belgian form of the myth as Von y ajoutdt des vivres. En trcs related by Schmerling (Ossements pen de temps ces effets etaient rc- fossiles, vol. i. p. 43) still more pares, et remis a la menie place." closely resembles the account given (ill I'VTIIKAS. llu'ir iiitiiiojMily, i'\ iiU'iilly had a great interest in keeping up this supei-stitution. Sir G. Cornowall Lewis, hi tlie second place, accuses Tytheas of having descrihed the sea round the Lipari islands as being in a hoiling state. But we do not know what his exact words were, and cannot fairly judge him, for it makes a great ditt'erence whether he was repeating a statement made to him, or making one on his own authority. ]\Ioreover, we must remember that there have been submarine eruptions in the Mediterranean, and that the Lipari islands lie between ^loinit Etna and Vesuvius, in the very centre of an active volcanic area. These two mountains, which for the last two thousand years have been more or less frequently in eruption, seem to have enjoyed a long period of rest, during W' hich the Lipari islands served as a vent. It seems to me, therefore, highly proljable that this statement made by Pytheas was a perfectly truthful record of an actual occurrence. The third difficulty is the assertion that round the island of Thule Pytheas saw a sulastance which was neither earth, air, nor water, but a sul)stance resembling meduste or jelly- fishes {irveviJ.ovi OaXaarcrlw eoiAco?), which could neither be passed on foot nor in ships. This passage, which has com- pletely puzzled southern commentators, is justly regarded by Professor Xilsson as a striking evidence of Pytheas's veracity. For when the Northern Ocean freezes, this does not happen as in our ponds or lakes, but small, separate plates of ice are formed, and as soon as this process commences, the fisher- men hurry to the shore, lest they should be caught in the ice, which for some time is too thick to permit the passage of a boat, yet too weak to support the weight of a man. A very similar description is given by Captain Lyon. " "We came," he says, "amongst young ice, m that state called sludge, which resembles in appearance and consistency a far better thing — lemon ice. From this we came to small round PYTHEAS. 63 plates, of about a foot in diameter, which have the appear- ance of the scales of gigantic fishes."* Eichardson also particularly mentions the " circular plates of ice, six or eight inches in diameter." f These discs of ice tossed al)out hy the waves suggested to Professor Nilsson himself, when he first saw them, the idea of a crowd of medusae, and if we imagine a southerner who had never before witnessed such a phenomenon, and who on his return home wished to describe it to his fellow-countrymen, it would have been difficult to find an apter or more ingenious simile. It is, moreover, one which would hardly have occurred to any one who had not v/itnessed the actual phenomenon. " Fourthly," says Sir G. C. Lewis, " Pytheas affirmed that in returning from his great northern voyage, in which he first obtained accounts of the remote island of Thule, he had sailed along the entire coast of the ocean between Gadeira and the 1 anais ; that is, from Cadiz, round Spain, Gaul, Germany, and Scythia, to the river Don, which was considered by the ancients as the boundary of Europe and Asia. This state- ment furnishes an additional proof of the mendacity of Pytheas, because it is founded on the belief, received in his time, that Europe did not project far to the North, and that the Ocean swept along its shores to the north of Scythia and India." Pytheas, however, did not, in reality, lay himself open to any such accusation ; the passage on which Sir G. C. Lewis relies only affirms that after his return from the north [e-Kav^XQwv epOei'Se) he travelled along the whole coast of Europe from Cadiz to the Don. This, which evidently refers to a second journey, is a very different statement, and one which I see no reason to doul)t. According to Geminus, Pytheas in his northern journey reached a place where the nights were only two or three hours long, and he adds that the Barbarians took him to * Lyon's Journal, p. 84. + Arctic Expedition, vol. ii. p. 97. €4 I'lKKNICIAN COLONIES AND COMMERCE. si'i' till' iihicf wlit'ic iIr' sun slrjit. 'i'licsc two statements seem to point to l)(')nn!is as the northernmost pohit of his voyjii^'e. Here the shortest ni^i^ht is two hours long, l)ut hehind the town is a mountain, the to}) of which is the southernmost jxiint from whicli the mi(hiiiilit sun can he seen. The inhabitants took Professor Nilsson here in the year 1816, to show him tlie place where the sun rested, just as their predecessors may have conducted Pytheas to the same spot, for tlie same purpose, more than 2000 years before. On this subject I will only add that Pytheas was no mere wanderer, but a distinguished astronomer, who with the help of the gnomon only, estimated the latitude of Mar- seilles at 43° 17' 8", a calculation which differs merely by a few seconds from the result given by modern astronomers — namely, 43° 17' 52". I have dwelt at some length on this part of my subject, for while we are all anxious to pay due honour to our modern travellers, to Livingstone and Galton, to Speke and Grant, we ought not to forget those who led the way. The memory of great men is a precious legacy, which we cannot afford lightly to surrender, and not the least valuable part of Pro- fessor Nilsson's work on the Bronze Age is the chapter in which he has rescued the memory of Pytheas from the cloud l)y which it has been so long and so unjustly obscured. But even if Sir G. Cornewall Lewis could have established his case, and destroyed our faith in these particular expeditions, stUl there remain overwhelming proofs of an important and extended cominerce in even more ancient times than those of Pytheas or Hirnilco. The evidence of this has been well put together by LJr. Smith,* of Camborne, to whose work I would refer those who may wish for more detailed informa- tion ; for the present I nmst content myself with referring * Tlie Cassiterides, by George Smith, LL.D. PHCENICIAN COLONIES AND COMMERCE. 65 to a few well-kuown facts, which, however, will be sufficieub for my present purpose. We know, then, that Marseilles was founded by the Pho- cean Greeks, B.C. 600 ; Carthage is supposed to have been built by the Phoenicians about 800 B.C. ; and Utica, according to Strabo and Pliny, about 300 years earlier still ; while according to Velleius Paterculus and Pomponius Mela, the city of Gades (Cadiz) was founded by the Tyrians not long after the fall of Troy. Before such facts as these the sup- posed improbability of Pytheas's voyage to Norway falls to the ground. The distance between Cadiz and Phoenicia is more than 2000 miles, and it is greater than that between Cadiz and Norway. Even, therefore, if Pytheas effected all that has been claimed for him, he will not have made a longer voyage than hundreds of his countrymen had done a thousand years before. The above-given dates must not, of course, be considered as exact, but there is no reason to doubt their general accu- racy. Not only do the writings of Hesiod and Homer, which are probably not of a later date than 800 B.C., and most likely somewhat earlier, but even more conclusively the Biblical narrative, and the Assyrian and Egyptian evidence,* show that the nations on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean were at a very early period highly civilized, and had a con- siderable commerce. Indeed, brass, i.e. bronze, is mentioned in the fourth chapter of Genesis, which would be, according to the chronology of the established version, 3875 B.C. The high civilization of Egypt in the time of Joseph is apparent to every reader of the book of Exodus ; and it is certain that long before his time the Egyptians were well acquainted with bronze. When Solomon prepared to build the temple in Jerusalem, he sent to the king of Tyre for cedar-trees out of Lebanon ; " for thou knowest," he said, " that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto * See ante, p. 6. 66 COPPER. tlu' Sidonians" (1 Kiiirrs v. G); and again we read (I.e. vii. i:>, 14) tliat "Xing Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tvre. He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was tilled with wisdom, and nnderstanduig, and cunning to work all works in brass." It is admitted that the word which here, and in so many other passages, is translated •' brass," should rather be " bronze." This latter, which was the common metal of antiquity, is never mentioned in our version, while on the other hand, the alloy which we now term brass, and which is composed of copper and zinc, was not known hi ancient times. Now this bronze, which from the wholly independent state- ments of Homer and in the Book of Kings, as well as from Assyrian and Egyptian records, we find to have been abun- dant in the East at any rate five thousand years ago, was composed of copper and tin, in the proportions of about nine parts of the former to one of the latter; and the question therefore arises, whence were these metals obtained. Copper is found in so many countries that we cannot, as yet, form any definite opinion as to the source, or sources, from which it was first derived. Nevertheless, we have some reason to hope and expect that we shall eventually be able to do so, because the slight impurities by w hich it is accompanied afford a clue to the country from which it was obtained. As regards tin, the case is very different ; although ores of this metal are found in other countries, as for instance in France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Saxony, and in Siberia, still almost all the tin now used is derived either from Cornwall or from the island of Banca, which lies between Sumatra and Borneo. In ancient times a certain amount of tin wa*no doubt obtained in Spain,* but, as Dr. Smith observes,! " the most remarkable * See Iloworth, Trans. Ethn. Soc t The Cassiterides, p. 45. 1£G7, p. 80. See also Appendix. i SUPPOSED TRACES OF PHCENICIAN COMMERCE. 67 feature in tin mining seems to be the enduring character of the mines. Wherever tin has been produced in any consider- able quantities, within the range of authentic history, there it is still abundantly found. In Banca, we are told, the supply is inexhaustible ; and Cornwall can now supply as large a quantity annually as it ever could." The result of inquiries made of the Government Engineers, at the College of Mines in Madrid, is as follows : " I cannot learn that Spain ever produced any quantity of this metal. The Government do not work any mines of tin. The quantity being produced at present is very small, chiefly by streamers ; or rather labourers, while out of their regular employment, search some of the rivers near the granite hills in Galicia and in Zamora. I cannot learn that there is any tin mining in the country." Unless, then, the ancients had some source of tin with which we are unacquainted, it seems to be well established, and is indeed admitted even by Sir G. Cornewall Lewis, that much of the Phoenician tin was derived from Cornwall, and, consequently, that even at this early period a considerable commerce had been organized, and distant countries brought into connection with one another. Sir G. C. Lewis, however, considers that the tin was " carried across Gaul to Massilia, and imported thence into Greece and Italy." Doubtless much of it did in late times come by this route, but the Phoenicians were in the plenitude of their power 1200 years B.C., while Marseilles was not built until 600 B.C. JMoreover, Strabo expressly says that in early times the Phoenicians carried on the tin trade from Cadiz, which we must remember was nearer to Cornwall than to Tyre or Sidon. We are, therefore, surely quite justified in concluding that between B.C. 1500 and B.C. 1200 the Phoenicians were already acquainted with the mineral fields of Spain and Piritain ; and under these circumstances it is, I think, more than probable that tlioy pushed their explorations still farther, in search of (is TlJAfKS or UAAL WOKSHir IN NORTHERN EUROrE. ulluT sliDivs as rich in iiiiiu'ral wealth as ours. The aiuher nlst), so uiiu'h vahu'il in ancieut times, could not have been obtained from the coast of the German Ocean. I'nifessor Xilssou has attempted, as already mentioned, to show that the Phopuicians had settlements far up on the northern shores of Norway. His arguments may be reduced to seven, namely, the small size of the sword-handles, brace- lets, etc.; the cliaracter of the ornaments on the bronze implements ; the engravings in Bronze Age tumuli ; the woi-ship of Baal ; certain peculiar methods of reaping and fishing; and the use of war-chariots. The implements and ornaments of bronze certainly appear to have belonged to a race with smaller hands than those of the present European nations. This indicates an Eastern, but not necessarily a Phoenician origin. The ornaments on them are also peculiar, and have, in Professor Nilsson's opinion, a symbolic meaning. Although the great stones in tumuli attributed to the Bronze Age are very seldom ornamented, or even hewn into shape, still there are some few exceptions ; one of these being the remarkable monument near Kivik in Christianstad. From the general character of the engravings. Professor Nilsson has no hesita- tion in referring this tumulus to the Bronze Age, and on two of the stones are representations of human figures, which may fairly be said to have a Phoenician or Egyptian appearance. On another of the stones an obelisk is represented, which Professor Nilsson regards as symbolical of the Sun-God ; and it is certainly remarkable that, in an ancient ruin in ]\Ialta,* characterized by other decorations of the Bronze Age types, a somewhat similar obelisk was discovered ; we know also * For an account of the ruins of p. 407, or Dr. Adams's Arcliaeol. Hagiar Kern, see Furse, Trans. Int. and Nat. Hist, of the Nile Valley, Congress of Pre-hist. Archaeol. 1868, and the Maltese Islands. OBJECTIONS TO THE PHCENICIAN THEORY. 69 that in many countries Baal, the God of the Phoenicians, was worshipped under the form of a conical stone. Nor is this, by any means, the only case in which Professor Nilsson finds traces of Baal worship in Scandinavia. Indeed, the festival of Baal, or Balder, was, he tells us, celeljrated on Midsummer's night in Scania, and far up into Norway, almost to the Loffoden Islands, until within the last fifty years. A wood fire was made upon a hill or mountain, and the people of the neighbourhood gathered together in order, like Baal's prophets of old, to dance round it, shouting and singing. This Midsummer's-night fire has even retained in some parts the ancient name of " Baldersbaal," or Balders-fire. Leopold von Buch long ago suggested that this custom could not have originated in a country where at Midsummer the sun is never lost sight of, and where, consequently, the smoke only, not the fire, is visible. A similar custom also prevailed until lately in some parts of our islands. Baal has given his name to many Scandinavian localities, as, for instance the Baltic, the Great and Little Belt, Belteberga, Baleshaugen, Balestranden, etc. The ornamentation characteristic of the Bronze Age is, in the opinion of Professor Nilsson, decidedly Semitic rather than Indo-European. He lays considerable stress on two curious " vase-carriages," one found in Sweden and one in Mecklenburg, which certainly appear to have been very like the " vases " made for Solomon's temple, and described in the first Book of Kings. Finally, he believes that the use of war chariots, the practice of reaping close to the ear, and a certaui method of fishing, are all evidences of Phoenician intercourse. Professor Nilsson is so great an authority as an archaeo- logist, and his labours have contributed so much to place the science on a sound basis, that his opinions are deserving of the most careful consideration. Nor can they fairly be judged by the very short abstract which has been given above, as many 70 OBJECTIONS TO THE riI(ENICIAN THEOEY. vi his arguments must I'c fitllowrd in detail liefore tliey can be i>i'operly apprceialed. That the rhoenicians have left their traees in Norway is, however, in my opinion, all that can fairly he deduced from the facts on which he relies, even if we attribute to them all the significance claimed for them by him. Fuither evidence is required before it would be safe to connect them with the Bronze Age. As regards the small- ness of the hands, we must remember that Hindoos share this peculiarity with Egyptians ; this character is therefore not less reconcilable with an Indo-European than with a Phcenician origin of the Bronze Age civilization. There are three strong objections to the theory so aljjy advocated by Professor Nilsson. The first is the character of the ornamentation on the bronze weapons and implements. Tiiis almost always consists of geometrical figures, and we rarely, if evej, find upon them representations of animals or plants ; while on the ornamented shield, etc., described l)y Homer, as well as in the decoration of Solomon's temple, animals and plants were abundantly represented. Secondly, the burial customs of the Phoenicians differed altogether from tliose of the Bronze Age, and although it may be said that those who attribute the presence of bronze in Northern and Western Europe to Phoenician commerce, do not necessarily, on that account, assume that the population of those countries became Phoenician, still in this case the hypothesis explains the presence of bronze, but not the Bronze Age, of which the use of bronze, though the most striking, is by no means the only characteristic. Thirdly, the Phoenicians, so far as we know them, were well acquainted with the use of iron ; in Homer we find the warriors already armed with iron weapons, and the tools used in preparing the materials for Solomon's temple were of this metal. It is very remarkable that scarcely any traces of ancient commerce have been found in Cornwall, and it is much to be regretted that our museums I OBJECTIONS TO THE PHCENICIAN THEORY. 71 possess SO few specimens of Phoenician art. When these wants shall have been supplied, as we may hope that ere long they will be, there is no doubt that much light will be thrown on the subject. Owing to the habit of burning the doad which prevailed at that period, we have, as yet, very few skulls which can safely be referred to the Bronze Age. This is to be regretted, as the form of the skull would have been very instructive. On the whole, then, though there is, I think, ample evi- dence to prove that the general use of bronze weapons and implements characterizes a well-marked epoch in history, it must also be admitted that we have still very much to learn in regard to this interesting phase in the development of European civilization, and the race by whom the knowledge of metals was introduced into our Continent. There can, however, be no doubt that the use of bronze was introduced into Europe by a race of men who came from the East, and whose customs differed much from those of tlie earlier inhabitants. ( 72 ) CHAJTER IV. THE USE OF STONE IN ANCIENT TIMES. rriHE preceding chapters have been devoted to the Age of -L Bronze, We must now pass on to still earlier times and ruder races of men ; to a period which, for obvious reasons, is called by archaeologists the Stone Age.* The Stone Age, however, falls naturally, as has been already stated, into two great divisions. First. That of the Drift, which I have proposed to call the Paleeolithic period. Secondly. The later Stone Age, for which I have sug- gested the term Neolithic, and in which the stone implements are more skilfully made, more varied in form, and often ];olished. AVe will now consider this later period, reserving the earlier for a subsequent chapter. The immense number of stone implements which occur, in all parts of the world, is sufficient evidence of the important part they played in ancient times. M. Herbst has favoured me with the following list of the numbers contained in the Copenhagen Museum : — Flint axes and wedges .... 1070 Broad chisels Hollow ditto Narrow chisels * For further information on the subject of thiis cliapter, I may refer . 285 . 270 . 365 to Sir John Evans's excellent work on " Ancient Stone Implements." THE GKEAT ABUNDANCE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. 73 Hollow chisels Pouicirds ditto Lance-heads .... Arrow-heads Half-moon shaped implements Pierced axes and axe-hammers Flint flakes .... Sundries .... Eough stone implements from the Kjok- kenmoddings ..... Bone implements ..... Ditto from Kjokkenmoddings 33 250 656 171 205 746 300 489 4840 3678 171 109 8798 These figures refer to the year 1864, and if duplicates and broken specimens were counted, M. Herbst thinks that the number would have been between 11,000 and 12,000. He has also had the kindness to estimate Eor me the numbers in private and provincial museums, and, on the whole, he believes we shall be within the mark if we consider that tlie Danish museums contain 30,000 stone implements, to Vvhich, more- over, must be added the rich stores then at Flensborg and Kiel, as well as the very numerous specimens with which the liberality of Danish archaeologists has enriched other countries, for there is scarcely any important collection in Europe which does not possess some illustrations of the Danish stone implements. The museum of the Ptoyal Irish Academy includes (1865) 512 celts, more than 400 arrow-heads, and 50 spear-heads, besides 75 " scrapers," and numerous other objects of stone, such as flakes, slingstones, hammers, whetstones, querns, grain- 74 STONE IMPLEMENTS USED AFTER DISCOVERY OF METAL. cnislu're, etc. Agiiiii, tlie museuiii at Stockholm is estimated to coutjuu between 15,000 and 1G,000 specimens. In addition to those cases in which large numbers of stone implements have been found on spots which were evidently the sites of dwellings or villages, there are many instances in which considerable numbers have been met with under cir- cumstances which show that they were purposely deposited, either hidden away for future use, or perhaps, as Worsaae has maintained,* as offerings to the gods. Thus at Frederickville in Illinois, 3500 disks of flint were found at a depth of about five feet ranged carefully side by side ; in Eoss County, Ohio, 4000 disks and pointed instruments of stone were found near some ancient mounds known as Clark's Work. Yet the very existence of a Stone Age has till lately been denied by some eminent archaeologists. Thus, Mr. Wright, the learned Secretary of the Ethnological Society, while admitting that " there may have been a period when society was in so barbarous a state that sticks or stones were the only implements with which men knew how to furnish them- selves," doubted " if the antiquary has yet found any evidence of such a period." If we consider the difficulties of mining in early days, the rude implements with which men had then to work, their ignorance of the many ingenious methods by which the opera- tions of modern miners are so much facilitated, and, finally, the difficulties of carriage either by land or water, it is obvious that bronze implements must always have been very expen- sive. In addition, moreover, to the a priori probability, there is plenty of du'ect evidence that bronze and stone were in use at the same time. Thus Mr. Bateman records thirty-seven instances of tumuli which contained objects of bronze, and in no less than twenty-nine of these stone implements also were * Met. p. Serv. 1882, p. 131. MATERIALS PREFERRED FOR STONE IMPLEMENTS. 75 found. At the time of the discovery of America, the Mexi- cans, though well acquainted with the use of bronze, still used flakes of obsidian for knives and razors, and even after the introduction of iro7i, stone was still used for various purposes. There can no longer, however, be any doubt not only that there was a period " when society was in so barbarous a state that sticks or stones" (to which we must add horns and bones) " were the only implements with which men knew how to furnish themselves," but also that the antiquary lias found "clear evidence of such a period." Moreover, as already mentioned, the Stone Age falls into two distinct periods, the oldest of which, or Palaeolithic, will be .dealt witli in subsequent chapters. So far as the Neolithic, or more recent Stone Age, is con- cerned, our knowledge is derived principally from four sources, to the consideration of which I propose to devote four separate chapters; namely the Tumuli, or ancient burial- mounds ; the Lake habitations of Switzerland ; the Kjokken- moddings, or shell-mounds, of Denmark ; and the Bone-caves. There are, indeed, many other remains of great interest, such, for example, as the ancient fortifications, the " castles " and " camps " which crown so man}^ of our hill-tops ; and the great lines of embankment, which cross so many of our uplands, such as OfPa's dyke and the Wans-dyke ; there are the so-called Druidical circles and the vestiges of ancient habitations ; the " Hut-circles," " Cloghauns," " Weems," " Pen- pits," " Picts' houses," etc. The majority of these belong, however, in all probability, and many of them certainly, to a later period ; and in the present state of our knowledge, we cannot say which, or how many, are referable to the Stone Age. Flint was the material most commonly used, but every kind of stone, hard and tough enough for the purpose, was 76 JADE. usoil (luring the Stone A}:,'e in the nianufucture of implements. The nuifrnificent collection of celts at Dublin has been specially stuilieil, from a mineralogical point of view, by the llev. S. Ilaughton, and the results are thus recorded by Wilde : * " Of the better qualities of rock suited for celt-making, the type of the felspathic extreme of the series of trap rocks is the pure felstone, or petrosilex, .... of a pale blueisli or greyish green, except where the surface has Ijeen acted upon, and the average composition of which is 25 parts quartz and 75 felspar. Its physical characters are absence of toughness, and the existence of a splintery conchoidal fracture almost as sharp as that of flint. ... At the hornblendic extreme of the trap rocks we tlnd the basalt, of which also celts were made ; tough and heavy, the siliceous varieties ha\'ing a splintery fracture, but never affording so cutting an edge as the former. . . . Intermediate in character between these two rocks we find all the varieties of felstone, slate, and porphyry streaked with hornblende, from which the great majority of the foregoing implements have been made." It is very remarkable how carefully the best kiuds of stone were selected, even when very rare. Of this the most interest- ing example is afforded by the axes, etc., of Jade or Nephrite, of Jadeite and of Saussurite. These minerals are very dis- tinct chemically, Ijut so similar in appearance that they can 01 dy be distinguished by analysis. Objects made from them, though far from common, are not very rare. M. Fischer gives the following table : France. . . 77 . 5.3 Till 1884, no European locality of Jade or Nephrite was * Cafcilogiie of the Roj'al Irish Academy, p. 72. i Jade or Nephrite Jadeite Chloromelanite . German)'. 3 Switzerland, 1118 46 138 17 66 FLINT. 77 known, and though it has now been discovered in Silesia, and described by Traube, yet, as he points out, the European implements do not belong to the same variety, and were not therefore derived from that locality. Mr. Fletcher informs me that neither Jadeite nor Chloromelanite have yet been found native in any part of Europe ;* they must therefore have passed from tribe to tribe by a sort of barter. Again, beads of Callais, another mineral not know^i to occur in Europe, have been found in the tumuli of Brittany and some otlier parts of France. Other facts of a similar nature are on record. Thus Messrs. Squier and Davis tell us that in the tumuli of the Mississippi valley we find "side by side, in the same mounds, native copper from Lake Superior, mica from the Alleghanies, shells from the Gulf, and obsidian (perhaps porphyry) from Mexico." Fair representations of the sea-cow or manatee are found a thousand miles from the shores inhabited by that animal, and shells of the large tropical Pyrula perversa are met with in the tumuli round the great lakes, two thousand miles from home. In Central America thousands of Jadeite implements occur, but no locality for native Jadeite has yet been discovered.-|- On the whole, however, flint was the stone most frequently used in Europe; and it has had a much more important influence on our civilization than is generally supposed. Savages value it on account of its hardness and mode of fracture, which is such that, with practice, a good sound block can be chipped into almost any form that may be required. In many cases, blocks and pebbles of flint, picked up on the surface of the ground, were used in the manufacture of * See Appendix. t Wilson, Proliistoric Art. Suiiilisonian Institution, 1898, p. 459. 7.'^ ANTIEN'T WORKINGS FOR FLINT. iin]>lemonts ; l>ul in others nuuli lalMiur was spent in olitain- intj tiint nf i,'o(hI quality. A good illustration of this is ntVonleil hy the so-called (irinies' Graves, near Brandon, one of which has, hy the kind permission of Mr. Angerstein, been explored by Mr. Greenwell ; * who has shown them to be excavations nicade in the chalk for the purpose of obtaining flint. They are 254 in number, varying hi diaiaeter from 20 to GO feet, placed irregularly, generally about 25 feet apart, and occupying rather more tlian 20 acres. They have been filled up, and are now indicated by shallow depressions, but Mr. Greenwell has proved that the pits originally went down to a depth of about 40 feet, when they branch out into passages, often communicating with one another. On the east side is a mound, apparently consisting of chalk taken from the first pit ; after which it would seem that when a new pit was dug, most of the material was thrown down the old shafts, which were thus filled in, to within a few feet of the siu-face. As usual in the Upper Chalk, the flint is disposed m layers, which differ in quality, while maintaining the same character over considerable areas. It may be remarked that, as Sir AV. Fowler has well pointed out,j- Brandon, " though situated in a bleak and barren dis- trict, has evidently been a place of considerable resort from a very remote period — a ch'cumstance which can only be attributed to the abundance and good quality of the flint found there." Palaeolithic implements abound in the drift gravels ; the surface is strewn with flint flakes and fragments of flint implements ; and at the present time it is the only place in England where gun-flints are still made. For this purpose, one particular layer of flint is found to be peculiarly well adapted, on account of its hardness and fineness of grain ; whUe another layer, less suitable for gun-flints, is known as " wall-stone," being much used for building purposes. Now ♦ TraoB. Ethn. Soc. 1870, p. 419. t Ibid. p. 437. ANCIENT WORKINGS FOR FLINT. 79 it is interesting to find that, even in very early times, the merits of the gun-flint layer were well known and appreci- ated ; for although there is abundance of flint on the surface, the ancient flint-men sank their shafts down past the layer of "wall-stone," which occurs at a depth of 19|^ feet, to the gun-flint layer, which at the spot in question is 39 feet deep, although about a mile to the S.W., where it is now worked, it is much nearer the surface. At present the workmen excavate the chalk both above and below the layer of flint; but in the old galleries, perhaps from the greater difficulty of raising the material, the chalk below the flint bed was in no case removed. The implements used in making these excavations were deer's horns ; the brow tine being used as a pick, and the others removed. Thus treated, a deer's horn closely resembles in form a modern pick, but of course it is subject to rapid wear by use, which accounts for the large numbers of worn-out implements found by Mr. Greenwell among the rubbish. In one case the roof of a passage had given way. On removing the chalk which had fallen in, the end of the gallery came in view. The flint had been hollowed out in three places, and in front of two of these recesses, pointing towards the half -excavated stone, were two deer-horn picks, lying just as they had been left, still coated with chalk dust, on which was in one place plainly visible the print of the workman's hand. The tools had evidently been left at the close of a day's work ; during the night the gallery had fallen in, and they had never been recovered. " It was a most impressive sight," says Mr. Greenwell, " and one never to be forgotten, to look, after a lapse, it may be, of 3000 years, upon a piece of work unfinished, with the tools of the workmen still lying where they had been placed so many centuries ago." Similar shafts and chambers have been excavated and de- 80 grimes' graves. — PRESSIGNY. 8iTil>otl I'V C\)l. Lino F(»x,* now Gen. ritt lUvers, in and rouml C'isslmrv Caniit, near Worthing. In these excavations tl»o liorns of ileer were the principal tools used, but "the wedixo and punch, driven into cracks in the chalk with the thick enil of the horn," seem to have been more employed than the pick. These excavations were, some of them at least, certainly anterior to the Camp. Deer-horn picks have been found in other localities, where chalk has been worked for flint, and also in the Cornish Tin Stream Works.f Near Spiennes also, in Belgium, there are extensive workings, consisting of a system of shafts and galleries, very like those of Grimes' Graves. These have been described by MM. Malaise, Briart, Cornet, and Houzeau de Lchaie.;!: Many tools of deer's horns have been obtained, but they are of a very different character, having been apparently used as hammers, the horn being cut off just above the brow tine, which served as a handle. In addition to the deer-horn picks, a few adze-shaped tools of flint have been discovered in Grimes' Graves, and a basalt hatchet, in form resembling that represented in fig. 103, but with an oblique cutting edge, the marks of which were dis- tinctly seen upon the sides of the gallery ; showing that it had been used in excavating the chalk. As already mentioned, it was important, in the manufacture of flint implements, to have the flint of a good quality, free from cracks and flaws, and easily accessil)le. Hence, places which fulfilled these conditions were specially frequented in ancient times, and whole districts were supplied from these favoured localities. One of the most remarkable of these manufactories Is tliat discovered by Dr. Leveille at Pressigny- ♦ Jouni. Aiitlir. Inst. vol. \'iii. Roy. In.-t. of Cornwall, 1871, p. p- 3.57. xxii. + See, for instance, Rep. of the J Mem. de la Soc. des Sciences, des Arts, &c., du Haiuaut, 1866-7. n.iTK A7/1 nucleus; from AVHICII LONC. FLAKES JIAVK 1>KKN tsTKUiK. One-half actual size, '/. p. xxiv. THE FBACTUEE OF FLINT. 81 le-Grcind, in France, about half-way between Tours and Poiliers. Here there is an abundance of good fiiut of a honey colour, and of even, though coarse, texture. This Hint was largely used in ancient times : the fields are covered with nuclei, flakes, etc. ; and implements made here, and easily recognizable by the peculiar colour, have been found in various parts of France, and even, it would seem, in Belgium. I have in my collection a block of Pressigny fiiut, from which a flake more than tw^elve inches in length has been struck. The large nuclei of this form (fig. 82), which from their shape are known as "livres de beurre," have excited a good deal of discussion. They are generally from eight to thirteen inches in length, shaped more or less like a boat, with a broad butt at one end, tapering gradually to the other. The form has been attained by a succession of lateral chips, at right angles to the longer axis, while generally one or more longitudinal flakes have also been removed. Many of the flint flakes were certainly never intended to serve as knives, but were worked up into saws, awls, or arrow- heads. Savages use flint or chert in this manner, even at the present day; and the Mexicans, in the time of Cortez, used precisely similar fragments of obsidian. The operations of modern gun-flint makers give us a very clear insight into the mode of manufacture of ancient flint implements, and the process is one of considerable interest. If we take a rounded hammer, and with it strike on a flat surface of flint, a conoidal fracture is produced, the size of which depends, in a great measure, on the form of the hannner. The surface of fracture is propagated downwards through the flint, in a diverging direction, and thus embraces a cone, the apex of which is at the point struck by the hammer, and wliich can afterwards be chipped out of the mass. Flint cones, formed in this way, may sometimes be found among heaps of stones broken up to mend the roads, F 82 FLINT I'l.AKES. aiul liavo (luulilkvvs ufU'ii In'Oii iiiistakeii for casts of fossil shells. If a Mow is given, not on a Hat suifact', luit at the angle oi a move or less square Hint, tlie fracture is at first semi- eunoidal or nearly so, but after expaiidiug for a short distance, it Iteconies Hat, and may l)e propagated through a length of as much as thirteen inches, thus forming a hlade-like tlal. ^e ctt eti For description of figures vide pp. xxiv, xxv. DIFFICULTY OF MAKING FLINT FLAKES. 83 lap two previous flakes, as in the case of the one represented in fig. 91. In this instance, the section is pentagonal; the flat under-surface remaining always the same, but the upper side showing four facets. Easy as it may seejn to make such flakes as these, a little practice will convince any one who attempts to do so, that a certain knack is required ; and a gun-flint maker at Brandon told me that it took him two years to acquire the art. It is also necessary to be careful in selecting the flint. It is therefore evident that these flakes, simple as they may appear, are always the work of man. To make one, the flint must be held firmly, and then a considerable force must be applied, either by pressure or by blows, repeated three or four times but at least three, and given in certain slightly different directions, with a cer- tain definite force ; conditions which could scarcely occur by accident ; so that a flint flake, simple as it may seem to the untrained eye, is to the antiquary as sure a trace of man, as the footprint iu the sand was to Eobinson Crusoe. It is hardly necessary to say, that flakes have a sharp cutting edge on each side, and might therefore be at once used as knives, as in fig. 93, which represents a North American two-bladed knife: they are indeed so named by some archffiologists ; but it seems to me more convenient to call them simply flakes, and to confine the name of knife to implements more especially intended and adapted for cutting purposes. Fig. 94, from a drawing by Mr. Baines,* represents an Australian making rude flakes. Fig. 95 represents an * See Geol. and Nat. Hist. Repertory, No. 13, May 18G6. Sections of Flakes. 84 MODERN FLAKES. Austriiliaii tlako, ami li;^'. 90, owe I'ldiu the Cape of Good Hope. Figs. 101, 102, represent a New Caledonian javelin, with an obsidian Hake (fig. 102) for a head. I give for comparison with the New Caledonian Javelin Fio. 93. North American Knife. Australians making Flakes. a figure, fig. 97, of an Irish flake which I found some years ago on the shore of Loch Neagh, in Ireland. It will be seen Ihut both are flat on one side, convex on the other, triangular in section, broad at the base, pointed at the tip, chipped up PLATE XV. \ {p. 84. 97 Flint Flake. Actual size. MANUFACTURE OF FLAKES IN MEXICO. 85 at the base so that they may be tied on to the shaft, and trimmed on one side near the tip, no doubt that they might fly straight. Some of the okl Spanish writers in Mexico give us a description of the manner in which the Aztecs obtained their obsidian flakes. Torquemada,* who is confirmed by Her- nandez, tells us — I quote from Mr. Tylor's Anahuac — " they had, and still have, workmen who make knives of a certain block stone or flint (obsidian), in this manner : one of these Indian vforkmen sits down upon the ground, and takes a piece of this black stone, which is like jet, and as hard as flint. . . . The piece they take is about eight inches long, or rather more, and as thick as one's leg, or rather less, and cylindrical ; they have a stick as large as the shaft of a lance, and three cubits or rather more in length, and at the end of it they fasten firmly another piece of wood, eight inches long, to give more weight to this part ; then pressing their naked feet together, they hold the stone as with a pair of pincers, or the vice of a carpenter's bench. They take the stick (which is cut off smooth at tlie end) with both hands, and set it well home against the edge of the front of the stone, which also is cut smooth in that part ; and then they press it against their breast, and with the force of the pressure there flies off a knife, with its point and edge on one side, as neatly as if one were to make them of a timiip with a sharp knife, or of iron in the fire." Thus it appears that the obsidian flakes were made, not by blows, but by strong pressure ; and the same is the case with the chert implements of the Esquimaux, according to the description given by Sir E. Belcher.f " Selecting," he says, " a log of wood in which a spoon-shaped cavity was cut, they placed the splinter to be worked over it, and by pressing * Torquemada, Monarquia, In- + Trans, of tire Ethnological diana. Seville, 1C15. Soc, New Series, vol. i. p. 138. so MANUFACTURE OF FLAKES AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX. gently aloiiL' the in;ir; DAGGERS. SLIXG-STONES, la'auliful worknuuKship. It is one nf six, found together in the ehiiniher of a hirge tuniuhis in the island of Moen. The ih(f/f/ers (fig. 127) are often marvels of skill in llint- ehijiping. Tlie form so closely resemhles that of metallic dagger, tliat some anti'juaries are inclined to regard them as copies of bronze daggers, and therefore as not belonging to the Stone Age. The localities in which they have been found do nt»t, however, offer any support to this hypothesis. Another form of Hint weapon (fig. 128), which is common in Denmark, has a handle like that of the last form, but instead of a blade, it ends in a point, and suggests the idea that if the tip of the dagger had been accidentally broken off", or the blade rendered narrow by wear and tear, the rest of the weapon might have been worked up into a poniard, and thus utilized. In both these classes the crimping along the edges of the handle is very curious. The sling-stones are of two kinds. The first are merely rough pieces of flint reduced by a few blows of a hammer to a convenient size and form. But for the situations in which they are found, these might almost be regarded as natural fragments. Professor Steenstrup is now disposed to think that many of them were used as sink-stones for nets, but that some have really served as sling-stones seems to be indicated by their presence in the Peat-mosses, which it is difficult to account for in any other way. The other kind of sling-stones Fjg. 125. ^^^ round, flattish flint disks, some of which are beautifully made. The oval tool-stones (fig. 125), or "Tilhug- gorsteens" of the northern antiquaries, are oval or egg-shaped stones, more or Oval Tool-stone. i • i . j i .i p less indented on one or Ijoth surfaces. Their use is not at present thoroughly understood. Some antiquaries suppose that they were held between the finger and thumb, and used as hammers or chippers. If, \laTE XXL] FLINT J)AGGER8 AND ARROW HEADS. 127 128 I2fi {p. 92. .\n 129 For descrii3tion of Hgurc-s vide pp. xxvi, xxvii. AEKOW-IIEADS. 93 however, a large series is obtained, it will be found that the depression varies greatly in depth, and that some- times the stone is completely perforated, which favours the view of those who regard these implements as ring- stones for nets, or small hammer-heads. It is very doubt- ful whether these implements really belong to the Stone Age. Other stones, in which the longer axis is encircled by a groove, appear to have been evidently intended as sink-stones for nets. The arrow-keads may be divided into six varieties. Firstly, the triangular (fig. 121), which frequently had a notch on each side to receive the string which attached it to the shaft ; secondly, that which is hollowed out or indented at the base, as in fig. 122 ; thirdly, the stemmed arrow, which has a tank or projection for sinking into the shaft ; fourthly, when the wings are prolonged on each side, this passes into the larhed arrow (fig, 123) ; fifthly, we have the leaf-shajyed form, a beautiful example of which is represented in fig. 124. Lastly, there is a form resembling figs. 114-116, but in miniature. This form is not confined to N"orthern Europe, but occurs elsewhere, as for instance in Egypt, where one, still fixed to the shaft, has been discovered in a tomb.* True arrow-heads are generally about an inch in length, but they pass gradually into the javelin, and from that into the spear-head. The great similarity of arrow-heads, even from the most distant localities, may be seen in figs. 129, 130, and 131, which repre- sent specimens from France, North America, and Tierra del Fuego respectively. The different forms were perhaps in use in different tribes, but more probably they are due to the variety of purposes for w"hich they were intended ; thus in North America the war arrows taper to the end, so that when the shaft is drawn * Baye. Poiutes de fleclie tn Silex, p. 139, 1874. 04 SAWS. HONK nirLKMF.XTS. AWLS. IIAKroONS. out, the lu';iyii;as, an aboriginal tribe of Central India, aceording to Foreyth, make the same distinction.* Among other tribes, the lance-shaped arrows are used in hunting, barbed arrow-heads in war.-j- The Negritos of the I'liilippiue Islands have three kinds of arrows. One, with a separate head-i)iece, for wild boars, one for birds. The use of the thu-d is not stated. Every man carries one of each kind.;]: The manufacture of these arrows requires much time and skill: "Under the most favourable circumstances," Messrs. Blackmore and Dodge tell iis, " tlie most skilful Indian wcjrk- man cannot hope to complete more than a single arrow^ in a hard day's work."§ There are various other kinds of flint implements, such as hammers, saws (fig. 132), harpoons, etc., but — omitting for the present the earlier, or drift types — the above are the principal forms of stone weapons and implements. Horns and bones, besides being employed for handling the stone axes, were much used as the material of various simple implements, and those of the stag appear to have l)een pre- ferred, as being the hardest. The commonest bone implement is the pin or awl (fig. 133) ; not much less numerous are cer- tam oblong chisel-like implements (fig. 134), the use of which it is not easy to determine. Eibs split open, and pointed at one end, are sometimes found, and have been supposed by some arclueologists to have been used in the manufacture of pottery ; others refer them to a later period, and think they were used in pjreparing flax. Fish were caught with bone harpoons (figs. 135, 136). The latter fi.gure represents a bone * Higliknddof Cential India, p. X Scliadeuberg. Z. f. Etiin. 361. 1880. t Murray. Travels in North § Hunting Grounds of the Great America, vol. i. p. 385, West. Dodge & Blackmore, p. 349. FLINT-FINDS. 95 harpoon ])elonging to the Eeindeer period, which will he descrihed in the chapter on Caves. Fig. 137 represents a North American hone chisel used in dressing deer-skins for taking off the hair. Pierced teeth also were not unfrequently worn as amulets. Arrow-heads, spear-heads, and chisels, also occur. Stone implements are frequently found on the surface of the ground, or are dug up in agricultural and other opera- tions. But those found singly in this manner have compara- tively little scientific value : it is wlien they occur in consid.- erable numbers, and especially when associated with other remains, that they serve to throw much light on the manners and customs of ancient times. As already mentioned, the tumuli, the lake habitations, and the shell-mounds are specially valuable in this respect, but I must also say a few words about the " coast-finds ' ' of the Danish anti- quaries. " Coast-finds " are discoveries of rude Hint imple- ments, which are found lying in large numbers on certain spots along the whole line of coast. Owing probably to the elevation of the land which has taken place in Jutland since the Stone Age, some of them are now a considerable distance from the present water-line. Some, on the other hand, are at low levels; one, for instance, close to the Eailway-station at Korsor, is exposed only at low tide, and others are always covered. The " coasts-finds," however, be- long probably to different classes. Thus, one at Aiiholt was evidently a workshop of flint implements, as is shown by the character of the chips, and by the discovery of more than sixty flint cores. Those, on the contrary, which, even at the present day, are under water, were probably so in old times, and as there are no traces of lake habitations in Denmark, it has been supposed that they were the places where the fishermen used to drag their nets. It is still usual to clioose particular gpots for this purpose, and it is evident that many of the rude 90 FLINT-FINDS. iilijecta usi'il in iisliiii;^, t'spociully i»t' the sluncs eiu]»li)yuil iis nt'l-woights, would there he lost. 1 am rather disposed to regard them fu> eamjting stations. The oltjeets discovered are jnst Nviiat niiu'ht have been expected under these circum- stances. Tiiey consist of iiTCj^ular flint clappings, uet-weights or sling-stones, flakes, scrapers, awls, and axes. These six different classes of objects have been found in most, if not all, of the coast-finds, though in diflerent pro- })ortions. To give an idea of the numbers in which they occur, I may mention that Professor Steenstrup and I gathered, m al»out an hour, at Froiiluud, near Korsor, 141 flakes, 84 weights, 5 axes, 1 scraper, and about 150 flint chips; while at a similar spot, near Aarhuus in Jutland, I myself picked up, in two hours and a half, 76 weights, 40 flakes, 39 scrapers, 17 awls, and a considerable num- ber of flint chips. In many instances, a layer of sand has accumulated over and thus protected the flint fragments. This was the case with both the above-mentioned coast-finds, one of which was exposed in draining the land, the other in a railway cutting. Sometimes a change of conditions will remove the light sand, and leave the heavier stones, which again in other cases have lain apparently undisturbed and exposed from the tirst; and in such instances the spots are sometimes so thickly strewn with white flints that they may be dis- tinguished by their colour, even at a considerable distance. "We could not expect to find similar coast-finds on our Southern and Eastern shores, because even in historical times, the sua, has encroached greatly. " Flint-finds," however, re- sembling in many respects these Danish " coast-finds," are not unknown in this country, or on the Continent. They appear to indicate the position of ancient villages ; and in some cases, as, for instance, those of Grimes' Graves and Pressigny, are evidently places selected for the manufacture I'LATK XML] STO^K SAW AM> I'.i "NK IMTLMMKNTS. I /'. i»; 132 ^1 8tono saw. 3 37 4r mi I ;3;i Uone awl — .Scotland. For description of figures vi'fe p. xxvii. FLINT-FINDS. 97 of stone implements on account of the good quality of the Hint. Nor are these discoveries confined to Europe. Mr. Busk and Mr. Langham Dale have met with a very similar assemblage of flakes, etc., on the Cape Flats, at the Cape of Good Hope.* I have myself found them in abundance on the high ground along the Nile valley ,-[- Throughout the whole of America, Australia, and Polynesia, indeed, stone implements were in use down to a comparatively modern period, and in many parts are so still. In Asia and Africa, on the contrary, as in Europe, stone implements have, for the most part, been long abandoned. Still there also, as, for instance, in Algeria, Egypt, Somaliland and at the Cape, in Palestine and Assyria, in India and Japan, stone imple- ments have been discovered, showing that these countries also, like Europe, have, undoubtedly, passed through an age of Stone. * Trails. Etlm. Soc, 1869, p. 51. t Jour. Authrop. Institute, 1871. ( 08 ) CHArXER V. MEGALITIIIC MONUMENTS AND TUMULI. ALL over Eumpe, we iniglit indeed say all over the world, wherever they have not been destroyed ])y the plough or the hammer, we find relics of pre-historic times — camps, fortifications, dykes, tumuli, menhirs or standing stones, Fig. 138. Danish Tumulus. cromlechs or stone circles, dolmens * or stone chambers, etc., many of which astonish us by their magnitude, so that of * In this country, it has become names. Cromlecli, however, is de- the custom to reverse these two rived from "crom," a circle, and TUMULI. 99 some of them we may almost say, with Sir Thomas Browue, that " these mountainous monuments may stand, and are like to have the same period with the earth " ; while . they all excite our interest Ijy the antiquity of their origin, and the mystery by which they are surrounded.* Fig. 1.39. Plan of the preceding. In our own island the smaller tumuli may 1)e seen on almost every down ; in the Orkneys alone it is estimated that more than two thousand still remain. On the Wiltshire " lech," stone ; and dolmen from "daul," a table, and "niaen," a stone. They should therefore, I consider, be used as in the text. I may add that " menhir," a standing stone, is derived from " maen," stone, and " hir," long. * Since the last edition of this work, several important contribu- tions have been made to our knowledge of ancient British burial customs. I may refer especially to Gen. Pitt Rivers' researches among the Antiquities of Wiltshire, to 100 TUMULI. Downs tlu'vo aiv uv.-r 1000; in France there are 4000 .lol- nions, IGOO menhirs, iin.l 4.-0 stone .irch^s; hi Denmark they riu. 140. Sepulchral Stoue Ciicle. are even more ahir.ulant; they nre found all over Europe, Fig. 141. Danish Dolmen. from the shores of the Atlantic to the Oural mountains; Oreenwellan.-lEolle.ston's"Britisli son's -'Kude Stone Monuments," Barrows," .Jewitt's " Grave Mounds, also, though written ni support of a and their Contents," Borlase's theory which is, I tlnnk, erroneous, "\eniaCornuhi£e,"Warne's "Celtic contains a valuable summary of Tmnuli of Dorset," and Borlase's our knowledge of megalithic monu- " Dolmens of Ireland." Fergus- ments. MENHIRS. 101 ill Asia they are scattered over the great steppes, from the borders of liussia to the Pacific Ocean, and from the plains of Fig. 142. Sepulchral Stone Circle. Siberia to those of Hindostan ; the entire plain of Jelalabad, says ]\Iasson, " is literally covered with tumuli and mounds." * Fig. 1J3. Kit's Coty House, In America we are told that they are to be numbered by thousands and tens of thousands; nor are they wanting in Africa,-]- where the Pyramids themselves exhibit the most * Journeys in Baloocliistan, Af- t See, for instance, Livingstone's ghanistan, etc., vol. ii. p. 164. See Miss. Travels, jjp. 219, 304. also p. 155, and vol. ii. pp. 111-113. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RiVLRSiOE 102 STONE CIRCLES. maj^nufit'Ont devolopmont t)f the same iilea; indeed the whole world is studded with the hurial-plaecs of the dead. Many of tlieni, indeed, are small, hut some are very large, such as, for instance, those of Odhi, Thor, and Freya, at Upsala (see Frontispiece). Near Avebury, or Ahury, in Wiltshire, is (see rian) Silhury Hill, the greatest tumulus in Europe, having a height of one hundred and thirty feet, and covering live and a half acres. The standing stones, or "menhirs," also were uo douht generally erected in memorial of some particular event, the majority being, in fact, the tondtstones of Archaic times. Tumuli were, as a rule, hurial mounds, but sometimes memorials, as in Feejee (see p. 488). In addition to these memorials of the past, ancient camps and fortifications crown many of our hills. In parts of Scotland some of the old hill fortresses present the remarkable peculiarity, first noticed by Mr. John Williams in 1777, of having been subjected to considerable heat. Until 1837 these vitrified forts were supposed to be peculiar to our island, but in that year Professor Zippe called attention to the existence of similar remains in Bohemia, and since that time vitrified forts have been discovered in various parts of France and Germany.* Lastly, the country is intersected by great dykes, or lines of embankment — such, for instance, as the Wansdyke, the Devil's Dyke at Newmarket, and Offa's Dyke, which runs from the Bristol Channel to the Dee, thus roughly dividing England from Wales — which were no doubt partly boundary- lines and partly fortifications, like the Koman Wall or the still more remarkable Wall of China. * References to the various nie- papers by !Mr. Stuart and Dr. nioirs in whicli these are described Fodisch in the Proc. Soc. Autiq. are given by Virchow, Zeit. f. Eth- Scotland, vol. viii. nologie, 1870, p. 258. See also STONE CIRCLES. 103 The tumuli, menhirs, or standing stones, dohnens or stone chambers, stone circles, and stone rows or avenues, may all, I think, be considered as parts of one common plan. The great majority were tombs. Some, no doubt, are memorial monu- ments; some were temples; but the idea and plan is still that of an interment. We may regiird a perfect megalithic interment as having consisted of a stone chamber, communi- cating with the outside by a passage, covered with a mound of earth, surrounded and supported at the circumference by a circle of stones, and in some cases surmounted by a stone pillar or " menhir." Sometimes, however, we find the central chamber standing alone, as at Kit's Coty House, near Maid- stone, which may or may not have ever been covered by a mound; sometimes — especially, of course, where stone was scarce — we find the earthen mound alone ; sometimes only the menhir. The celebrated stone avenues of Carnac, in Brittany, and the stone rows of Avebury, may, I think, have been highly developed specimens of the entrance passage ; in Stonehenge, and many other instances, we have the stone circle. In fact, these different parts of the perfect monument are found in every combination and in every degree of development, from the slight elevation, scarcely perceptible to the eye, except- ing, perhaps, when it is thrown into relief by the slanting rays of the rising or setting sun, to the gigantic hill of Silbury ; from the small stone circle to the stupendous monuments of Stonehenge or Avebury. Even now, the northern races of men live in houses formed on the model of these tombs. Having to contend with an Arctic climate, they construct a subterranean chamber, over which they pile earth for the sake of warmth ; and which, for the same reason, communicates with the open air, not directly, but by means of a long passage. In some cases, tumuli, exactly resembling these modern houses, have been discovered. At Godhavn, for instance, in Sweden, such a 104 STONE CIRCLES. grave was opened in 1830, and the dead were found sitting round, each with his implements, in the very seats which douhtless they had often occupied when alive. Thus, then, in some cases, that which was at first a house at length became a tomb. So, again, the tomb in the same way becomes a temple. The Khasias are a primitive people of India, who even now construct monuments over the dead. They then proceed to offer food and drink to the deceased, and to implore their assistance. If after praying at a particular tomb they obtain their desires, they return again, and if success is repeated, this tomb gradually acquires a certain reputation, and the person buried in it becomes more or less a deity. When a considerable celebrity has thus been acquked, other shrines would naturally be consecrated to him by those anxious for his assistance, and these would be constructed on the model of the first. No wonder, then, that it is impossible to dis- tinguish the tomb from the temple.* AYe will now briefly consider the different classes of monu- ments. Stone circles, or cromlechs, consist of rough upright stones, arranged in a circle. The usual diameter is about 100 feet, but some are much larger, the principal circle at Avebury, for instance, being 1200 feet across. The stones are placed at equal distances, and the number of them had probably some significance. " The two inner circles at Abury, the lesser circle at Stennis, and one at Stanton Drew, each consisted of twelve ; the outer circles at Abu.ry, the outer cu'cles of uprights and transoms at Stonehenge, the large circle at Stanton Drew, and the cu-cle at Arbor Low, each of thirty ; those of Eollrich and Stennis, of sixty; and the large en- closing circle of Abury, of one hundred stones. Four circles * Sir John Lubbock, Preface, p. the Land around them," by C. Ph. 5, to " Our Ancient Monuments and Kains-Jackson, 1880. 144 [p. 104. STONE CIRCLES. 105 at Boscawen, and adjacent places in Cornwall, have each been formed of nineteen stones." * Stonehenge is the most cele- brated example of a stone circle, but it differs from the usual type in several respects ; for instance, in having the principal stones roughly hewn, and in the presence of capstones. Stone circles occur in various parts of the Continent, but are less frequent than in our islands. Nor are they by any means confined to Europe. The Todas of the Neilgherry Hills have stone circles within which burial ceremonies are performed, the ashes being placed under one of the stones.-j- Throughout the Deccan are numerous stone circles sacred to Vetal, whose worship still holds its own against the Brah- manical innovations ; | while Su' Bartle Frere, in his Intro- duction § to Miss Frere's charming " Old Deccan Days," tells us that in that part of India outside almost every village there is a circle of large stones sacred to Vetal. Stanley saw, a few miles to the north of Tyre, a circle of rough upright stones ; Mr. Palmer, in his " Desert of the Exodus," mentions the existence of " huge stone circles in the neigh- bourhood of Mount Sinai, some of them measuring 100 feet in diameter, having a cist in the centre covered with a heap of large boulders ; " and Kohen, a Jesuit missionary, has re- cently discovered in Arabia, near Khabb, in the district of Kasim, three large stone circles described as being extremely like Stonehenge, and consisting of very lofty trilithons.|| Barth also describes and figures similar trilithons as occurring in Tripoli.^ In this case the pillars are 10 feet high, and stand on a raised foundation. Arctic travellers, also, mention stone circles and stone rows among the Esquimaux. These are, however, of a different * Thurnam. Crania Britannica, § I. c. p. x. Decade iv. Il Boustetten. Sur les Dolmens, t Breeks. Primitive Tribes of p. 27. tlie Neilgherries, pp. 24, 72. IT Travels in Central Africa, vol. ;J: Old Deccan Days, p. x. i. pp. 58, 74. 106 MENTION OF STONE CIKCLES IN ANCIENT HISTORY. cliaracter, being quite small, aud probably are merely the lower part of habitations. Lafitau figures an Indian (Virginian) temple consisting of a circle of upright stones, which, however, are carved at the top into rude representations of human faces.* Mr. Squier mentions stone circles as occurring in Peru.f As regards the period at, or purposes for, which the European stone circles were erected, history gives us no information. Mr. George Petrie, indeed, has pointed out several cases in which the Orkney circles were mentioned in old deeds, etc.| Thus, in 1349, William de Saint Michael was summoned to attend a court held " apud stantes lapides de Eane en le Garniach," to answer for his forcible detention of certain ecclesiastical property; and in 1S80, Alexander, Lord of Eegality of Badenoch, and son of Eobert II., held a court, " apud le standand stanys de la Eathe de Kyngucy Estu-," to inquire into the titles by which the Bishop of Moray held certain of his lauds. Even so late as the year 1438, we find a notice, that " John off Erwyne and Will Bernardson swor on the Hirdmane Stein before oure Lorde ye Erie off Orknay and the gentiless off the cuntre." It is obvious, however, that this comparatively recent use of the stone circles does not enable us to form any opinion as to the purpose for which they were originally intended. It is perhaps more relevant to observe that both in the Iliad (B. xviii.) and Odyssey (B. viii.) assemblies of elders are mentioned as sitting in solemn conclave on stone seats arranged in circles. In the former case the seats are said to have been polished. None of our stone circles, however, appear to have been used for any such purpose. Some of them were certainly sepulchral ; and it seems probable that *Moeurs des Sauv. Amer. vol. ii. t Amer. Nat., vol. iv. p. 12. p. 135. I have given a copy in the J Pre-historic Annals of Scot- Origin of Civilization, 2nd ed. p. 179. land, 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 164. MENTION OF STONE CIRCLES IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 107 this was their original purpose ; hut that, lilce other shrines, they were subsequently used as temples. As regards stone pillars and tumuli, we are told, in Gen. xxxi., that "Jacob took a stone and set it up for a pillar"; and in verse 51, " Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast between me and thee. This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this pillar to me, to do me harm," etc. At Mount Sinai, Moses erected twelve pillars.* And so, again, when the children of Israel had crossed over Jordan, Joshua took twelve stones and pitched them in Gilgal. " And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying. What mean these stones ? then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land." f Achan and his w hole family were stonedjtvdth stones and burned_with^_fire^ after which we are told that Israel "raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger." Again, the king of Ai was buried under a great heap of stones ; and so also was Absalom, of whom likewise we are told that he " reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the King's Dale ; for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance ; and he called the pillar after his own name, and it is called unto this day Absalom's Place." In one of the ancient Babylonian records, Izdubar is recorded to have erected a memorial mound. | According to Diodorus, Semiramis, the widow of Ninus, buried her husband within the precincts of the palace, and raised over him a great mound of earth. Pausanius mentions that stones were collected together, and heaped up over the * Ex. xxiv. 4. X Le Normant. Les Premieres t Joshua iv. 21, 22. Civilizations, vol. ii. p. 47. 108 MENTION OF TUMULI IN ANCIENT HISTORY. tomb of Laius, tho father of CEdipus. In tlie time of the Trojan war, Tydeus and Lycus are mentioned as having been buried under two earthen barrows. " Hector's barrow was of stone and earth. Achilles erected a tumulus, upwards of an bundled feet in diameter, over the remains of his friend Patroclus. The mound, supposed by Xeuophon to contain the remains of Alyattes, father of Croesus, king of Lydia, is of stone and earth, and more than a quarter of a league in circumference. The tradition that the tumulus at Marathon is the tomb of the Greeks who fell in that battle, has been confirmed by the recent discovery in it of vases belonging to that period. Alexander the Great caused a tumulus to be heaped over his friend Hephsestion, at the cost of 1200 talents, no mean sum even for a conqueror like Alexander, it being £232,500 sterling." * Virgil tells us that Dercennus, kmg of Latium, was buried under an earthen mound ; and according to the earliest historians, whose statements are confirmed by the researches of archaeologists, mound-burial was practised in ancient times by the Scythians, Greeks, Etruscans, Germans, and many other nations. By far the greater number of the tumuli in Western Europe are entirely prehistoric, but there are some few of which the date and origin are known to us, such as the tumuli of Queen Thyra and King Gorm, who died about 950, at Jellinge, in Denmark. The Mausoleum of Augustus was justly called by Tacitus a tumulus, since it was covered by an immense mound of earth. The tumulus from which Taplow takes its name, the Low or Mound on the Hill-top, was the burial-place of a Viking of about the seventh century. There are, moreover, other cases in which tumuli are men- tioned, though not in a manner which enables us to identify them with any of those now existing. Thus Gregory of * Ten Years' Diggings in the Celtic and Saxon Grave-liills, p. v. ANTIQUITY OF MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS. 109 Tours * has a quaint story to the effect that Macliav, flying from his brother Chanaon, took refuge with Chononior, Count of the Bretons. Chanaon sent messengers to demand that Macliav should Ije given up to him, but Chonomor con- cealed him in a tomb, " rearing over him a tumulus in the usual manner, but leaving a small opening for the entrance of air " (componens desuper ex more tumulum, parvumque ei spiraculum reservans, unde halitum resumere posset). He then showed this tumulus to the messengers, and assured them that Macliav was buried in it. The Codex Diplomaticus contains references to more than sixty Ijarrows or lows, bearing the names of particular persons ; some of them, as, for instance, Wodne's Beorgh, or Woden's Barrow, are prol)al)ly mythical, but there seems no reason to doubt that some — for instance, Alfrede's Beorh, ^thelwolde's Beorh, Cissan l^eorh, Cwichelme's Hloew, Oswolde's Hlcew, etc. — retain the name of the person really buried within.f It appears that in England the habit of burying under tumuli was finally abandoned during the 10th century. The Danish Sagas also tell us that in the middle of the 8th century, Sigurd Eing, having conquered his uncle, King Harald Hildetand, in the battle of Braavalla, "washed the corpse, placed it on Harald's war-chariot, and buried it in a tumulus which he had formed for the purpose. Harald's horse also was slain and buried with him, with the saddle, so that Harald might either ride to Valhalla, or go in his chariot, as he preferred. Sigurd then gave a great feast, after which he recommended the chiefs present to throw their ornaments and arms into the tumulus in honour of Harald. Finally the tumulus was carefully closed." I * Historia Francorum, iv. 4. | Engelliardt. Guide Ilhistre du t For an interesting memoir on Musee des Antiquites du Nord k notices of heathen interment in the Copenhague, 1868. — See also Saxo Codex Diplomaticus, see Keniljle, Grannnaticus. His. Dan. 1. x. oh. Arch. Jour., voh xiv. p. 119. xii. 110 MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS NOT DRUIDICAL. Most of these monuments, however, are doubtless far older. Some, indeed, were ancient and mysterious even in the days of Homer. Thus, at the burial of Patroclus, when Nestor is pointing out to his son Antilochus the course for the chariot race, he says, — " Plain is the goal Tliat now I tell tliee of ; nor canst thou miss it : ***** On either side "\\1iere narrowest is the way, and all the course Around is smooth, rise two white stones, set there To mark the tomb of some one long since dead, Or form a goal for men in ages past." * It is very striking to find these menhirs mentioned in our earliest writings, as monuments of events even then already lost in the obscurity of the past. Many of the very largest tumuli in Western Eiu'ope appear, from the nature of their contents, to have been constructed during the Stone Age. At first, indeed, it seems almost incredible that the immense tumuli of Brittany should have been erected by a people who possessed no metal. We must remember, however, that some of the South Sea monuments were quite as considerable. Moreover, though hundreds of beautiful stone axes and ornaments have been found in the tumuli of Brittany, no weapons of metal have yet occurred in them. It has been supposed that the car^dngs on some of the stones could not have been cut without metal. Actual experiments, however, as Messrs. Bertrand and de Mortillet have shown me, prove that the stone can be cut with flint,, while bronze produces no effect on it. Sir James Y. Simpson also has shown that the engravings on the Scotch rocks, even those on granite, may have been carved with a flint tool, f * Iliad, xxiii., 384. I have quoted more faithful than any other with from Mr. Wright's transition, which I am acquainted. which, in this passage at least, is t Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland, vol. vi. 1867, p. 122. AVEBURY AND SILBURY HILL. Ill In this country we still habitually call the megalithic monuments " Druidical," but it is hardly necessary to men- tion that there is really no sufficient reason for connecting them with Druidical worship. The greatest of all so-called Druidical monuments is the temple of Avebury, in Wiltshire (see plan, p. 102). It is, indeed, much less known than Stonehenge ; and yet, though a ruder, it was a much grander temple. According to Aubrey, Avebury " did as much exceed Stonehenge as a cathedral does a parish church." When perfect, it consisted of a circular ditch and embankment, containing an area of 28J acres ; inside the ditch was a circle of great stones, and within this, again, two smaller circles, formed by a double row of smaller stones, standing side by side. From the outer embankment started two long winding avenues of stones, one of which went in the direction of Beckhampton, and the other in that of Kennet, where it ended in another double circle. Stukely fancifully supposed that the idea of the whole was that of a snake transmitted through a cu'cle ; the Kennet circle representing the head, the Beckhampton avenue the tail. Midway be- tween the two avenues stood Silbury Hill, the largest artificial mound in Europe, measuring no less than 130 feet in height, and covering 5 J acres. At one time it was no doubt even higher. From its position it appears to form part of the general plan, but though it has been twice examined, no primary interment has been found in it. On the whole, this appears to have been the finest megalithic ruin in Europe; but, unfortunately for us, the pretty little village of Avebury, like some beautiful parasite, has grown up at the expense, and in the midst, of the ancient temple, and out of 650 great stones, not above 20 are still standing. Mr. Fergusson * has attempted to prove that both Stone- henge and Avebury belong to post-Eoman times. " The Piomau * Rude Stone Monuments. 112 AVEBURY AND SILBURY HILL. road," he says, " from Bath . to Marlborough, either passes under Silbury Hill, or makes a sudden bend to get round it in a manner that no Eoman road, in Britain at least, was ever known to do. . . . From a careful examination of all the circumstances of the case, the conclusion seems inevitable that Silbury Hill stands on the Eoman road, and conse- quently must have been erected subsequently to the time of the Eomans leaving the country." Startled by this argument, and yet satisfied that there must be some error, I turned to the Ordnance map, and found, to my surprise, that the Eoman road was distinctly laid down as passing, not under, Ijut at the side of, Silbury Hill. Not content with this, I persuaded Professor Tyndall to visit the locality with me, and we convinced ourselves that upon this point the map was quite correct. The impres- sion on our minds v;as that the Eoman engineer, in con- structing the road from Morgan's Hill, had taken Silbury Hill as a point to steer for, swerving only just before reaching it. Moreover, the map will show that not only this Eoman road, but some others, in the same part of England, are less straight than is usually the case. In order to set the point at rest, I caused excavations to be made, under the auspices of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society, at the side of Silbury Hill. The ditches running along the Eoman road could still be followed, and it is clear that the road swerved shortly before arriving at, and in order to avoid the tumulus. I quite agree, therefore, with old Stukely, that tlie Eoman road curved abruptly southward to avoid Silbury Hill, and that " this shows Silbury Hill was ancienter than the Eoman road." * How much more ancient it is * Mr. Blandford, who superin- p. 303. See also the interesting tended the opening of the Hill in memoir in the same volume, by 1849, came also to the same con- the Eev. A. C. Smith, elusion. Proc. Archaeol. Inst. 1849, STONEHENGE. 113 impossible to say,* but some excavations made by Mr. Pass in 1886 f would seem to indicate that it cannot be later than the Bronze Age. Eound the hill is an excavation from which the chalk, of which the hill is composed, was taken. The depression thus formed, though still well marked, is partly filled up with some 9 feet of white alluvial matter. Mr. Pass sunk several shafts through this, and at the base of one of them he found several flakes and one well marked flint implement. This may be either an unfinished arrow-head or a small cutting instrument. As regards Stonehenge, we have, I think, satisfactory reasons for attributing it to the Bronze Age. The account given by Giraldus Cambrensis, writing at the close of the 12th century, is clearly mythical. According to him, it was erected by Aurelius Ambrosius in memory of the British chieftains treacherously murdered by Hengist and the Saxons, about the year 460. " There was," he says, " in Ire- land, in ancient times, a pile of stones worthy of admiration, called the Giant's Dance, because giants from the remotest part of Africa brought them into Ireland ; and in the plains of Kildare, not far from the Castle of Naas, as well by force of art as strength, miraculously set them up ; and similar stones, erected in a like manner, are to be seen there at this day. These stones (according to the British history) Aurelius Ambrosius, king of the Britons, procured Merlin, by super- natural means, to bring from Ireland into Britain. And that he might leave some famous monument of so great a treason to future ages, in the same order and art as they stood formerly, set them up where the flow^er of the British nation fell by the cut- throat practice of the Saxons, and where, under the pretence of peace, the ill- * Stukely thinks it was founded t Journ. Wilts. Arch, and Nat. in 18.59 B.C., the year of the death His. Soc. Aug. 1887. of Sarah, Abraham's wife. 114 MYTHICAL ACCOUNT OF STONEHENGE. secured youth of tlie kingdom, by luurderous designs, were slain." * This account is clearly mythical. The larger stones were evidently obtained in the neighbourhood, and are in fact " Sarcens," identical with those which occur in hundreds on Salisbury Plain. Moreover, the very name of Stonehenge, like those of Stanton Drew, Stennis, etc., seems to me a very strong argument against those who attribute these monuments to so recent an origin. Stanton Drew, for instance, is " The Stone Town of the Druids." How could it have been called so if it was erected in Saxon times ? Stonehenge is generally considered to mean the Hanging-stones, as indeed was long ago suggested by AYace, an Anglo-Norman poet, who says : Stanhengues ont nom en Englois Pieres pandues en Francois ; t but it is surely more natural to derive the last syllable from the Anglo-Saxon word " ing," a field ; as we have Keston, originally Kyst-stan-ing, the field of stone coffins. "What more natural than that a new race, finding this magnificent ruin standing in solitary grandeur on Salisbury Plain, and able to learn nothing of its origin, should call ii simply the 2)lace of stones ? "What more unnatural than that they should do so, if they knew the name of him in whose honour it was erected ? The plan also of Stonehenge seems to be a sufiS- cient reason for not referring it to post-Eoman times. It has, indeed, been urged that if Stonehenge had existed in the time of Csesar, we should find it mentioned by ancient writers. Hecateeus, however, does allude to a magnificent circular temple in the island of the Hyperboreans, over against Celtica, and many archaeologists have confidently assumed that this refers to Stonehenge. But why should we * Giraldus. Tojwgr. of Ireland. + Wright's Wanderings of an Antiquary, p, 301. ORIGIN OF THE NAME. 115 expect to fiud it described, if it was, as we suppose, even at that time a ruin, more perfect, no duuLt, than at this day, but still a ruin ? Tlie Caledonian Wall was a most impor- tant fortification constructed by the Eomans themselves, and yet, as Dr. Wilson tells us,* only one of the Eoman historians makes the least allusion to its erection, nor is Avebury itself mentioned by any mediccval author. It is evident that Stonehenge was at one time a spot of great sanctity, A glance at the Ordnance map will show that tumuli'cluster in great numbers round and within sight of it ; within a radius of three miles, there are about three hundred burial mounds, while the rest of the country is com- paratively free from them. If, then, we could determine the date of these tumuli, we should be justified, I think, in refer- ring the Great Temple itself to the same period. Now, of these barrows. Sir Eichard Colt Hoare examined a great number, 151 of which had not been previously opened. Of these the great majority contained interments by cremation, in the manner usual during the Bronze Age. Only two con- tained any iron weapons, and these were both secondary interments; that is to say, the owners of the iron weapons were not the original occupiers of the tumuli. Of the other burial mounds, no less than 39 contained objects of bronze, and one of them, in which were found a spear-head and pin of bronze, was still more connected with the temple by the presence of fragments, not only of Sarcen stones, but also of the blue stones which form the inner circle at Stonehenge ; and which do not naturally occur in Wiltshire. Stonehenge then may, I think, be regarded as a monument of the Bronze Age, though apparently it was not all erected at one time, the inner circle of small, unwrought, blue stones being probably older than the rest ;-f as regards Avebury, since the stones are * Pre-historic Aim. of Scot. vol. t There are, in fact, four kinds of ii. p. 39. stones in Stonehenge. Tlie great 116 STONEIIENGE A MONUMENT OF THE BRONZE AGE. all ill their natural condition, while those of Stonehenge are roughly hewn, it seems reasonable to conclude that Avebury is the older of the two, and belongs either to the close of the Stone Age, or to the commencement of that of Bronze. Both Avebury and Stonehenge were, I believe, used as tem- ples. Some of the stone circles, however, have been proved to be burial-places. In fact, a complete burial-place may be described as a dolmen, covered by a tumulus, crowned by a menhir, surrounded by a stone circle, and led up to by a stone row. Often, howxver, we have only the tumulus, sometimes only the dolmen, and sometimes again only the stone circle. The celebrated monument of Carnac (fig. 145), in Brit- tany, consists of eleven rows of unhewn stones, which differ greatly both in size and height, the largest being 22 feet above ground, while some are quite small. It appears that the avenues originally extended for several miles, but at present they are very imperfect, the stones having been cleared away in places for agricultural improvements. At present, therefore, there are several detached portions, which however, have the same general direction, and appear to have been connected together. Fig. 145 is from a sketch made by Sir Joseph Hooker, when we visited Brittany together, in the spring of 1867. They may, I think, be regarded as highly developed outer circle, and the trilitlions are called altar stone is grey sandstone, " Sarcen " stones, that is to say, resembling some of the Devonian thev are formed from the sandstone aiid Cambrian rocks. Maskelyne, blocks of the neighbourhood. The Wilts. Arch. Magazine, Oct. 1877. majority of the small pillars forming It has been said that some Roman the inner circle consist of an igneous pottery was found under one of the rock known as Diabase, but four trilithons at Stonehenge. Mr. Cun- stones of this series are schistoid, nington, however, has pointed out and resemble some of the Silurian that there is no authority for this and Cambrian rocks of North Wales statement. Wilts. Arch. Mag. Dec. and Cmubeiland. Lastly, the so- 1883. MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS IN INDIA. 117 examples of the passage which leads to the central chamber in so many tumuli, or corresponds with the covered passage leading to the dwelling in arctic regions. They appear to have always terminated in a circle, often, however, quite insignificant in comparison with the stone row. Most of the great tumuli in Brittany probably belong to the Stone Age, and I am therefore disposed to regard the Carnac, and other rows of stones, as having been erected during the same period. Megalithic erections, resembling those which are generally, Fig. 145. Carnac. but without sufficient reason, ascribed to the Druids, are found in very distant coimtries. In Moab, De Saulcy ob- served rude stone avenues, and other monuments, which he compares to Celtic dolmens. Lieut. Oliver, also, mentions that the Hovas of Madagascar to this day erect monoliths and stone tombs closely resembling those of Western Europe.* Mr. Maurice f was, I believe, the first to point out, that in some parts of India there are various monuments of stone, which, in the words of Colonel Yule, " recall strongly those mysterious, solitary, or clustered monuments of uu- * Trans. Etliii. Soc. 1870, p. 67. t India Antiqna. 118 MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS IN INDIA. known origin, so long the puzzle and delight of antiquaries, which abound in our native country, and are seen here and there in all parts of Europe and Western Asia." * Mr. Fer- gusson goes farther, and argues with great ingenuity that the " Buddhist architecture in India, as practised from the third century B.C. to seventh A.D., is essentially tumular, circular, and external, thus possessing the three great cha- racteristics of all the so-called Druidical remains."! These resemblances, indeed, are too great to be accidental, and the differences represent, not so much a difference in style, as in ci\dlization. " In the most celebrated example in India, that at Sanchee, the circle consists of roughly squared upright stone posts, joined at the top by an architrave of the same thickness as the posts, exactly as at Stonehenge; the only difference being the insertion of three stone rails between each of the uprights, which is a masonic refinement hardly to be expected amons the Celts." In India, then, the circles of stones seem generally to have surrounded tumuli ; but this is not always the case, and there are some "which apparently enclose nothing." Again, they are generally covered with sculpture ; but to this also there are exceptions, as, for instance, at Amravati, where there are numberless little circles of rude unhewn stone, identical with those in this country, but smaller. In Europe we know that the stones of Megalithic monu- ments are almost invariably uncarved. There is indeed a dolmen, near Confolens in Charente, in which the upper stone is supported, not on rude stone blocks, but on four slender columns. | I agree, however, with M. * Jour, of the Asiat. Soc. of Ben- Wise, ditto, p. 154. Hooker's Hima- gal, vol. xiii. p. 617. See also Proc. layan Joiu'nals. Taylor, Trans. Roy. Soc. Antiq. Scotland, vol. i. p. 93. Irish Acad. vol. xxiv. etc. Babington,Trans. Lit. Soc. Bombay, t I.e. p. 212. 1823. Congreve, Madras Joui'. of X Statistique Monumentale de la Lit. and Science, 1847. Yule, Proc. Charente. Soc. Ant. Scotland, vol. i. p. 93. MODERN INDIAN DOLMENS. 119 Eochebrune, that the supports were probably carved at a period long subsequent to the erection of the monument.* At Stonehenge the stones are roughly hewn, but at this stage the Megalithic achitecture in Western Europe seems to have been replaced by a totally different style. In Algeria ,•!- on the contrary, it advanced further ; we there find tumuli of regular masonry and stone circles, in which the floors are paved. On the principal stones in one of the stone circles are letters, the meaning of which, however, is unknown. In India it reached a still higher stage of development, so that it requires an observant eye to detect in the rude cromlechs, stone circles, and tumuli, the prototypes of the highly deco- rated architecture of the Buddhists. It is a very remarkable fact, that even to the present day, some of the hill tribes in India continue to erect menhirs, cromlechs, and other combinations of gigantic stones, some- times singly, sometimes in rows, sometimes in circles, in either case very closely resembling those found in Western Europe. Among the Khasias,^ " the funeral ceremonies are the only ones of any importance, and are often conducted with barbaric pomp and expense ; and rude stones of gigantic proportions are erected as monuments, singly or in row^s, circles, or supporting one another like those of Stonehenge, which they rival in dimensions and appearance." Dalton§ mentions several menhirs erected by the present generation in memory of relatives who have recently died. An interesting account is given by Dr. Inman, on the authority of Mr. Greey, of the mode in which these large blocks of stone are moved. Two long horizontal poles are * Mem. sur les Restes d'industrie 214. See also Letourneux, Ar. f. appartenantaux temps primordiaux Antliropolgie, 1868, p. 307. dans le Dep. de la Charente. 1866. X Dr. Hooker's Himalayan Jour. t RecueildesNoticesetMemoires vol. ii. p. 276. See also p. 320. de la Societe Archeologique de la § Ethnology of Bengal, p. 203, Province de Constantine, 1863, p. 120 MODERN INDIAN DOLMENS. placed under the stone pillar, and firmly lashed to it, one at each end. At intervals of about three feet other poles were then fastened to the two first, parallel to the stone pillar, so that a large number of men could get a firm hand-hold. In this manner Mr. Greey saw a stone about 30 feet long, 10 feet broad, and weighing about 24 tons, easily moved by about 600 men.* The single pillars are sometimes tombstones, sometimes memorials of important events. Colonel Yule once asked a native if there were any tradition about one of these pillars, which is known as Mausmai, i.e. " the stone of the oath." Fig. 146. -* ^^^"^ Indian Dolmens. " There was war," said the man, " between two villages, and when they made peace, and swore to it, they erected this stone for a tvitness." f Sir Joseph Hooker * has called attention to the fact that * Proceedings Lit. and Soc. of % Address to the Britisli Associa- Liverpool, vol. xxx. p. 108. tion, 1868, p. 7. t Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland, vol. i. p. 93. MODERN INDIAN DOLMENS. 121 the Khasian word for a stone, " Mau," as commonly occurs in the names of their villages and places, as that of Man, Maen and Men, does in those of Brittany, Wales, Cornwall, etc. ; thus Mausmai signifies in Khasia the Stone of Oath, — Mamloo, the Stone of Salt, — Mouflong, the Grassy Stone, — just as in Wales, Penmaenmawr signifies the Hill of the Big Stone ; while a Menhir is a standing stone, and a Dolmen a table stone, etc. Those who believe that the use of metal was introduced into Europe by a race of Indo-European origin, will find in these facts an interesting confirmation of their opinion. Fig. 147. How closely these Indian dolmens resemble those of Europe may be seen by comparing figs. 146 and 147 with 141 and 143. The Indian Dolmens, as shown in the valuable memoirs by Captain Meadows Taylor* (figs. 146, 147), may truly be said to be identical with those of Western Europe. He examined a very considerable number, having obtained particulars of no less than 2129 dolmens in the district of Bellary, in the Dekhan, and it is interesting that, as is sometimes the case *(TTrans. R. Irish Academy, vol. Leslie's valuable work, " The Early xxiv. p. 329. See also Col. Forbes Races of Scotland." 122 MODES OF BURIAL IN TUMULI. in Europe, more than 1100 had an opening in one of the side stones, perhaps in order to introduce food, perhaps as an exit for the spirit of the dead. Montperieux figures (pi. xxx.) a dolmen with a similar hole, in his work on the Caucasus. Schoolcraft also mentions that in the United States the Redskins very frequently left an opening in the grave cover for the same purpose.* Archaeologists are divided as to whether dolmens were in all cases originally covered over with earth. Mr. Fergusson denies this, while it has been ably maintained by Mr. Lukis. It must, I think, be admitted that some of the cases relied on by Mr. Fergusson must be abandoned ; nevertheless, I am disposed to believe that in some instances the dolmen was left uncovered. The majority of these dolmen were no doubt sepulchral. Some, however, were very probably shrines, erected in honour of a god, not of a man. Mr. Walhouse, in an interesting paper on non-sepulchral rude stone monuments,f describes a dolmen consisting of back and side slabs set on edge, observed by him on the table-land of Mysore, and which was a temple to Hanuman, contahiing a rude image of the god, with a few tiowers strewn before it. Subsequently he found these temple dolmens in common use by the Malayalies, a Tamil race inhabiting the Shiarai Hills. We must not, however, attribute too much importance to the similarity existing between the megalithic erections in various parts of the world. Give any child a box of bricks, and it will immediately build dolmens, cromlechs, and " tri- lithons," like those of Stonehenge, so that the construction of these remarkable monuments may be regarded as another illustration of the curious similarity existing between the child and the savage. * Sclioolcraft's Indian Tribes, pt. i. p. 33. t Jour. Antlir. Inst. An^. 1877. MODES OF BURIAL IN TUMULI. 123 Tumuli or burrows are much more numerous and more widely distributed than stone circles. No doubt the great majority of them are burial mounds, but some also were erected as memorials, like the " heap of witness " erected by Laban and Jacob, or the mound heaped up by the Ten Thousand in their celebrated retreat, when they obtained their first view of the sea. The tumuli were generally constructed of materials found on the spot, the cists, however, and chambers, when present, being often built of slabs brought from a distance. Generally the earth, etc., is heaped up without any order, having been, at any rate in many cases, dug with deer's-horn picks, and carried to the mound perhaps in baskets. In other cases the materials are arranged in more or less regvdar layers. The size of the tumulus may be taken as a rough indication of the estimation in which the deceased was held, as James * also tells us was the case among the North American Indians. The Scotch Highlanders f have a complimentary proverb, " Curri mi clach er du cuirn," i.e. " I will add a stone to your cairn " ; and I am informed by Mr. E. Gray that the custom still exists in the Hebrides, as it does among various savage and semi-savage races. The remark made by Schoolcraft as regards the American Indians is applicable to many savage tribes. " Nothing that the dead possessed was deemed too valuable to be interred with the body. The most costly dress, arms, ornaments, and implements, are deposited in the grave ; " which is " placed in the choicest scenic situations — on some crowning hill or gentle eminence in a secluded valley." And the North American Indians are said, even until within the last few years, to have long cherished a friendly feeling for the French, because, in the time of their supremacy, they had at least * Expedition to the EoekyMoun- t Wilson, Pre-historic Annals of tains, vol. ii. p. 2. Scotland, vol. i. p. 86, 2nd ed. 124 CHAMBERED TUMULI. this one great merit, that they never disturbed the resting- places of the dead. Coffins do not appear to have been used in ancient times. Mr. Greenwell has sometimes fomid traces of decayed wood, and in one case the side of a grave showed the impression of a rough board. Such burials, I believe, generally belong to the Bronze Age. A good example is that of Gristhorpe, near Scarborough, described by Prof. Williamson, which, among other relics, contained a small bronze dagger. The majority of tumuli are mere heaps of earth, or of stones, covering the bones or ashes of the dead ; in many cases, however, the mound contains a cist of stones, evidently intended to protect the remains of the deceased, while in other cases the dead man was buried in a dolmen, more or less resembling those represented in figs. 140-142, and the whole was then covered over. Such dolmens, either covered or uncovered, occur, as already mentioned, in Northern Africa and in India. Some archaeologists have considered that all dolmens were originally covered with earth or stones, but I think the evidence shows that some at least were intentionally left exposed. Some of the oldest tvmiuli of Western Europe, as 138-9, contain a passage, formed by great blocks of stone, almost always opening (as do those of Brittany) towards the south or east — never to the north — and leading into a large central chamber, round which the dead sit. At Godhavn, for in- stance, in the year 1830, a grave (if so it can be called) of this kind was opened, and numerous skeletons were found, sitting on a low seat round the walls, each with his weapons and ornaments by his side. Now the dwellings used by Arctic nations — the " winter-houses " of the Esquimaux and Green- landers, the " Yourts " of the Siberians — correspond closely with these " Ganggraben " or " Passage graves." The Siberian Yurt, for instance, as described by Erman, consists of a central chamber, sunk a little in the ground, and, in the absence of THE USE OF TUMULI AS DWELLINGS. 125 great stones, formed of timber, while earth is heaped up on the roof and against the sides, reducing it to the form of a mound. The opening is on the south, and a small hole for a window is sometimes left on the east side. Instead of glass, a plate of ice is used ; it is at first a foot thick, and four or five generally last through the winter. The fire-place is opposite the entrance ; and round the sides of the room, ac^ainst the walls, " the floor is raised for a width of about six Fig. 148. Summer and "Winter Dwellings. — Kamskatka. feet, and on this elevated part the inmates slept at night, and sat at work by day." Captain Cook gives a very similar description of the winter habitations used by the Tschutski in the extreme north-east of Asia. They are, he says,* " exactly like a vault, the floor of which is sunk a little below the surface of the earth. One of them, which I examined, was of an oval form, about twenty feet long and twelve or more high. The framing was composed of wood, and the ribs of whales, disposed in a judicious manner, and bound together with smaller materials of the same sort. Over this framing is laid a covering of * Voyages to the Pacific Ocean, vol. ii. p. 450. See also vol. iii. p. 374, 126 YOUETS AND GAMMES. strong coarse grass, and that, again, is covered with earth ; so that, on the outside, the house looks like a little hillock supported by a wall of stone three or four feet high, which is built round the two sides and one end." " The Aleutian Islanders," says Mr. Dall, " especially in their winter villages, were used to construct large, half under- ground habitations, often of extraordinary size. These were so arranged by internal partitions as to afford shelter to even as many as one hundred families. No fires were built in the central undivided portion, which was entered through a hole in the roof, provided with a notched log by way of ladder. In the small compartments each family had its own oil lamp, which, with the closely fitting door of skins, and the heat of numerous bodies in a very small space, sufficed to keep them warm. \Ve learn that the bodies, while being prepared for encasement, as above described, were sometimes kept in the compartment which they had occupied during life until ready for deposition elsewhere. We also know from early accounts, proved true by our own excavations, that the bodies of the dead, in the compressed position before mentioned, were some- times placed in the compartment, laid on their sides, and covered with earth, wiih which the whole compartment was filled and then walled up. It is stated that others in the same yourt continued to occupy their several compartments after this as usual, a proceeding very different from that of the majority of the Innuit, who usually abandon at once a house in which a death has occurred." * Fig. 149 represents the plan of a Laplander's gamme, or hut, at Komagfiord, as given by Mr. Brooke.-f It was built of sods, supported by a rude framework, and the interstices were stuffed with moss. The greatest height was 6 ft., the breadth 14 ft., the whole length 30 ft. A is the door; B, the * Dall. The Aleutian Islands. + Brooke's Travels in Lapland, Smitlisonian Contributions. 1878. p. 318. HUT-BURIAL AMONG MODERN SAVAGES. 127 passage, 3ft. high, 6ft. broad, and 12ft. in length; C is the inner door, opening into the gamme, D ; E, the fire-place, composed of a few large stones to confine the wood-fire ; F, an opening in the roof to let out the smoke ; G G are sleep- ing divisions, which serve also to support the roof ; H is a portion fenced off for the sheep and goats. A comparison of this hut with the corresponding plan of a tumulus (fig. 151, p. 149, and with fig. 154) will show how closely these dwellings appear to agree with the " Ganggraben " : indeed, it is Fig. 149. ^ J a ■c"-n Laplander's Gauime, or Hut. possible that in some cases ruined dwellings of this kind have been mistaken for sepulchral tumuli ; * for some mounds have been examined which contained broken implements, pottery, ashes, etc., but no human bones ; in short, numerous indica- tions of life, but no trace of death. We know, also, that several savage tribes have a superstitious reluctance to use anything which has belonged to a dead person, perhaps from fear of irritating his ghost ; in some cases this applies to his house, which is either deserted or used as a grave. Thus, some of the North American tribes, for instance, the Cherokees and * The so-called " Pond-barrows " perhaps 1 belong to this class. 128 PICTS' HOUSES. Chichasaws, buried the dead under the couch on which he died.* The Indians of the Amazons also bury their dead under their houses, which, however, are not therefore abandoned by the li\ang. Among the Xew Zealanders, according to Mr. Taylor, " when the owner died, and was buried in his house, it was left with all it contained ; the door was tied up and painted with ochre, to show it was made tapu, and then no one ever entered it again."-|- In many villages, he says, nearly half the houses belonged to the dead. The islanders of Torres Straits also used the ordinary huts as dead houses. :|: Denham § tells us that in the great central African king- dom of Bornou " every one is buried under the floor of his own house, without monument or memorial ; and among the commonalty the house continues occupied as usual, but among the great there is more refinement, and it is ever afterwards abandoned." The same is the case with the Dahomans, Yorubans, Fantees, and other African tribes.II Other races, as, for instance, some of the Tibeto-Burman ^ tribes and the natives of Madagascar,** erect miniature houses over graves. Hut burial also occurs among several South American tribes. It is still more significant that the Esquimaux themselves frequently leave the dead in the houses which they occupied when alive.ff Nor can any one compare the plan of a Scandinavian " passage grave," as, for instance, the one repre-^ sented in fig. 151, with any drawing (see fig. 149) of an * Jones, Antiquities of the South- || Burton's Mission to Dahome, ern Indians, p. 114. vol. ii. p. 2. t New Zealand and its Inhabi- IT ]\I'Mahon, Karens of the tants, p. 101. Golden Chersonese, pp. 91, 318. :J: M'Gillivra>', Voyage of the ** Sibree, Madagascar and its Rattlesnake, vol. ii. p. 48. People, pp. 166, 251. § Travels in Africa, vol. iv. pp. +t Ross' Arctic Expedition, 1829- 55-130. 1833, p. 290. PICTS' HOUSES. 129 Esquimaux snow house, without being struck with the great similarity existing between them. Under these circumstances we may consider these chamber graves as a copy, a development, or an adaptation, of the dwelling-house ; that the ancient inhabitants of Scandinavia, unable to imagine a future altogether different from the present, or a world quite unlike our own, showed their respect and affection for the dead by burying with them those things which in life they had valued most : with women, their ornaments ; with warriors, their weapons. They buried the house with its owner, and the grave was literally the dwelling of the dead. When a great man died, he was placed on his favourite seat, food and drink were arranged before him, his weapons were placed by his side, his house was closed, and tlie door covered up ; sometimes, however, to be opened again when his wife or children joined him in the land of spirits. It is just possible that the comparative rarity of chambered tumuli in England and France may be connected with the greater mildness of the climate, which did not necessitate the use of underground " winter-houses ; " or it may be an indica- tion of a difference in race. Further investigations will, doubtless, decide this point. In the mean time we must remember that the so-called " Picts-Houses " are abundant in the northern parts of Great Britain. These curious dwellings are " scarcely distinguishal^le from the larger tumuli ; but on digging into the green mound, it is found to cover a series of large chambers, built generally with stones of considerable size, and converging towards the centre, where an opening appears to have been left for light and ventilation. These differ little from many of the subterranean weems, excepting that they are erected on the natural surface of the soil, and have been Ijuried by means of an artificial moimd heaped over them."* * Wilson, 1. c. vol. i. p. 161. lc!0 LONG BAEROWS. According to Mr. Bateman, who has recorded the syste- matic opening of more than fonr hundred tmnuli (a very- large proportion of which were investigated in his presence), and whose opinion is therefore of great vakie, the leading feature of these ancient British sepulchral mounds is, that they enclose either an artless stone vault, or chamber, or a stone chest, otherwise called a Kistvaen, built with more or less care ; and, in other cases, a grave cut out more or less below the natural surface, and lined, if need be, wich stone Fk;. 150. slabs, in which the body was placed in a perfect state, or reduced to ashes by fire."* The " long barrows " are rarer ; they resemble, in some respects, the Scan- dinavian " Gauggraben," and, like them, in districts where large blocks of stones occur, contain megalithic chambers, in which the dead were buried and not burnt. No trace of metal has yet been found in this class of tumulus ; which Long Skull.— Derbyshire, therefore probably belongs to the Stone Age. The skulls found in this tumuli are long and narrow skulls, which have received from Dr. Wilson the name of " Kumbecephalic," or boat-shaped skulls, reseml^ling the one in fig. 150, which was obtained l)y Mr. Bateman from the tumulus known as " Longlow," near Watton, in Derbyshire. This tumulus contained the remains of thirteen individuals, who had been buried in the usual contracted position. They were contained in a cist composed of large stones, and were accompanied with several worked flints, including three care- fully made arrow-heads. Long skulls are comparatively rare in the round tumuli of England, while, on the contrary, no round skulls have yet been met with in the long tumuli, at * Bateman, Ten Years' Diggings, p. xi. LONG BARROWS. 131 any rate in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire : so that the evidence appeals to support Dr. Thurnara's aphorism, Long barrows, long skulls ; round barrows, round skulls.* This conclusion rests on the measurements of 137 skulls, 70 from round barrows and 67 from long ones, and it must be observed that these are not selected specimens, but, so far as the long- barrow skulls are concerned, comprise the whole number which we possess in a sufficiently perfect condition ; while, as regards the 70 from round tumuli, Dr. Thurnam has taken the whole number (41) contained in the Bateman collection, those described in the Crania Britannica, and all those in his own collection. It is important to observe, therefore, that in neither case has any selection been made which could influence the results. Now if we class those skulls in which the relation of the breadth to the length is less than 73 to 100 as long heads, or Dolichocephalic, those in which it is from 74-79 to 100 as medium heads, and those in which the proportion is 80 or more than 80 to 100 as short heads, or Brachycephalic, we shall have the following result : Total number of Dolichocephalic Orthocephalic Brachycephalic skulls. 63-73. 74-79. 80-89. Long barrows . 67 ... 55 ... 12 .. . Eound barrows . 70... 0...26...44 Thus there is not a single long head among the 70 speci- mens from round barrows, nor a single round head among the 67 specimens from long barrows. So remarkable a distinction certainly appears to imply a difference of race. The more recent researches of Canon Greenwell and Dr. Eolleston confirm these views. They have never found a round skull in a long barrow. On the other hand, although Dr. Thurnam found no long skulls in round barrows, yet, unless the long-headed race were entirely destroyed by the men with round heads, we should naturally expect that, * Mem. Anthropological See. vol. i. 132 OBJECTS BUEIED WITH THE DEAD. though the round heads would preponderate in the later round barrows, still skulls of the earlier long-headed race would sometimes occur ; and this we find is really the case. The women at any rate of the earlier race were probably not wholly exterminated. Dr. Thurnam is disposed to refer the Dohchocephalic people to the Neolithic Age, the Brachycephalic to that of Bronze. It seems to me that both existed during the Neolithic period. Many, if not most, of the round barrows are certainly referable to this phase in our history. As yet, no bone belonging to any of the extinct mammalia has been found in a tmnulus. Even the reindeer, so far as our present evidence goes, is entirely wanting. Again, the stone implements, as already mentioned, are of a character very different from those used by Palasolithic men. It is therefore not surprising to find that the skulls which have been obtained from tumuli attributed to the Stone Age, indi- cate that Europe was, even at that period, already inhabited by more than one race of men. On the Continent, as in England, some are brachycephalic, or short-headed, and so far resemble those of the Lapps, while others are dolichocephalic, or long-headed* (fig. 150). Virchowj- has published a memoir on the skulls obtained from Danish tumuli, and contained in the Copenhagen Museum. Omitting fragmentary specimens, and those belonging to young persons, he has examined 41 skulls referred to the Stone Age, 3 to the Bronze Age, and 5 to the Iron Age, and compared them with the specimens of Lapp (6), Greenland (5), and Finn (3) skulls contained in the same collection. On the whole, these Stone Age skulls are orthocephalic, inclining to brachycephalism ; the Bronze Age and Iron Age specimens are dolichocephalic, * Nilsson's Stone Age, English t Ar. fiir Antliropologie, 1870^ ed. p. 121. p. 55. OBJECTS BURIED WITH THE DEAD. 133 but it must be remarked that it would not be safe to draw any definite conclusion from so small a number of specimens ; and that even if the Bronze Age indicates the immigration of a new race into Western Europe, they would probably not exterminate the earlier inhabitants, but would at any rate spare the young women, so that, until we have a considerable body of evidence, it would be very unsafe to speculate on the character of the population during the Bronze Age. The Lapps and Finns are brachycephalic ; but Virchow observes that if in this respect the skulls of the latter re- semble the type of the Danish Stone Age, they differ greatly in height and breadth, so that no ethnic affinity can be pre- dicated between them. In some cases the skulls obtained from one and the same buried mound differ from one another very considerably. Thus among those found in the great tumulus at Borreby, in Denmark, the breadth, taking the length at 100, varied from 71"8 to 85-7, or no less than 14 per cent.* The care with which the dead were interred, and the custom of burying implements with them, may fairly be regarded as indicating the existence of a belief in the immortality of the soul, and in a material existence after death. The objects bmied with the dead are sometimes numerous, and always interesting. In a large tumulus near Everley, a deposit of burnt bones was " surrounded by a circular wreath of horns of the red-deer ; " whilst at a higher level, though three feet from the summit, was the skeleton of a small dog, the " attendant in the chase, and perhaps the victim in death," of the hunter, whose exquisitely chipped arrow-heads, five in number, were deposited with his ashes.f But it is very far from being " constantly " the case that the dead were so well supplied with what we call the neces- * Busk, Vogt's Lectures on Man, p. 384. t Arcliseologia, 43, p. 536. 134 THE DEAD FREQUENTLY BURIED WITHOUT ORNAMENTS. saries of life ; indeed, it is the exception aud not the rule. Thus, out of more than 250 interments described by Sir E. Colt Hoare in the first volume of his great work on Ancient Wiltshire, only 18 had any implements of stone, only 31 of bone, 67 of bronze, and 11 of iron ; and while pottery was present in 107, more than 60 of these contained only sepul- chral urns, intended to receive the ashes of the dead, and certainly never meant to hold food. So far, however, as stone implements are concerned, I must confess that Sir E. C. Hoare appears to have overlooked the ruder instru- ments and weapons. 1 will, therefore, rely principally on the evidence afforded by the researches of Mr. Bateman and Mr. Greenwell. Although a large number of the interments described by ]\Ir. Bateman had been already examined, there were 297 which had not been previously disturbed, and though he carefully mentions even the rudest bit of chipped flint, no less than 100 of these were without any implement at all, either of stone or metal, and the drinking-vessels and food- vases were only about 40 in number. Moreover, lest it should be supposed that these ill-provided interments were those of poor persons or enemies, we will leave all these out of consideration. This we can easily do. We may be sure that these tumuli, which must have required much lal;>our, were only raised in honour of the rich or great ; though they may have served, and, no doubt, often did serve after- wards, as Ijurial-places for the poor. But it is almost always easy to distinguish the primary interment ; for though there are some few cases in which the original occupant has been ignominiously ejected from his grave to make room for a successor, these instances are rare, and can generally be de- tected, while the secondary interments are usually situated either above the first or on the sides of the tumulus. The same feeling which made our ancestors prefer to bury their MODELS OF IMPLEMENTS SOMETIMES BURIED. 135 dead in a pre-existiug tumulus, generally prevented them from desecrating the earlier interments. In the following tables, then, I have recorded the primary interments only ; the first column contains the name of the tumulus, the succeeding nine indicate the disposition of the corpse, and the articles found therewith, while the last is reserved for any special remarks. Out of 139 interments examined by Mr. Bateman, only 105 had any implements or weapons, and only 35 were accompanied by any pottery that can have held either food or drink. Moreover, if we examine the nature of the implements which were deposited with the dead, we shall find that they are far from representing com- plete sets of tools or ornaments. The rarity of bronze in tombs is, perhaps, not surprising ; but to men so practised as our predecessors, it must have been an easy matter to make a rude arrow-head, or a flint flake. Yet some of the corpses are accompanied by but one single arrow-head, others l3y a small flint flake ; some, again, by a single scraper. Such isolated objects may in many cases have been dropped acci- dentally. It must also be observed that many of the stone objects found by Mr. Bateman are much ruder than might be supposed from the names he has given them. In the table (p. 140) with which Mr. Greenwell has been so good as to furnish me, and which shows the primary deposits in 102 tumuli examined by him, it will be observed that only thirty contained any implement, the other 72 being altogether bare.* They were always buried in a contracted position,-[- or burnt, and there is not a single case in which the corpse was deposited in that extended position which seems to us so natural. * Mr. Clreenwell's subsequent re- t The custom of burying the searches have tended to confirm dead in a contracted position was this. Out of 379 burials, 63 only very widely extended. In the had implements of stone, 16 of Neolithic interments of Egypt tho bronze, and 4 of bone. corpse was always in this attitude. 130 TAIUl.VTKl' 1NTHRMENT8. •Jl 'Jl «i = -s o S u 3 ~ r, 2 >? Ph o & 0) to . ■2"S c S^ -ji as • - If « "3 5 3 si 1 a> 6 < ii 1 c 5 "o o u 0) o 1 .3 sj 00 o tfl — ^ S ^ •;:; ■^s- ^ 3 . = ^ •S'S r-' £ !S 3 5 3 o 3 B ^ M 4 S c! afe o .a o Horses' teei 'Phis was a 1 Skeleton of Head of a b Small barro E — 3 *" i£ 3 5"^ C! o i H o 5 •Ji o 5 o s5 3 o a) "is X •a S ^ ^ -u. *;. ^ -»i-w ^ ^ w« ^-B*^ ^ 55o3S XSIO "3 ■6 S 5 3 oo 5 "3 53 ■ 3553 ■ *^ P ■^V '^ H r"" Z ?; < 02 < 3 2 ■5 3 te - ^ ;: S is * « 3 o cj i 5^ KOIIISOJ I ^ aaasaixa •aaiOYHiNoo o« 'ft 5* .-s M ft^ ^ ft ■ ■ aj " » 3 :r. •— "^ . . d o s'w" 3 -S ""* I-* m S3 o 2 S 2-? » r- OJ 3 -~ -J 3*» TABULATED INTERNMENTS. 137 sw = £32 I ■£2p ■" ^ 'TiZ^ i' o CO EC3 o s g 5 3 5 5tf O) £^5 M O 3 ^13 5 OJ^' 5 « a o o S; p4.t^ ^ 00 >. en !-• Sg •55 S o 3 01 -I ft -^ '"'t^Tj 1^ " q3 ■* fe 2 § M 5^ ag£j a° =§00 'cjuo o 'oo 00 00 ou CO O I— I o o o a HO tC Ui P5 < w >H • • sc • Ml Q ■£ ^ w < I-. .^ .*3 .*o li>IJ •So u3 • '55 ■535 55 5 5 ■ 5 : ^ • • r-' r^ ft ft ^ ^ — ft "^ ^ g • • • ;c ■ to • • • SB S ; ri « •g^tc d. § ■ Q Q . . . a Q '1 . . a a 8 • » K V „ % « • 3 CO SiS s • K s • c^ ec 1- ts tl to r. S •S IV ■■ -^ •■ M a ; ; '>! ■!^ t •^ Q < H -< Q Q Ph <; 25 a ^ i ~ Z c B 3 o M o ftm ■S = 5 a 3 « t^ .S a ^^ ^ ci a c • • • 3 ■" fH r/: fts c -r. fi S : : :| 2 : ■ '-B a : = i; -*^ ^_, >» o t- o 2 c "ftS a C3 a C3 to >■ ^ » 2 § = •s . = • • ■ . . ."* n s c s 1 o a WS ■^^Si— ! :i cij r;'" J. 5 tic ^ 1 &ri 1 : : : : ■ 5 1 CS c3 ■ S ^7 g1 S;7 =^ a 2.5 a "3 ft 5 0) 1 p 5 S ft S CJ 2 a a 3 S 2 6 T" O o O c^ . . ! : J O O cS C cS !h t. o fc, ii ■ •< t~ in lo »c iC o 2 § i s s 3 TABULATED INTERMENTS. 139 s a a S "3 S 2 S o a; .S fcc >• ca a 111 ^" a* ill . a >,■= r a a* © =« ■a o °T S.t> a ? P30 << o g tCii — " a a "5 *3 --. ^ a .a ^ --a M« ^ a M ■? ■§ S 2 « ^ta13 ,& " « ■^ « H X ^ c« of. s^ S a a> a SCO A O •f O J3 tc a S a s »^ - a a o tl! .c *^ ^ CO ^ 1 4i, .M 4^.M .»;> 4^ +3 . .u,4;i.tf *= .!-> .M *i *i *?+=" "m +3 "m [ O ■ 'O 'o^o ■ ■ O O ■oo;^ ■ OO o ■Q ooo O o . 0) ■ ' ■ ■ g ft o ' ft ■ a ft" ft ^ • S : : 2 si§ £ s o o ^ s S 1 '3 S§ .^'SbS'S 0) m " M a . Sa % g S : g ft-g s -5 C3 • si oj • cs o ft 1^ cS o lis o 0) M > >t* > H4 M »2 > > hH > M ;> a ^ a a 1 5 >. 1 • . . It a . . « c! ( ^ r '- b a % • • IE • • • • <)««! a Q • -^ 1 fl 1 § \ --J ! : : : ; : :? ! H '. ■s '. '. : : '. : : S Kound Mint . . Several instruments A few instruments Two instruments Arrow-head . . Spear-head Two instruments Several instruments Several instruments, in- cluding a spear-head Two lance-heads and one round-ended Spear-head Spear-head Lance and arrow-head . . Spear-head Chisel and spear-head . . Lance, arrow-head, and circular instrument Two indifferent instru- ments Spear-head, arrow-head, and hammer Two spears aud round- ended instrument Spear-head, etc. Arrow-head and rough instruments Cutting instruments . . Three poor flints Twenty-one implements Four instruments Five flints Knife Spear-head Round instrument Circular instrument 1 : :::::: 1 :::::::::: 1 : : : : | : : : : | : 1 i • : : : : : : :| : : : : | : • • • • 1 : : 1 : : : • ■ 1 1 1 • ■ ' 1 -1 ■ ■ • : : :| :| : : 1 :::::: | : : : : : : : : : : °-a ■ • ft • . s a • Varren mge . . le 3^ o a a "^ W c3 El o a -H 1o.S " SB'S ,=? f; ^ -S "3 OH o a •:^ >» to t- 'JD C-. — CO to ;D CO — I- 1^ ci.5 :;H a oj'S S30 C-l CO Tji lO O h- C; O rH fN CO ■* m CD O i-H fM CO ■* m CO I CO 00 00 00 00 OO OO CO CO OO a c^ c: o c: oo o; oi osc I-IU TAlSULATEl) INTKHMENTS. X. :^ ! ^ ss 6 S -s c 3 O 2 I ■3 0) > s ■3 3 3 3"= a i ca !i « « si V t 9 c a C3 S5 5^ e« sis 5 =-3 3 S ■3 a 2 ■0 s: 1: rt 2 3 33 S 2 1 3 75 3 ■3 .ti X ^ 'rr a ■= S ^ ^ 3 c ■^ C ^ a a ^ - tr '^ S:S S ^«2 2S2 a AC IP ti Zi g B A 3^S'^ OH H u (U 0) V a> • > > >■ s- • >• ct tS 53 rt cS (rt ca OS tS cs C3 > ^ fe tcto CD to tc litis to tc tt :o sS ^ - /: ^ ^ & ■s is ■s ^ S ^ ^ ^ to o a. a •/. ■/. r. y. ■r: •J. -/: v: •/: •/: -T. , ■ wT "^^ rj X J^ ,^ c. ^ ^ ft 3 ft 3 a i4 S 'A ^ 2i a . , ^ 3 3 _, ^ 3 . a ^ » e > ■ £? a 4) ■g >. 3 a 5) g = rt T- ■&« % £? 1 ^ •a s a T3 S . S a s . . a S . S-- a a . i) • a sa • C3 ■ - s > a hH yj HH J 0^ -H cocc e-i z »' ^4 tss =5 to ■ n a H SS a : S ^ ft ■ a c -aaiovuxNoo 6 : •';^-!::t:!'-lSS>;>-^a!:;Xf«^ T-S K> >r;s S . "3 « o = -a 55 i-( rl M ^ "5<^I^XCl^w5-lM-^u'^0 1:^00 CiO '' > t-t C5 Ti !2; s 3-§ r:53«S •* \a TABULATED INTERMENTS. 141 ^ ^ rt ^ c •O e: ^ o 2 ^ ' s 5 -*^ ? ^ , e = js ..' - ti : 2 c 'T ./ ^ s - .i = ' ^ o . -^ , c ^ .^ o ; s z 'C r^ ^ a ■j^ ^ , u A! — -*- •3=5 = S ^'^ 2|J a .H M^ 5 i; O) S CJ „-= £*^ 3 — ■ >■ ^ S c & ^ *" o s " i2 2i 5 2 " - o o 2 ^^ tJ ^ ^ t -s -2 ^'— S Q « m ^ C^ -s- :;S-= o "2 « ~ 5 ^- CJ ,_ e s -— 2"" _ c o ti ~ 05 -t; -._^«. „ ^„ nil CH O wC < • • >■'■ ^ '■■'■'■'■ p. ' a ^ ^ •" rt s cJ « ^ ^ U >■ u l^ Ut >■ s^ ■oi 'Scj'5 'o-ua; "Iter a rj^Ziy: PCS ^g ."S S -1 ^ • tt to i : =s : ? p S => o t(i35 5trj~=^ 5 qM 3 Z -; -* • • • ^ • ^ ^ H =i='r il s. i- ' § ' .^ : :^- •|5 = ■.£••••■ ■*^ Cm — Z r* .4^ ^ : : g : "% 3 ■ '-c ■^ il ■= ■ ■^ • • • • ^ o X 4J rt jj ^ - -- : : ri '* :-i : : :.£ , ^ , * H^ I :'x ^ ; : : : : : : 1 : : | : :• : : : | : : | : j : : | | : : | : : : : : : 1 ! 1 1 '1 1 ' - '1 1 ' 1 1 H 1 '1 -II 1 1 1 '' 1 1 II 1 'S^^>l-i ^7 >. s s % *^ s a 1 3 PS -/: J^X c = T- 'Ti r: "^ I ccr:rcc^r: rsc^ r:?^ X S — "^ 14 -J TARVLATEl) INTERMENTS. i a J:S - Hat circular ral pendant.* , with a zig- 2^ '• a 1 3 £ 11 1 e « a ^ « E ne.s and 11 scatte: inking ci facing e sition. aes of a Dined by aD»- " = S -_ 3 o »i 1 "3 S ■J if II ii C 1 c a 1 > On tlie natural surface. A body cut through in makli On the natural surface. Above the grave were three out lower jaws, carefully the form of Y. Some disturbed bones of a grave. ecklace of jet beads, 11!) disks, and a triangular cen 11 the natural surface, ecklace of blue gla.ss bead zag pattern in wliite. OS. 06-69, a small gruup ; G 68, 69, men. 'I'lie armlets o type, and, like the neckla those found at Arras." 111 the grave some burnt Ix burnt bones of a child, and several pieces of a " d The two bodies were placet other, and in a reverse p uru was between them. On the natural surface. Man : in the grave, some b( turbed body. Woman. Tlie two graves , h 55 O^ S5 , y • • > ■ ^ ? ^ & '■ > '■ '■ '■ \ ■5. « e > • • o ■ _o _o _o u o 2 o "3 "3 "3 "3 2 > ^ g s 'tis OJ "w 0) .a J3 ai ta to oj'm i^ 1 a s>i < tc Grave Grave Deep g 8hallo\ Deep g Grave > > s- >■ = '" > o j; a : 53 to >>2 >» g tc fe > > iOa > ?-> = aft a e & : : : : : >* a C— ■ ^ b: u 3 a a , . . as to = 2- -s *" a .11 ^^1^ ■■■■ t3 ■ 2 ■ : '.3= i 6 N '*-'" — s Cq,— o as 2 2 2.C o o ::: ti "■'^ ^ to M ^ --m^ s • s '. : . • '• • to 1 ^ Ed sT-i "S cS ^ s 1 = 5 U^ = 9 •S SI i a ■^ : : : : ; : : < •<« < • O 1 C3 . «*H OQ .(^ •*, a • • ' H |5o tn o =J Z o a = sii 3 1 : . c ?^ *^ = : : : a 2 i . . -3 » ■ ' ■ ■ =-5 ■ o o -^ ^ i'S » . . . " . . . s ^ -O tc o --=« - X as § s _a :Si g i.« W 5« O fe'-H ; as : : 1 : : : :| : : : : : : : : : : : : : : | JOT HISOO 1 1 '- 1 1 1 1 ■ 1 1 III 1 II II 1 1 1 " 2 M-^ "> > ^" d >< ii 2 X i 00 z -5;;;;:: rr : : : :; ; :; ». ^ - w 1 •o 2 ™ 1 « a is 1 o 1^ ssssss s§ O I^ C/5 CS o C-J CO T}< ut la >o » 5S;s to 1^ t-* ^ £^ 1- I- TABULATED INTERMENTS, 143 •3 '3 =« S H •- ■" ►^ >t< P 13 se rt ^ "3 "3 5 o c ^ O 6^ Z Z Z^ 1> ,23 .S c3 O =3 w S 03 a> ^ 0) u '^ rf *" oj 5 oj^ »^ j5 > s > a 2 O o O o-^= "3 f- 9j t' a a pq o k< tH tH t4 tB fcBMl to Ol ft-t ^ ^ ^ ^ c4 :« S . O fl |5qM S 3 c3 cS 0^ a > 1-5 O " pq ^ < W ■11 1 -1 1 -1 1 ■ • III-'! ■ II II • • ■ 1 : : : : 1 : : ! : : | | : : : : | 1 ■■ 1 ^ ^ J-1 1 1 .MM Ml M M t> "Hm 1— 1 HH AND. ck .. II. III. S^-i „r ,, ;iin)W on t,'roukslone Hill, for instance, contained the skele- ton (»f a man, with whom had been buried the burnt liones of »)nie one, probably a slave, or, perhaps, a wife, who had been sicriticod at his grave, and yet the only implement found with him was a " circular instrument," probably a flint scraper or a sling-stone. Again, the mound known as "Cow Low" con- tained ()nly a bone pin. The affectionate relatives who heaped up this tumulus would certainly not have sent their dead sister into the new world with nothing but a bone pin, if they had thought that the things they buried with her could l)e of any use. Even the great tumulus at Arbor Low contained only a bone pin, a piece of iron pyrites, a kidney-shaped instrument of Hint, and two vases. It would be easy to multiply Olustrations, and it is, I think, sufficiently evident that the articles found in the graves cannot seriously be con- sidered as affording any evidence of a definite and general belief in a future state of existence, or as having been in- tended for the use of the dead in the new world to which they were going. Moreover, there is a well-marked speciality in each case, which seems to show that the presence of these rude implements, far from being the result of a national belief, are simply the touching evidence of individual affection. In some cases, however, the facts certainly seem to indicate a belief that the dead could carry their wealth with them to another world. For instance, Mr. Green well found in one barrow * no less than 79 saws, 17 scrapers, 8 leaf -shaped arrow-points, 2 pointed tools (probably for boring), several Hint articles of uncertain purpose, a hammer-stone, and a piece of a greenstone axe. Many of the saws were very delicately serrated, some along both edges, and showing by the glaze upon the edge that they had been in use. The * British Barrows, p. 262. BARROWS BELONG TO VERY DIFFERENT PERIODS. 145 number of saws in this case far exceeded the aggregate of those obtained from all the barrows he had opened ; and though, as he says, " it is by no means easy to give any reasonable explanation of the phenomenon," I would venture to suggest that they were regarded as wealth ; in fact as a form of money, which would enable their owner to purchase what he might require. In some few cases, again, small models of weapons have been found, in lieu of the weapons themselves. In modern Esquimaux graves, small models of kajaks, spears, etc., are sometimes buried, and a similar fact has been observed in Egyptian tombs. Mr. Franks informs me that much of the jewellery found in Etruscan tombs is so thin that it can scarcely have been intended for wear during life. In Japan those who are entitled to wear swords during life have wooden ones placed in their graves, as insignia of rank ; and it has long been the custom in China to bury paper cuttings, or drawings, of horses, money, etc., under the belief that the objects so represented will be actually possessed by the deceased.* We must always bear in mind that the ancient tumuli do not all belong to one period, nor to one race of men. No tumuli belonging to the Palaeolithic period have yet been discovered, but this mode of burial appears to have existed in Northern and Western Europe from the Neolithic, or second Stone period, down to the introduction of Christianity. Indeed it was the examination of the tumuli which first induced Sir E. Colt Hoare, and other archaeologists, to adopt for Northern Europe the division into three great periods. So far, however, as the barrows themselves are concerned (though the passage-graves and long barrows seem always to belong to the Stone Age), we are not acquainted with any external differences by which the tumuli of the Stone, Bronze, * See, for instance, Marco Polo's Travels, Edinburgh 1846, pp. 248-260. K 146 DIFFICULTY OF DETKK.MINING THE PERIOD ami Ivou Alti's fan, witli certainty, be clistiuguished fnmi one jinoiliiT. Till' contents of the graves are more instructive, though it wttuld of course be unsafe to conclude that a given Unuuhis belongs to the Stone Age, because it contained one or two implements made of that material. We know that stone \v;is extensively used throughout the Bronze Age; and, indeed, out of 37 tumuli in which Mr. Bateman found objci'ts made of bronze, no less than 29 contained also stone imj)lenu'nts, many of which, moreover, were extremely rude. Evidently, therefore, the mere presence of a few implements of stone is in itself no sufficient reason for referring any given interment to the Stone Age. The following tabular statement of 297 interments, recorded by Mr. Bateman,. will, I think, be found interesting : — Implements. CORPSE. Total. Contracted, i.e., in a sit- ting posture. Burnt. Extended. Position Uncertain. Noue 27 53 15 2 63 48 10 3 3 2 5 14 7 31 7 7 100 134 37 26 Stone Bronze Iron Total 97 124 24 52 297 These interments are all from the counties of Derby, Stafford, and York. In his work on ancient Wiltshu-e, Sir E. C. Hoare records the examination of 267 interments, which may be tabulated in a similar manner, as follows : — Implements. CORPSE. Contracted. Burnt. Extended. loiai. Position Uncertain. None 9 2 4 160 5 49 3 1 2 7 12 184 1 9 8 63 4 11 Stone Bronze Iron Total 15 214 13 25 267 TO WHICH A TUMULUS BELONGS. 147 We see that in these tables nearly all the cases of bronze were in interments in which the ])ody was contracted, preceded by cremation, and the same is the case in the Yorkshire tumuli examined by Mr. Greenwell. As regards the Salisbury Plain tumuli, I am disposed to regard the gi'eat majority as belonging to the Bronze Age. No less than 270 cluster round Stonehenge, and it seems most probable that the dead were brought from a distance to lie near the great temple. In this case the great majority of the tumuli belong, therefore, to one period, that, namely, at which the temple was held sacred. Some few, indeed, may be referable to earlier or later times, but as out of 152 of these interments which were examined by Sir R C. Hoare, no less than 39 contained objects of Ijronze, I am disposed to regard the whole group as belonging to the Bronze period. Now in these 152 cases the corpse was contracted in four only, and extended in three. In 16 the disposition of the corpse -was not ascertained, and in no less than 129 it had been l)urnt. If we combine the observations of Sir E, C. Hoare and Mr. Bateman, we shall obtain the following table : — Implements. CORPSE. Total. Contracted. Burnt. Extended. Position Uncertain. None 36 55 19 2 223 53 59 3 6 1 19 3 32 7 ; 15 21 11 284 143 100 37 Stone Bronze I ion Total 112 i 338 1 37 i 77 1 564 Some few of these interments were no doubt Anglo-Saxon ; if these had been eliminated the argument would have appeared still stronger ; but taking them as they are, out of 37 graves containing iron weapons or implements, the corpse was certainly extended in 21 cases, and probably so in several 14S PIKKlt'l'LTY OF 1>ETKI;.M1N1NG THE PERIOD otlu'j-s; whilo, out of no less than 527 cases in whicli iron was not present, the eorpse was extended only in IG, the projHtrtion l>ein«,' at least y^ths in one case, and only .}..Y(\ in the other. On the whole we may certainly conclude that this nunle of hurial was hitroduced at about the same period as the use of inm. As re'^ards the habit of burning the dead, the evidence is less eonclusive. Out of 100 cases, indeed, of graves charac- terized by the presence of bronze, the corpse appears to have been biuied in a contracted posture 19 times only; in an extended position, only seven times. It would seem, there- fore, that during the Bronze Age the dead were generally burnt. It is also true that there are many cases in which interments by cremation, if I may use such an expression, contain no weapons or objects of bronze. We know", however, tiiat this metal must always have been expensive, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that many, at any rate, of these interments may belong to the Bronze Age, although no objects of metal occurred in them. There can be no doubt that in the Neolithic Stone Age it was usual to bury the corpse in a sitting or contracted posture ; and, indeed, it appears probable, although far from being satisfactorily established, that in Western Europe this attitude generally indicates an interment of the Stone Age ; while those cases in which the skeleton was extended may be referred, with little hesitation, to the Age of Iron. At the same time, and we must remember that in Anglo-Saxon times the dead were burned by some tribes, and buried by others, and there may well have been differences during the Stone Age also between different tribes. But although the presence of a few flint flakes, or other stone implements, is certainly no sufficient reason for refer- rmg any given tumulus to the Stone Age, the case is different where a large nimiber of objects have been found together ; TO WHICH A TUMULUS BELONGS. 149 for instance, I have in my collection a group of stone imple- ments consisting of 14 beautifully made axes, wedges, chisels, spear-heads, etc, and more than 60 capital flakes, which were all found together in one of the large Danish sepulchral chambers, on the island of Moen, and have been described by M. Boye.* The tumulus had a circumference of 140 ells, and a height of about eight ells. It is probable tliat it had been surrounded Ijy a circle of stones, for M. Jensen, the Fio. 151. ^1 ^/) Plau of the Chamber in a Danish Tumulus in Miien. owner, remembered that, many years before, the northern side had been surrounded by a row of stones standing close together. None of them, however, at present remain. Un- fortunately M. Boye was not present when they began to remove the tumulus; still he thinks that the account given to him may be relied on with safety. M. Jensen began to dig on the east side of the tumulus, and the first thing which he came to was a jar, which he unfortunately broke. It con- ■" Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 1858, p. 202. 150 DANISH TUMULUS liiineil bimit bones and a bronze pin, tlie head of which was ornnmonted with concentric lines. Towards the S.S.E. was t'ounil a cist, aliout an ell long, and formed of flat stones. In it were bin'ut liones, a bent knife, and a pair of pincers two indies in lengtli ; both these objects were of bronze. Not far from this cist was another urn, containmg burnt bones, with several objects of bronze, namely, a knife four inches in length, part of a small symbolical sword, and two fragments of an iiwl. It is evident that these three interments belonged to the Bronze Age, and also that they were secondary, that is- to say, that they belonged to a later date than the original sepulchral chamber, over which the tumulus had been made. The sepulchral chamber itself (fig. 151) lay north and south, was of an oval form, about eight and a half ells in length,, and twenty and a half in circumference, and about two and a half in height. The walls consisted of twelve very large, unhewn stones, which, however, did not in most cases touch one another, but left intervals which were filled up by smaller stones. The roof was formed by five great blocks, the spaces between them being filled up by smaller ones. The passage, which was on the east side, was five ells long and one ell broad, and was formed by eleven side stones and three roof stones. At the place ((/.) was, on each side, a smaller stone, which, in conjunction with another on the floor between them, formed a sort of threshold, probably indicating the place where the door stood. Similar traces of a doorway have been found in other Danish tumuli, and may, perhaps, be taken as evidence that the mounds had been used previously as houses ; at the time of the interment the construction of a door would have been simply purposeless, the passage leading to it being filled up with rubbish. The chamber was filled up with mould to within half an ell of the roof. About the middle, not far from the bottom, a skeleton, perhaps of a sacrificed slave, was extended (at I), with the head towards the north. On the IN THE ISLAND OF MOEN. 151 south side (at c and d) occurred two crania, each of which lay on a quantity of bones, indicating that the corpses had been buried in a sitting posture. At {e) was a similar skeleton, close to which were three amber beads, a beautiful flint axe, which did not seem to have been ever used, a small unfinished chisel, and some fragments of pottery, ornamented with points and lines. At (/) was another skeleton, in a similar position, with a flint flake, an amber bead, and some fragments of pottery. Figs. 152, 153, represent one of the skulls from this stone chamber. Several other skeletons were found sitting Fig. 152. Fig. 153. Skull from a Danish Tumulus at Mlien. round the side walls, but they had unluckily been removed and thrown away before the arrival of M. Boye. With them were at least 20 different jars or urns, all of them inverted, and prettily decorated with points and lines. Besides these objects, the earth in the chamber contained five flint spear-heads, a fragment of a flint spear which had been broken and worked up again, two small flint chisels, 53 flint flakes, varying from three to five and a half inches in length ; 19 perfect, and 31 broken, amber beads, of which the greater number were hammer-like, the rest tubular or ring-shaped. The passage was filled up by earth, mixed with 152 PAXIS;!! CIIAMP.EHED TUMULUS. frai^ineuts of pottery, und small stones. About the middle was ji skeleton, with the head towards the east, at the side of whit'h were live flakes and an amber bead. Close to the feet was a jar, unornamented, and much ruder than those Fig. 154. View in the Chamber looking throudi the entrance. found in the chamber itself. Not the smallest fragment of metal was found either in the chamber or in the passage. Again, as a second case of the same sort, I may mention the Long Barrow (fig. 154) near West Kennet, in Wiltshire, described by Dr. Thurnam.* The tumulus in this case is * Archa3ologia, vol. xxxviii. p. 405. TE XXI K.] FLINT IMPLEMENTS AND I'OTTEUY. [/'. 152. 157 L^i8 159 For description of figures vide p xxviii. FLiTt: Y.V/'.] FinCMKNTS OY VOTTKKY FKOM WEST KKN^'ET. [/'. 153. 101 16: 163 164 For ciescriptii)U ut' figures vide p. xxviii. BRETON TUMULI. 153 336 feet in length, 40 feet wide at the west end, and 75 feet at the east, with a height of eight feet. The walls of the chamber are formed by six great blocks of stone, and it opens into a passage, so that the ground plan very closely resembles that of the tumulus just described, and, in fact, of the " Passage graves" generally. The chamber and entrance were nearly filled with chalk rubble, containing also bones of animals. Hint implements (figs. 155-158), and fragments of pottery. In the chamljer were four skeletons, two of which appear to have been buried in a sitting posture. In different parts of the chamber were found nearly 300 flakes, three or four flint cores, a whetstone, a scraper, part of a bone pin, a bead of Kimmeridge shale, and several heaps of fragments of pottery (figs. 159-164) belonging apparently to no less than 50 different vessels, and all made by hand, with one doubtful exception. No trace of metal was discovered. The two pieces (figs. 163, 164) were found apart from the rest, and may, perhaps, be of later origin. In some cases, as for instance, in Wor Barrow, opened by Oen. Pitt Eivers, a scaffolding of stakes seems to have taken the place of the stone chamber. The large tumuli of Brittany, most of which have recently been opened, have afforded several other instances of the same kind. Thus the great Mont St. Michel, at Carnac, which is no less than 380 feet in length, and 190 feet broad, with an average height of 33 feet, was found to contain a square chamber, in which were eleven beautiful jade celts, two large rough celts, and twenty-six small fibrolite celts, besides 110 beads, mostly of callais, and some fragments of flint.* Again, the chamber in the tumulus called Manne-er- H'roek contained a hundred and three stone axes, three flint flakes, and fifty beads of callais, jasper, quartz, and * Rapport a M. Le. Prefet du St. Michel. Par M. Rene Galles. Morbihaii sur les fouilles du Mont 1862. ir>4 BRETON rUMULI. jimito, but neither of these great tumuli contained a trace of metal.* Other similar eases might be mention(Hl,-|- in which tumuli of large size, covering a sepulchral chamber, constructed with great labour, and evidently intended for a person or persons of high rank, have contained numerous objects of stone and pottery, without a trace of metal. It appeal's reasonable to conclude that these interments l)elong to the ante-metallic period ; especially when, as in the tii-st-mentioned case, we find several secondary interments, plainly belonging to a later age, and although presenting no such indications of high rank, still accompanied by objects of bronze. It may seem at first sight very improbable that works so considerable should have been undertaken and carried out by nations entirely ignorant of metal. The burial mound of Oberea, in Otaheiti, was nevertheless two hundred and sixty- seven feet long, eighty-seven wide, and forty-four in height. And in treating of modern savages, I shall hereafter have occasion to notice other instances quite as extraordinary. The practice of burying in old tumuli, which continued even down to the times of Charlemagne,^ has led to some confusion, because objects of very different date are thus liable to be described as coming from one grave ; yet, on the other hand, it is very instructive, as there are several cases on record, besides the one above mentioned, of interments char- acterized l)y Ijronze Ijeing found above, and being, therefore, e\ddently subsequent to others, accompanied by stone only.§ * Manne-er-H'roeck. Rapport a CliristianorumSaxonorumadceme- la Society Polymathique. Par M. teria ecclesiaj deferantur, et non ad Lefebvre et M. Eene Galles. 1863. tumulus paganoruin." t See, for instance, LukiSjArclise- § See, for instance, Von Sacken, ologia, vol. XXXV. p. 247. Leitfaden zur Kunde des lieidnis- X One of his regulations ran as chen Alterthumes, p. 15. follows : — " Jubemus ut corpora CONTENTS OF TUMULI. lo5 On the whole, however, though it is evident that the objects most frequently buried with the dead would be those most generally used by the living, and though the prevalence of stone implements proves the important part played by stone in ancient times, and goes far to justify the belief in a Stone Age ; still, the evidence to be brought forward on this point in the following chapters will, proljably, to many minds seem more satisfactory ; and, at any rate, we must admit that in the present state of our knowledge, there are comparatively few interments which we could, with confidence, refer to the Neolithic Stone Age, however firmly we may believe that a great many of them must belong to it. Mr. Bateman has proposed to range the pottery found in ancient British tumuli under four different heads, namely, 1, Urns ; 2, Incense Cups ; 3, Food Vases ; 4, Drinking Cups. The urns generally accompany interments by cremation, and have either contained or been inverted over burnt human bones. They are generally of large size, " from ten to sixteen inches high, with a deep border, more or less decorated by impressions of twisted thongs, and incised patterns in which the chevron or herring-bone constantly recurs in various com- binations, occasionally relieved by circular punctures, or as- suming a reticulated appearance. They are all made by hand, no trace of the potter's wheel being ever found on them. They almost invariably have an overhanging rim. The material of which they are formed is clay mixed with pebbles, and some of them have been described as " sun-dried." This, how- ever, appears to be altogether a mistake, arising from the imperfect manner in which they were l)urnt. In colour, they are generally brown or burnt umber outside and black inside. Fig. 165 represents a specimen from Flaxdale Barrow, in Derbyshire. Secondly, the " incense cups," so called by Sir E. Colt Hoare. They differ very much in shape, and are seldom more than ir.G URNS, FOOD VASES, "INCENSE CUPS. three indies high. AVheii decorated the patterns are the same !is tlutse on the urns, and are usually on the under surface, but tlu'V are often left jtlain. They are often pierced. " In- cense cuits" have heen found throughout Great Britain, and also in Ireland. Their use seems to me still very doubtful. Thev have in several cases been found with bronze. "The third division includes vessels of every style of ornament, from tlie rudest to the most elaborate, but nearly alike in size, and more difficult to assign to a determinate pericjd than any other, from the fact of a coarse and a well-finished one having several times been found in company." The wood- cuts (iigs 106, 167) represent two vessels found in a barrow on the circle at Arbor Low, in Derbyshire. Fourthly, " The drinking cups (fig. 168) are generally from six and a half to nine inches high, of a tall shape, contracted in the middle, globular below, and expanding at the mouth : they are carefully formed by hand, of fine clay, tempered with sharp sand, and well-baked; the walls are thin, averaging about three-eighth of an inch, light brown outside and grey within." They have not yet been found in Ireland. They are generally much ornamented, and usually accompany well- made flint implements and unburnt bodies. Mr. Bateman considered that the greater number Ijelong to the ante-metallic period, but they have so often been found in association with bronze, that I think we may safely refer them to the Bronze Age. The Domestic Pottery of the period is not so well known to us, but some has been found in caves, and on the site of ancient dwelling-places. It is formed of the same material as that found in the tumuli, but is of different and plainer forms, and generally entirely without ornament. The pottery of the pre-Roman tumuli is very distinctive, and differs in material, form, colour, and mode of decoration, both from that of the Ptoman and of the Anglo-Saxon periods. It is, I believe 'LATE XXVI.] ANCIENT POTTERY. [//. 15(5. 1G6 1G7 165 !68 For description of tigures cich p. xxviii. KOCK SCULPTURES. 15T I may say in\^T,riably, hand-made ; and is never artificially coloured. Numerous as are the varieties of pottery found in ante- Eoman tumuli, they appear (so far, at any rate, as those discovered by ]\Ir. Bateman are concerned) to have been all made by hand, without any assistance from the potter's wheel ;. Fig. 169. Rock Sculptures. — Scotland. they are formed of clay tempered with sand, and often con- taining small pebbles; they very rarely have handles, and spouts seem to have been unknown ; the ornaments consist of straight lines, dots, or marks, as if a cord had been im- pressed on the soft clay ; circular or curved lines are rare, nor is there the slightest attempt to copy any animal or plant. In some cases it is obviovis that woven fabrics have been impressed on the clay while still soft, and we thus obtain 158 MEGALITIIIC MONUMENTS. proof uf tlu' existence of pre-historic textile fabrics, the actual specimens of which have long ceased to exist.* As a general rule the megalithic monuments are constructed of rough stones neither hewn nor ornamented. Lately, how- ever, many instances of engravings have been observed. In tlie nortli of England and in Scotland these generally take the form of cups, spirals, circles with a dot in the middle, or incomplete circles with a dot in the middle, or incomplete circles with a line running from tlie centre through the interval, as in fig. 169.-|- "We have as yet no satisfactory clue to the meaning of these engravings, many of which have been figured by Mr. Tate and Sir J. Y. Simpson. They occur in evident association with ancient oppida and fortifications, as well as on menhirs, and on the stones composing dolmens and cromleelis. Fig. 1G9 represents a characteristic group on a rock at Auchnabreach in Argyleshire. The surface of the rock is well adapted to receive such sculpturings, having been smoothed and prepared by glacial action. Similar sculpturings have Ijeen found in Ireland, where also the great tumuli on the Boyne afford instances of more elaborate ornamentation. The great stone at the entrance of Xew Grange, for instance, is covered with double spirals, and those forming the central chamber are also covered with circles, spirals, and other patterns, one of the most remarkable being that of a so-called fern leaf, which occurs also in Brittany and in the so-called temple of Hagiar Kem, in Malta. Mr. Conwell has recently discovered an extensive series of inte- * See, for instance, Holmes, Rep. Stuart, in his great work on the of U. S. Bur. of Ethnology, 1881. Sculptured Stones of Scotland, be- t See Tate on the Sciilptured long to a much later period, and Rocks of Xorthumberland, 1865. scarcely fall within the scope of the Sir J. Y. Simpson on Ancient present work. For rock carvings Sculpturings of Cups and Concen- in Spain, see Don M. de Gongora trie Rings, etc. Proc. S. of Anti- y Martinez, Antigiiedades Prehis- quaries of Scotland, vol. vi. 1867. toricas de Andalucia. The monuments described by Mr. ROCK SCULPTURES. 159 resting sepulchral sculptures in the county of Meath. With the exception of the " fern leaf," all these archaic sculpturings in Great Britain are mere geometrical figures. The same figures also occur in Brittany, accompanied, however, by frequent representations of stone axes, both with and without handles. The rock sculptures of Scandinavia, present a still further advance, many of them being rude representations of boats, much like those on some of the bronze knives (figs. 42 — 45). The most remarkable monument of this kind, however, is that of Kivik in Scania, close to the shore of the Baltic. Cup markings also occur among the Kumaon Hills in Hindostan. Mr. Kivett Carnac has suggested that they are connected with Lingam worship ; the central mark repre- senting the Lingam, the circle the Yoni. The rich, he sup- poses, put up a monument, the poor merely carved the symbol. Crooke * mentions that " in almost every Panjjib village may be seen small platforms with rows of little hemi- spherical depressions, into which milk and Ganges water are poured, and by which lamps are lit, and Brahmans fed to conciliate the Dead : " " while the careful mother will always dedicate a rupee to him, and hang it round her child's neck till he grows up." Mr. Ibbetsonf suggests that this may have been the origin of the mysterious so-called " cup-marks." Montelius informs us I that in out-of-the- way parts of Sweden offerings to the Spirit are made in these cup-rnarkings, even at the present day. The remains of other mammals found with ancient human relics have acquired increased interest, since the admirable * An Introduction to the Popu- t Ibbetson, Eej). on the Karnal lar Religion and Folk-lore of Dis. Ch. ix. Northern India, by W. Crooke, J The Civilisation of Sweden in B.A. (1894). Heathen Times, p. 36. IGO BONKS OF ANIMALS IX TUMULI. resoairhes of the Danish iuul Swiss zoologico-archieologists, ami especially of Steeustrup and Riitimeyer, by whose skilful cross-t'xaniination, much valuable and unexpected evidence has boon I'liciti'd, from materials of most unpromising appear- ance. I'nfortunately the non-human remains found in tumuli are usually in a very fragmentary condition. No remains of any extinct animal have as yet been found in the tumuli of Western Europe. Even the reindeer is altogether absent. The deer and ox are most frequent. The latter was certainly domesticated in Switzerland as early as the Neolithic period. "Whether this was the case in Northern Europe, though pro- bable, is still uncertain. Some archaeologists believe the dog to have been at that period the only animal domesticated; others, on the contrary, consider the cow, sheep, pig, and goat,. if not the horse, to have been at that early period domesticated in the North. In the contents of British barrows, bones of these animals have been frequently observed ; and it would appear from the researches of Mr. Greenwell that most of them belonged to domesticated animals.* Eemains of the horse are very rare in English barrows> and I know no well authenticated case of their occurrence in a long barrow. I have thought, therefore, that it might be of interest to point out the class of graves in which bones or teeth of horses were found. In Mr. Bateman's valuable works there are, altogether, twenty-eight cases ; but of these, nine were in tumuli which had been previously opened, and in one case no body was found. Of the remaining eighteen, five were tumuli containing iron, and seven were accompanied with bronze. In one more case, that of the " Liffs," it is doubtful whether the barrow had not been disturbed. Of the remaining six tumuli, two contained beautiful drinking vessels, of a very well marked type, certainly in use during the Bronze Age, if not peculiar to it ; and in both these instances, as well * Greenwell, Britisli Barrows. PRE-HISTORIC RACES OF MEN. IGl as ill a third, the interment was accompanied by burnt human bones, suggestive of dreadful rites. Even, however, if these cases cannot be referred to the Bronze Age, we still see that out of the two hundred and ninety-seven interments only sixty-three contained metal, or about twenty-one per cent. ; while out of the eighteen cases of horses' remains, twelve, or about sixty-six per cent, certainly belong to the metallic period. Mr. Greenwell also found the bones of tlie horse only in three or four interments, all apparently of the Bronze Age or later. This seems to he primd facie evidence that the horse was very rare, if not altogether unknown, in England during the Stone Age. Both the horse and bull appear to have been sacrificed at graves during later times, and probably formed part of the funeral feast. The teeth of oxen are so common in tumuli, that they are even said by Mr. Bate- man to be " uniformly found with the more ancient inter- ments." The very frequent presence of the bones of quadrupeds in tumuli appears to show that sepulchral feasts were generally held in honour of the dead, and the numerous cases in which interments were accompanied by burnt hiniian bones tend to prove the prevalence of still more dreadful customs, and that not only horses * and dogs, but slaves also, were frequently sacrificed at their masters' graves ; it is not improbable that wives often were burnt with their husbands, as in India, and among many savage tribes. For instance, among the Eijis it is usual on the death of a chief to sacrifice a certain number . of slaves, whose bodies " are called ' grass ' for bedding " the grave,-|- " It is probable," says Mr. Bateman, " that the critical examination of all deposits of burnt bones would lead to much * Even so lately as in 1871, t Manners aiid Customs of the Frederick Casimir was laid in his Feegees, by T. Williams, 1860, grave with liis slaughtered horse. vol. i. p. 189. Horae ferales, p. 66. IG'i PRE-IIISTORIC FACES OF MEN. curious infiinnalion respecting the statistics of suttee and infiinticitlo, both wliich altoniinations we are unwillingly com- pelloil, 1)}' aceunnilatod evidence, to believe were practised in pigan Britain." From the numerous cases in which the bones of an infant and a woman have been found together in one grave, it would seem that if any woman died in childbirth, or while nursing, the baby was buried alive with her, as is still the practice among some of the Esquimaux families. It is, however, an interesting fact, and throws some light on the social relations of the times, that there are several cases in which a barrow even of considerable size has been erected over the remains of an infant — the favourite child, we may suppose, of some powerful chief. No traces of Corn have yet been met with in any of our Neolithic barrows. These conclusions, however, cannot be extended to Europe. In Switzerland, for instance, as far as our present evidence goes, though it is far from being so full as that derived from English sources, the introduction of bronze does not appear to have been accompanied by any change of race. In Scandi- navia, again, we have two classes of barrows corresponding to those of this country. But though the Scandinavian long barrows so remarkably resemble those of England, they were erected by a very different race ; that of the English long barrows being long-headed, while the constructors of the Scandinavian chambered barrows were, on the contrary, almost always round-headed. It is curious that in certain barrows no trace of a burial has been found. Some archaeologists suppose that in these cases the body was buried without any vase, ornament, or implement, and that it has wholly disappeared. I should, however, rather be disposed to regard them as memorial barrows. The common people were interred witli- out barrows. On the whole, then, the tumuli of Northern Europe appear PEE-IIISTORIC RACES OF MEN. 163 to range in point of time from the Neolitliic down to post- Roman times. Since, however, they never contain remains of the extinct mammalia, nor even of the reindeer, and as no implements of the Paheolithic type have ever been discovered in them, we cannot refer any of them to the earlier Stone Age. So far as England is concerned, the ante-Roman barrows appear to fall into two great groups — the long barrows and the round barrows. The long barrows are apparently the earlier and belong exclusively to the Stone Age, as they also do in Scandinavia. They contain no metal, little pottery, and were constructed by a long-headed race. Professor Rolles- ton has called attention to the remarkable character afforded by the lower jaw ; the tumid horizontal segment corresponding to its molar teeth, the wide ramus, short coronoid process, feeble chin, and rounded, often inwardly bent, angle. It is true that similar lower jaws occur among the Bushmen, Tasmanians, Melanesians, and other low races, but Professor Eolleston affirms * that amongst Eskimos only do we find such jaws combined with the widely open orbit and vertically elongated nasal cavity so characteristic of the long barrow race. The round barrows belong in many cases to the Bronze Age. The presence of metal, the forms of some of the stone implements, as, for instance, the tanged arrow-heads and the pierced stone axes, as well as the character of the pottery, justify the conclusion that they belong to a later period than tlie long barrows — one, moreover, at which Britain was occu- pied by a round-headed race, among whom lived, however, probably in a subordinate position, representatives of the earlier long-headed people. I would particularly urge on those who may in future open any barrows — 1. To record the sex of the person buried ; this is more * British Barrows. Greenwell and Eolleston, p. 718. U14 I'ESIHAIULITY OF PRESERVING MEGALITIIIC MONUMENTS. satisfactorily to ho determined from the form of the pelvis than from the skull. In this manner we may hope to deter- mine the relative position, and the separate occupation (if any) of the two sexes. 2. To observe the state of the teeth, from which we may derive information as to the nature of the food. 3. To preserve carefully any bones of quadrupeds that may be present, in order to ascertain the species, and, in the case 'of the ox and hog to determine, if possible, whether they belong to wild or domesticated indivi^Iuals. "We may fairly hope that when thoroughly questioned the barrows will not only answer many of these interesting ques- tions, but that they will also tell us many things which it would never occur to us to ask. It is evident, at least, that when a sufficient number shall have been examined, we shall know much more than we do yet about the social and domestic life of those early ages ; we shall know whether during the Stone Age they had domestic animals in the North, as would appear to have been the case in Switzerland ; we shall know in part what kind of clothes they wore, and by the remains found with female skeletons we shall even be able to ascer- tain, in some measure, the position occupied by woman with reference to man. If, however, we are to %cquire all the information that can be derived from the burial mounds, it must be done quickly. Every year many are destroyed, and Abury itself, the grandest of megalithic monuments, was sacrificed for a paltry profit of a few pounds. Moreover, as population increases, and land grows more valuable, these ancient monuments become more and more liable to mutilation and destruclinn. Since the first edition of this Work was published, an Act of Parliament has been passed for their protection, and an inspector has been ap- pointed. This is so far satisfactory. Unfortunately, however, DESIRABILITY OF PRESERVING MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS. 165 tlie powers given under the Act are far from sufficient. I have suggested that we might justly insist on the preservation of these National monuments, and that if their owners do not care to preserve them, the Nation should have the option of purchase at a fair price. It is surely not only our right, but our duty, to protect them. These monuments are National heirlooms ; they do not belong to any one generation. They were erected by our forefathers, and we are bound to preserve them for those who will come after us. ( KiG ) CHAPTER VI. THE ANCIENT LAKE-HABITATIONS OF SWITZEELAND. IN consequence of the extraordinary dryness and cold of the weather during the winter months of 1853, the rivers of Switzerland did not receive their usual supplies, and the water in the lakes fell much below its ordinary level, so that, in some places, a broad strand was left uncovered along the margin, while in others shallow^ banks were converted into islands. The water level of this season was, indeed, the lowest upon record. The lowest level marked on the so-called stone 01 Stafa was that of 1674 ; but in 1854 the water sank a foot lower still. In a small bay between Ober Meilen and Dollikon, on the Lake of Zurich, the inhabitants had taken advantage of the lowness of the water to increase their gardens, by building a wall along the new water-line, and slightly raising the level of the piece thus reclaimed by mud dredged from the lake. In the course of this dredging they found great numbers of piles of deer-horns, and also some implements. M. Aeppli was the first to observe these specimens of human workman- ship, which he justly supposed might throw some light on the history and condition of the early inhabitants of the Swiss valleys. He at once, therefore, called the attention of Dr. Keller to them, and that eminent antiquary soon satisfied himself as to their true nature, and proved that the early inhabitants of Switzerland constructed some, at least, of their LAKE-DWELLINGS MENTIONED BY HERODOTUS. 167 dwellings above the surface of the water, and that they must have lived in a manner very similar to that of the Paeonians, thus described by Herodotus.* " Their dwelhngs," he says, " are contrived after this manner: planks fitted on lofty piles are placed in the middle of the lake, with a narrow entrance from the mainland by a single bridge. These piles that support the planks all the citizens anciently placed there at the public charge ; but afterwards they established a law to tlie following effect : whenever a man marries, for each wife he sinks three piles, bringing wood from a mountain called Orbelus : but every man has several wives. They live in the following manner : every man has a hut on the planks, in which he dwells, with a trap-door closely fitted in the planks, and leading down to the lake. They tie the young children with a cord round the foot, fearing lest they should fall into the lake beneath. To their horses and beasts of burden they give fish for fodder ; of which there is such an abundance that when a man has opened his trap- door, he lets down an empty basket by a cord into the lake, and, after waiting a short time, draws it up full of fish." At the Newcastle meeting of the British Association in 1863, Lord Lovaine described a Lake-dwelling observed by him in the South of Scotland ; and in the " Natural History Eeview" for July 1863, I had already mentioned one in the North, which, however, had not at that time been thoroughly examined. Sir Charles Bunbury has recorded (Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xii. 1856) some similar remains found near Thetford, which have been described at greater length by Mr. Alfred Newton in an interesting paper " On the Zoology of Ancient Europe." f A lake village has been discovered near Glastonbury, and is being carefully excavated by Dr. Bulleid. In his fifth memoir on the * Terpsichore, v. 14. Lake Dwellings ; and The Lake t SeealsoMimro,A]icientScottish Dwellings of Europe. IGS riLE-I)"\VELLINGS IN OTHER I'AKTS OF EUROPE. rfalilliauU'ii,* Dr. Keller has described a Lake-dwelling at IVseliiera, on the T.. di Garda ; and we are indebted to ^IM. r.. Gastahli,-]- 1'. Slrobel, and L. Pigorini, for a descrip- tion of niins of a similar nature which have been found in Xurthern Italy. Dr. Lisch has described several Pile-dwellings in Meeklen burs, and ^I- Boucher de Perthes, in his celebrated work, "Autiquiles Celtiques et Autediluviennes," mentions certain remains found in the peat near Abbeville, which appear to have been the ruins of Lake-dwellings ; an observa- tion which is of special interest, as an additional argument for referring the Swiss Lake- dwellings to the period of the peat in the Somme valley, and therefore to an epoch long subsequent to that of the drift hatchets. This inference is entirely in accordance with the conclusions derived from the study of the stone implements themselves. But it is not necessary to go back to pre-historic times ; nor need we appeal to doubtful history or ancient remains for evidence of the curious habit of water-dwelling. Many savage or semi-savage tribes live in the same manner, even at the present day. I have been informed by a friend who lives at Salonica that the fishermen of Lake Prasias still inhabit wooden cottages built over the water, as in the time of Hero- dotus. The city of Tcherkask also is partly built over the Don. Some of the Garos and Bogshas of Upper India, the Kanikars of Southern India, the pastoral tribes in parts of Sinde, dwell in habitations elevated eight or ten feet from the ground, to avoid the damp and the insects occasioned by it.J Similar dwellings are extensively used in the northern parts of South America ; Venezuela, indeed, having been so called because * Mittheilungen der Antiquari- di Abitazioni Jacustri nei Laglii di sclien Gesellschaft in Zurich, 1863. Lombardia. Atti della Soc. Italiani t ]Sruo\'i Cenni siigli oggetti di di Scienze Natural i, 1863, vol. v. alta Anticliit^ trovati nelle Tor- p. 154. biere e nelle Mamiere dell' Italia. :|: Bunies' Travels into Bokhara, See also Stojjpani, Prima ricerca vol. iii. p. 90. MODERN LAKE-DWELLINGS. 169 tlie houses resemble tliose of Venice in being consLructed over water. But it is in the East Indies that this habit pre- vails most extensively. The city of Borneo is altogether built upon piles, and similar constructions have been described by various travellers in New Guinea, Celebes, Solo, Ceram, Mindanao, the Caroline Islands, on the Gold Coast, and else- where. Dampier long ago mentioned similar dwellings con- structed over the water ; and Dumont d'Urville,* quoted by M. Troyon, tells us that " Jadis toute la ville de Tondano etait construite sur le lac, et Ton ne communiquait d'une maison a une autre qu'en bateau." The Bishop of Labuan thus describes the dwellings of the Dyaks : " They are built along the river-side, on an elevated platform twenty or thirty feet high, in a long row ; or rather it is a whole village in one row of some hundreds of feet long. The platforms are first framed with beams, and then crossed with laths about two inches wide and two inches apart, and in this way are well venti- lated ; and nothing remains on the floors, but all the refuse falls through and goes below." -j- In Ireland a number of more or less artificial islands called " Crannoges" J (fig. 170) are known historically to have been used as strongholds by the petty chiefs. They are composed of earth and stones, strengthened by piles, and have supplied the Irish archaeologists with numerous weapons, implements, and bones. From the Crannoge at Dunshaughlin, indeed, more than one hundred and fifty cart-loads of bones were obtained and used as manure ! These Lake-dwellings of Ire- land, however, are referable to a much later period than those of Switzerland, and are frequently mentioned in early history. Thus, according to Shirley, " One Thomas Phettiplace, in his * Voyage de I'Astrolabe, vol. v. J See Wilde's Catalogue, vol. i. p. 635. p. 220. t Trans, of the Ethnol. Soc, New Series, vol. ii. p. 28. 170 IKISII CliANXOGES. answer to an imiuirv from the Government, as to what castles or forts O'Neill hath, and of what strength they be, states (May 15, 1507) : ' For castles, I think it be not unknown to your honoiu's, he trustelh no p(»int thereunto for his safety, as appeareth by the raising of the strongest castles of all his eountreys, and that fortification which he only dependeth upon is'^;^ savtln ffreshivater loghos in his country, which from the sea there come neither ship nor boat to approach them : it is thouglit that there in the said fortified islands lyeth all ills plate, which is much, and money, prisoners, and gages : which islands hath in wars to fore been attempted, and now of late again by the Lord Deputy there, Sir Harry Sydney, Fig. 170. Section of a Cranuoge in Ardakillin Lough, Roscommon. which for want of means for safe conducts upon the water it hath not prevailed.' " Again, the map of the escheated territories, made for the Government, a.d. 1591, by Francis Jobson, or the " Piatt of the County of Monaghan," contains rough sketches of the dwellings of the petty chiefs of Monaghan, which " are in all cases surrounded by water." In the " Annals of the Four Masters," and other records of early Irish history, we meet with numerous instances in which the Crannoges are men- tioned, in some of which their position has not preserved them from robbery and destruction ; and w^e need not, there- fore, be surprised to find that many of the Swiss Pfahlbauten appear to have been destroyed by fire. NUMBERS OF LAKE VILLAGES. 171 Not only ill the Lake of Zurich, but also iu Lakes of Con- stance, Geneva, Neufchatel, Bienne, Morat, Sempach, in fact in most of the large Swiss lakes, as well as in several of the smaller ones (Inkwyl, Pfeffikon, Moosseedorf, Luissel, etc.), similar Lake-habitations have been discovered. In the larger lakes, indeed, not one, but many of these settlements existed ; thus, there are already on record, in Lake Bienne, twenty ; in the Lake of Geneva, twenty-four ; in the Lake of Constance, thirty -two ; in the Lake of Neufchatel, as many as forty-nine ; on the whole more than two hundred ; and many others, doubtless, remain to be discovered. Of those already known, some belong to the Iron Age, some few even to Eoman times ; but the greater number appear to be divided in almost equal proportions between the age of Stone and that of Bronze. Though the architecture of this period was probably simple, still the weight to be sustained on the wooden platforms must have been considerable ; many of the piles are either bent or broken ; and to prevent their sinking too deeply into the soft mud, they were sometimes driven through boards which rested on the bottom. The dwellings of the Gauls are desciibed as having been circular huts, built of wood and lined with mud. The inter- stices appear to have been filled with moss or clay. Some of the huts on the Pile-works were probably of a similar nature. This is not a mere hypothesis, but many fragments of the clay used for the lining have been discovered. Their preservation is evidently due to the building having been destroyed by fire, which has hardened the clay, and enabled it to resist the action of the water. These fragments bear, on one side, the marks of interlaced branches, while on the other, which apparently formed the inner wall of the cabin, they are quite smooth. The huts, like those in the British Lake-village of Glastonbury, were circular, and from ten to fifteen feet in diameter. It would be most interestino- if we could construct 172' ATTEMPT TO MAKE A CENSUS. a retrospective census for these early periods, and M. Troyon lias made an attempt to do so. The settlement at Morges, wliieli is one of the largest in the Lake of Geneva, is 1200 feet long and 150 broad, giving a surface of 180,000 square feet. Allowing tlie huts to have been fifteen feet in diameter, and supposing that they occupied half the surface, leaving the rest for gangways, he estimates the number of cabins at 311 ; and supposing again that, on an average, each was inhabited by four persons, he obtains for the whole a population of 1244 Starting from the same data, he assumes for the Lake of Neufchatel a population of about 5000. Sixty-eight villages belonging to the Bronze Age are supposed to have contained 42,500 persons ; while for the preceding epoch, by the same process of reasoning, he estimates the population at 31,875. I am not, however, inclined to attribute much value to the estimates of population based on the extent of the platforms. M. Troyon himself admits that his " chiffres sont peut-etre un peu eleves, en egard aux habitations sur terre ferme, dont il ne pent etre question dans ce calcul, et vu qu'on est encore bien loin de connaitre tous les points des lacs qui ont ete occupes," and, indeed, in Switzerland, since his book was written, the number of Lake villages discovered has already been more than doubled. Moreover, M, Troyon assumes that the Lake villages of the Bronze Age were contemporaneous, and that the same was the case with those belonging to the Stone Age. This also I should be disposed to question ; both these periods, but especially the Stone Age, in all probability extended over a long series of years; and though in these matters it is of course necessary to speak with much caution, still if we are to make any assumption in the case, it would seem safer to suppose that in each period some of the villages had perished or been forsaken before others were built. We might feel surprised that a people so uncivilized should CONSTRUCTION OF THE PLATFORMS. 173 have constructed their houses with immense labour on the water, when it would seem so much more easy to have built tliem on dry land. But we have already seen how, even in historical times, such dwellings have served as simple and yet valuable fortifications. Still, though it is evident that the security thus given would amply compensate for much extra labour, it remains difficult to understand in what manner the piles were driven into the ground. In many cases, indeed, settlements of the Stone Age are characterized by what are called " Steinbergs," that is to say, artificial heaps of stones, etc., evidently brought by the natives to serve as a support to the piles. A boat laden with stones, apparently for this purpose, was some years ago discovered in the Lake of Neufchatel. In fact, they found it easier to raise the bottom round the piles than to drive the piles into the bottom. On the other hand, some of these constructions, as, for instance, those at Inkwyl and Wauwyl, described respectively by M. Morlot and Col. Suter, more closely resemble the Irish Crannoge. We see, therefore, that, as Dr. Keller says, the Lake-dwellers followed two different systems in the construction of their dwellings, which he distinguishes as " Pfahlbauten," or Pile-buildings, and " Packwerkbauten," or Crannoges: i'.i the first of which the platforms were simply supported on piles ; in the second of which the support con- sisted not of piles only, but of a solid mass of mud, stones, etc., with layers of horizontal and perpendicular stakes, the latter serving less as a support than to bind the mass firmly together. It is evident that the " Packwerkbau'" is a simpler and ruder affair than the " Pfahlbau," in which no small skill must have been required to connect the perpendicular and horizontal piles firmly together. Still the " Packwerk- Ijauten" were not suitable for the larger lakes, as during storms they would have been injured by the waves, which passed harmlessly through the open work of the " Pfahl- 174 CONSTHUCTION OF THE TLATFOEMS. bimten." We fiud, therefore, that wliile tlie former method of constr\ictioii prevailed only in small lakes or morasses, the latter was adopted in the larger lakes, and even some- times, possibly, en dry land; a custom which, however sin- gular, exists at the present day, as, for instance, in the island of liorneo, and even in Switzerland itself. The antiquities found in the small Swiss lakes and peat- bogs are more or less covered by a thick layer of peat, which perhaps at some future date will give us a clue to their age. On the contrary, in the large lakes no peat grows. At the entrance of the rivers, indeed, much mud and gravel is of course accumulated ; the Lake of Geneva, for instance, once no doubt extended for a considerable distance up the Valley of the Ehone. But the gravel and mud brought down by that river are deposited, as every one knows, near its entrance into the lake, and the water of the lake is elsewhere beautifully clear and pure. The lake itself is very deep, in parts as much as nine hundred and eighty feet ; and the banks are somewhat steep, but round the margin there is, in most places, a fringe of shallow water, due, probably, to the erosive action of the waves, and known to the fishermen as the " blaucfond," because the lake is there of a pale greyish hue, when contrasted with the bright blue of the central deeper water. It is on this " blancfoud," and at a depth of sometimes as much as fifteen feet, that the Pfahlbauten were generally constructed. On calm days, when the surface of the water is unruffied, the piles are plainly visible. Few of them now project more than two feet from the bottom ; eaten away by the incessant action of the water, some of them " n'apparaissent plus que comme aiguilles," which finally also disappear, and leave only a black disk at the surface of the mud. This, however, is the case principally in the Lake villages of the Stone Age. The more complete destruction of the piles belonging to the LAKE DWELLINGS OF DIFFERENT PERIODS. 175 earlier period depends not only on their greater age, but on their occurrence in shallower water. The action of the waves being greatest near the surface, and diminishing gradually downwards, not only are those piles which occupy the deeper parts least liable to destruction, but in each the erosion takes place gradually from above, so that the upper end of the piles is often more regularly pointed even than the lower. Lying among them are fragments of bone, horn, pottery, and some- times objects of bronze. Most of these are embedded in the mud, or hidden under the stones, but others lie on the bottom yet uninjured ; so that when, for the first time, I saw them through the transparent water, a momentary feeling of doubt as to their age rose in my mind. So fresh are they and at first sight so unaltered, they look as if they were only things of yesterday, and it seems hard to believe that they can have remained there for centuries. The explanation of the diffi- culty is, however, to be found in the fact that the action of the most violent storms reaches only to a small depth. Except, therefore, near the mouths of rivers, or where there is much vegetation, which in the large lakes is rarely the case, the deposition of mud at depths greater than four feet is an extremely slow process, and objects which fall to the bottom in such situations will neither be covered over nor carried away. " J'ai peche," says M. Troyon, " sur I'emplacement en face du Moulin de Bevaix, les fragments d'un grand vase qui gisaient a pen de distance les uns des autres, et que j'ai pu reunir de maniere A les remontre completement. A la Tongue, pres d'Hermance, j'ai trouve les deux fragments d'un anneau support, distants de quelques pieds, qui, en les rapro- chant ne laissent aucun interstice." The upper parts of the objects also, which are bathed by the water, are generally covered by a layer of carbonate of lime, while the lower part which has sunk into the mud is quite unaltered. M. Troyon once obtained at Cortaillod a pair of bracelets in one haul of 170 ruMiillitX OK THE OPJECTS FOUND. the ihvilgo— the Ihst, wliioh had beou visible from the boat, was jj;roouish and covored with incrustation ; the second, which had been in tlic nuid nnmodiately below, was as fresh as if it liad only just been made. As piles of the Bronze Age are sometimes found at a depth of as much as fifteen feet, and as it is manifest that biiildings cannot have been constructed over water much deeper than this, it is evident that the Swiss lakes cannot then have stood at a much higher level than at present. This conclu^^ion is confirmed by the position of Eoman remains at Thonon, on the lake of Geneva, and we thus oljtain satisfactory evidence that the height of the Swiss lakes must have remained almost unaltered for a very long period. In the large lakes the passing traveller may readily mark the number and general distribution of the piles, he may determine the area which they occupy, and pick up fragments of bone and pottery ; but, on the whole, the peat- mosses are more instructive. In them we not only obtain evidence as to the size, form, and construction of the huts, but implements of wood, specimens of fruit, nuts, grain, and even fragments of clothing, none of which can be preserved in the open w"ater of the large lakes. After having chosen a favourable situation, the first step in the construction of the Lake-habitations was to obtain the necessary timber. To cut down a tree with a stone hatchet must have been no slight undertaking. It is, indeed, most probable that use was made of fire, in the same manner as is done by existing savages in felling trees and making canoes. Burning the wood and then scraping away the charred portion renders the task far more easy, and the men of the Stone period appear to have avoided the use of large trees, except in making their canoes. Their piles were embedded in the mud from one to five feet, and must also have projected from four to six feet above the water level, which cannot have been very NUMBER OF PILES USED. 177 Fig. 171: different from what it is at present. They must, therefore, have had a length of from fifteen to thirty feet, and they were from three to nine inches in diameter. The pointed extremity which entered into the mud still bears the marks of the fire and the rude cuts made by the stone hatchets. The piles belonging to the Bronze period, being prepared with metal axes, were much more regularly pointed, and the differences between the two have been ingeniously compared to those shown by lead pencils well and badly cut. Moreover, the cuts made by the ordinary Swiss (fig. 172) stoue axe are more or less concave, whereas those made with metal are flat. To drag the piles to the lake, and fix them firmly, must also have required much labour, especially when their number is con- sidered. At Wangen alone M. Lohle has calculated that 50,000 piles were used; but we must remember that these were probably not all planted at one time nor by one genera- tion. Wangen, indeed, was certainly not built in a day, but was, no doubt, gradually enlarged as the population increased. Herodotus informs us that the Pteonians made the first platform at the public expense, but that, sub- sequently, at every marriage (and polygamy was permitted), the bridegroom was expected to add a certain number of piles to the common support. Fig. 171 represents a section taken at Eobenhausen, and shows two series of piles, one over the other. The layer of ashes appears to indicate that the settlement was burnt down, and subsequently rebuilt. The pile-works of subsequent periods differ little from those of the Stone Age, so far at least as can be judged by the parts remaining, but the piles are less decayed, and project above the M Section at Niederwyl. ITS DESCKIPTION OF THE REMAINS AT WAUWYL. iiiiul fiirtlier than is the case with those of the preceding ejKtch. Through the kiiuhiess of Col. Suter, I had an opportunity of cxaniining the construction of the Lake-dwelling at Wauwyl, near Zofingon, in the canton of Lucerne. This apparently belonged to the Stone Age, no trace of metal having yet been discovered in it. It is situated in a peat moss, which was evidently at one time the bed of a shallow lake. By the gradual growth of peat, however, the level has been raised several feet, and the plain has recently been drained. We were assisted by six labourers, who dug out the peat, which we then carefully examined. I mention this because the difference in the objects collected from different Tfahlbauten may probably be, in part at least, accounted for by the differ- ent ways in which the search has been made. The peat at Wauwyl varies in thickness from three to ten feet, and rests on a white bed consisting of broken fresh- water shells. This stratum, though only a few inches thick, is found in tlie old beds of many small lakes, and is frequently mentioned by the Swiss archajologists under the name of " weisgrund." It must not, however, be confounded with the " blancfond " of the larger lakes. The piles go through the peat and the " weiss- grund " into the solid ground below. It is not easy to obtain them whole, because the lower portions are much altered by time, and so thoroughly saturated by water that they are quite soft. Col. Suter, how^ever, extracted two of them ; one was 14 ft. G in. in length, of which 4 ft. was in the peat, and the remaining 10 ft. 6 in. in the sand beneath ; the other was only 8 ft. 6 in. long, 4 ft. of which was in the peat, the other 4 ft. 6 in. in the solid ground. The piles vary from three to five inches in diameter, and are always round, never having been squared. The lower part is very badly cut, so that it is difficult to understand how they can have been forced to so great a depth into the ground. WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS OF THE LAKE MEN. 179 Fig. 172. In most of tlie Pfuhlbauten the piles are scattered, more or less irregularly, over the whole extent of the settlement : at "Wauwyl this is not the case, but they enclose, as it were, four quadrangular areas, the interiors of which are occupied by several platforms one over the other, the interstices being filled up by branches, leaves, and peat. The objects of anti- quity are not scattered throughout the peat, but lie either on the layer of broken shells, which formed the then bottom of the lake, or in the lower part of the peat. It is, therefore, evident that almost the whole, if not the whole, of the peat has grown since the time at which this interesting ruin was in- habited. The upper part had, how- ever, been removed before our arrival, so that the " culturges- chicht," the layer containing the objects of antiquity, was exposed ready for examination in the manner already described. Some of the piles still stand two or three feet above the level of the peat, but the greater number are broken off lower down. We stood on one of the upper platforms, which seems to have been the floor on which the huts were erected, and the beams of which are still perfectly preserved. It was at first a question in what manner the platforms at this place were supported ; whether they lay like a raft on the surface of the water, rising and sinking with it ; * or whether they Swiss Stoue Axe, * Dwellings of this character occur in the East and in S. America. See for instance, Anderson's Mis- sion to Sumatra, p. 395. Squier, American Naturalist, vol. iv. p. 18. ISO AXKS. KNIVES. wore tlxod, and rested on a sort of artitioial island, formed by the clay, branches, etc., which now occupy the interspaces between the diflerent platforms. Subsequent observations, however, confirmed as they have been by discoveries else- where, as, for instance, at Inkwyl and Niederwyl, have decided the question in favour of the latter hypothesis. .During my visit at Wauwyl we obtained four small stone axes, one arrow-head, four Hint flakes, fifteen rude stone hammers, eight whetstones, thirty- three sliugstones, eight instruments of bone, and two of wood, besides numerous bones, and a great quantity of broken pottery. Col. Suter regarded this as a fair average day's work. Altogether about 500 instruments of stone and bone had been discovered at ■\Vauwyl ; at Moosseedorf more than 3300 ; at Wangen no less than 5800, while M. Troyon estimated that those at Concise muijt have amounted to 25,000, and these numbers have since been largely increased. The axe was pre-eminently the implement of antiquity. It was used in war and in the chase, as well as for domestic purposes, and great numbers have been found, especially at Wangen (Lake of Constance) and Concise (Lake of Neuf- chatel). With a few exceptions, they are small, especially when compared with the magnificent specimens from Den- mark ; in length they varied from one to six inches, while the cutting edge had generally a width of from fifteen to twenty lines. Flint was sometimes used, and nephrite or jade in a few cases, but serpentine and diorite were the principal materials. Most of the larger settlements were evidently manufacturing places, and many spoilt pieces and half-finished specimens have been found. After having chosen a stone, the first step was to reduce it by blows with a hammer to a suitable size. Then grooves were made artificially, which must have been a very tedious and difficult operation, when flint knives, sand, and water were the only available iustru- SAWS. SPINDLE-WHORLS. FLAKES. 181 meiits, Having carried the grooves to the required depth, the projecting portions were removed by a skilful blow with a liammer, and the implement was then sharpened and polished on blocks of sandstone. The axes appear to have been fastened into the handles by means of bitumen, obtained probably either from the Val de Travers near Neufchatel or from the Perte du Ehone. The stone knives may be considered as of two sorts. Some differ from the axes principally in having their width greater than their length. In other cases flint flakes were set in wooden handles, and fastened, like the axes, by means of bitu- men. Saws also (fig. 132) were made in a similar manner, but with their edges somewhat '=' ^ Fig. 1/3. rudely dentated ; we do not find in Switzerland any of the semi-lunar stone implements which are frequent in Denmark. The arrow-heads were made of flint, or in some cases of rock crystal, and were of the usual forms. Spindle - whorls of rude earthenware (fig. 173) were abun- dant in some of the Lake villages ^P'''^^'' '^'^'"^'^ (^^"""^ ^^e). even of the Stone Age. The presence of these whorls indi- cates a knowledge of weaving, which indeed is proved by even more conclusive evidence. At Locray, a spindle-whorl was found actually attached to the spindle, which had thread still wound roimd it. There are also found rounded stones, pierced with one or sometimes two holes. The use of these is uncertain, but they may perhaps have been used to sink fishing-lines. The flint flukes offer no peculiarities ; the Swiss specimens are, however, of small size. Corn-crushers, which are round Italls of hard stone, two or three inches in diameter, occur even in the villages of the Stone Age. 182 AlU^'iW HEAPS. IMrLEMENTS OF BONE AXD WOOD. The list of objects hitherto foiiiia at AVauwyl is as follows: Stono axos, ]>iiucipally of sorpeii- lino ...... Small Hint arrow-heads Flint Hakes . . . . ' Corn-cnishera .... l\mle stones, used as hammers, Common (say) .... Whetstones ..... Slingstones, etc 43 36 200 16 20 26 85 Not all collected. Tn all about .... 426 articles of stone The flint, of which the flakes and arrow-heads were formed, must have come from a distance, and the best pieces in all probability were obtained from France. Visits may have been made to the French quarries, just as Catlin tells us that the American tribes, from far and near, visited the red pipe- stone quarry of Coteau des Prairies. A few fragments of ]\Iediterranean coral have been found at Concise, and of Baltic amber at Meilen. Some archaeologists have argued from these facts that there must have been a certain amount of commerce even in the Stone Age. As, however, both these settlements appear to have belonged to the transitional period between the age of Stone and that of Bronze, it would be safer to refer both the amber and the coral to the later period. Like other savages, the Lake-dwellers made the most of any animal they could catch. They ate the flesh, used the skin for clothing, picked every fragment of marrow out of the bones, and then, in many cases, fashioned the bones themselves into weapons. The larger and more compact ones, as well as horns of the deer, served as hammers, and were used as handles for hatchets. In some cases, pieces of bone were worked to an edge, but they are neither hard nor sharp enough to cut well. Bone awls are numerous, and may have been POTTERY. 183 used in preparing skins for clothes. Fig. 134 '(p. 94) repre- sents a chisel or scraper of bone, from Wangen. One purpose for which these were used was no doubt to scrape off the hair in dressing skins. A few objects made of wood have also been found at Wauwyl and elsewhere ; but these, even if originally numerous, would 1)6 difficult to distinguish from the surrounding peat, especially as this contains so many branches of trees and other fragments of wood ; and it would also be very difficult to extract them entire. Perhaps, therefore, implements of wood may have FiG. 174. Piece of Pottery. — Lake of Zurich. been much more varied and common than the collections would appear to indicate. Tinder has been found in several of the Lake villages, and was no doubt used in obtaining fire. The pottery of the Stone Age presents nearly the same characters in all the settlements. Very rude and coarse, it is generally found in broken pieces, and comparatively few entire vessels have been obtained. There is no evidence that the potter's wheel was known, and the baking is very imperfect, having apparently taken place in an open fire. The material is also very rude, and generally contains numerous grains of quartz. The form is frequently cylindrical, but several of the 1 84 DRESS. jivrs are roumlotl at the base, ami without foet. A curious character is tlie frequent presence of a row of depressions wliicli do not completely penetrate the thickness of the vessel ; hut the commonest decorations are simple lines or furrows, made sometimes by a sharp instrument, sometimes l)y the tinger-nail (see fig. 174), and occasionally produced by pressing a cord on the soft clay. Curved lines are rare ; no represen- tation of any animal has yet been met with ; and the vase found at "Wangen, a restored figure of which has been given both by Dr. Keller and by M. Troy on, is almost the only instance in which any attempt has been made to represent a plant. In this case the design is even ruder than might be inferred from the above-mentioned figures.* In some of the Bronze Age villages rings of pottery are found, which were evidently intended to serve as supports for these earthenware tumblers, but none of them have yet been met with in any of the Stone Age villages. Possibly the earthenware during the Stone Age rested on the soft earth, and tables were only intro- duced in the Bronze Age, when by means of metallic imple- ments it became so much easier to cut wood, and particularly to make boards. Many of the vessels had small projections, which were pierced in such a manner that strings might be passed through them, and which may, therefore, have served for suspension. Some of the vessels, also, are pierced by small holes at different levels ; it has been suggested that these may have been used in the preparation of curds, the small holes being intended to permit the escape of the milk. The orna- ments on the pottery belonging to this age are of a very rude and simple character. Sometimes a row of knobs runs round the vase, just below the lip; this style of ornamentation is common on the pottery found by M. Gillieron at the Pont de Thiele. * In Lee's second edition of Keller's Lake Dwellings, pi. xv., a fignre is given of the actual fragments. THE FAUNA OF THE LAKE-DWELLINGS. 185 Although there can be no doubt that the skins of animals supplied the ancient Lakemen with their principal articles of clothing, still in several of the settlements, and especially at Wangen and Kobenhausen, both of which belong to the Stone Age, pieces of rude fabric (fig. 175) have been found in some abundance. They consist either of flax fibres or straw. The presence of spindle-whorls has been already mentioned. For our knowledge of the animal remains from the Pile- works we are principally indebted to Prof. Eiitimeyer. The bones are in a very fragmentary condition, and have been Fig. 175. Piece of Tissue from Robenhausen. broken open for the sake of the marrow. There is also the same absence of certain bones and parts of bones, so that it is impossible to re-construct a perfect skeleton even of the commonest animal. The total number of species amounts to about seventy, of which ten are fishes, four reptiles, twenty-six birds, and the remainder quadrupeds. Of the latter, six species may be considered as having been domesticated ; namely, the dog, pig, horse, goat, sheep, and at least two varieties of oxen. The bones very seldom occur in a natural condition ; but those of domestic and wild animals are mixed together, and the state in which they are found, the marks of knives upon 1S6 MOOSSEEDORF. tlioni, and their liaving boen almost always broken open for the sake of their marrow, are all evidences of Innuaii interference. Two species, the one wild, the other domestic, are especially numerous — the stag and the ox. Indeed, the remains of these two equal those of all the others together. It is, however, an interesting fact, that in the older settlements, as at Moossee- dorf, Wauwyl, and Eobenhausen, the stag exceeds the ox in the number of specimens indicated, while the reverse is the case in the more modern settlements of the western lakes, as, for instance, those at Waugen and Meilen, Next to these in order of abundance is the hog. Less numerous again, and generally represented by single speci- mens where the preceding occur in numbers, are the roe, the goat, and the sheep, which latter is most abundant in the later settlements. With these rank the fox and the marten. Foxes are occasionally eaten by the Esquimaux.* Captain Lyon seems to have taken rather a fancy to them,-]- and Franklin assures us that fat fox is better than lean venison.;]: They also appear, whether from choice or necessity, to have been eaten during the Stone period. This conclusion is de- rived from the fact that the bones often present the marks of knives, and have been opened for the sake of the marrow. While, however, the fox is very frequent in the Pile-works of the Stone epoch, it has not yet been found in any settlement belonging to the Bronze period. Oddly enough, the dog is rarer than the fox, at least as far as the observations yet go, in the Lake-dwellings of the Stone period, though more common than the horse ; and of other species but few specimens have been met with, though in some localities the beaver, the badger, and the hedgehog appeaj in some numbers. The bear and the wolf, as well as the urus, the bison, and the elk, seem * Crantz, History of Greenland, t Lyon's Journal, p. 77. vol. i. p. 73. . + Franklin, vol. iii. pp. 219-239, THE FAUNA. 187 to have occasionally been captured ; it is probable that the latter species were taken in concealed pits. From the small lake at Moosseedorf, M. Eutimeyer has identified the following list: — Of the. dog, three specimens ;_ fox, four specimens ; beaver, five specimens ; roe, six speci- mens; goat and sheep, ten specimens ; cow, sixteen specimens; hog, twenty specimens ; stag, twenty specimens. It is cer- tainly very striking to find two wild species represented by the greatest number of specimens, and particularly so, since this is no exceptional case ; but the whole sum of the wild exceeds that of the domesticated individuals, a result, more- over, which holds good in other settlements of this epocli. Not only does this indicate a great antiquity, but also that the population must have been sometimes subjected to great privations, partly from the unavoidable uncertainty of supplies so obtained, partly because it is improbable that foxes would have been eaten except under the pressure of hunger. The bones of the stag and the wild boar often indicate animals of an unusual magnitude, while, on the other hand, the fox appears to have been somewhat smaller than at present. The dogs varied less than they do now ; in fact they all belong to one variety, which was of middle size, and appears to have resembled our present beagles. (M. Eiiti- meyer describes it as " resembling the Jagdhund " and the " Wachtelhund.") The sheep of the Stone period differed from the ordinary form in its small size, fine legs, and short goat-like horns ; particulars in which it is nearly resembled by some northern and mountain varieties at the present day, as, for instance, by the small sheep of the Shetlands, Orkneys, Welsh hills, and parts of the Alps. At Wauwyl, however, M. Eutimeyer found traces of an individual, with large horns.' Our knowledge of the wild species of sheep is so deficient, that M. Eutimeyer does not venture to express any opinion concerumg the origin of the domestic varieties, but his pre- ISS THE FAUNA. sent impression is that tliey will eventually l)e traced np to several wild races. In his first memoir, Prof. Eiitimeyer gives an interesting LIST OF SPECIES. T7r.sus Arctos Meles vulgaris Mustela Foina ,, Martes ,. Putorius ,, Erniinea ,, Lutra vulgari- Canis Lupus „ fainiliaris (palustris) ,, Vulpes ., Felis Catus (ferus) Erinaceua europaeus .... Castor Fiber Sciurus europseus Mus sylvaticus Lepus timidus Sus Scrofa ferus ,, Palustris „ Scrota doraesticus . Equus Caballus E. Asinus Cervus Alces „ Elaphus ,, Capreolus Capra Ibex ,, Hircus Ovis Aries Antilope nipicapra Bos primigenius ,, Bison ,, Taurus primigenius „ Taurus bracliyceros , , Taurus frontosus. . . , 2 5 2 3 1 1 .5 2 34 34 table, which, with some additions which I owe to his kind courtesy, is here, subjoined, the relative frequency being in- dicated by numerals : 1 denotes a single individual ; 2 indicates that the remains of several individuals have been met with ; BIRDS, 189 3 the species which are common ; 4 those which are very common ; and lastly, 5 those which are present in great number. The almost entire absence of the hare is perhaps owing to the curious prejudice which was and is entertained by many races against the flesh of this animal. It was never eaten by the ancient Britons, and is avoided by the Lapps at the present day. According to Burton,* the Somal Arabs will not touch it, and M. Schlegel also states that the pre- judice against it existed among the ancient Chiuese.-j- The Namaquas (S. Africa) do not eat it for fear of becoming timid. In confirmation of this, it may be mentioned that it was, among the Hottentots, forbidden to men, but permitted to women. J It was regarded as unclean by the Jew^s, being erroneously supposed to chew the cud. According to Crantz, the Greenlanders,§ if in want, will eat foxes rather than hares, nor do its remains' occur in the Danish shell-mounds. It appears, however, to have been eaten in Palseolithic times.|| The biixls which have been discovered are : — Aquila fulva. The golden eagle. At Eobenhausen. Aquila halite tus. A single bone found at Moosseedorf is rather doubtfully referred to this species by M. Rtltimeyer. Falco milvus. Eobenhausen. Falco palumbarius. Wauwyl, Moosseedorf. Falco nisus. Moosseedorf. Falco Buteo. Moosseedorf, Eobenhausen. Strix aluco. Concise, Strix otus. Moosseedorf, * First Footsteps, p. 155. § History of Greenland, p. 73. t Notes and Queries on China, || Boyd Dawkins. Geol, Jour, Japan, Hongkong, May, 1868, 1876, p. 247. I Le Vaillant, Voyages dans 1' Af- rique, vol. iv. p. 187. 190 MOUSE. CAT. ASS. Strix Imbo. Wangeii. SLurnus vulgaris. Hobenhausen. Corvus corone. „ Corvus corax. „ Cinclus a(j[ualicus „ Columba palumbus. „ Moosseedorf. Tetrao Lonasia. „ Tetrao lagopus. Moosseedorf, Ciconia alba. Not unfrequent at Moosseedorf and Eobenhausen. Ardea cinerea. Eobenhausen. Grus cinerea. „ Fulica atra. „ Larus. Two sp. „ Mergus. Mergus merganser. Bienne. Cygnus olor. Eobenhausen, Anser segetum. „ Anas boschas. Eobenhausen, Moosseedorf, Wauwyl. Anas querquedula. „ „ Podiceps minor, Eobenhausen. The reptiles and fishes are represented by about ten of our commonest species. The common mouse and our two house-rats, as well as the domestic cat, are absent from the Lake-habitations of Switzer- land, as also from the Kjokkenmoddings of Denmark ; the Bame is the case with the common fowl, which seems, more- over, to have been unknown to Homer and Hesiod; Prof. Eiitimeyer attributes to a later period a single bone of the latter bird which was found at Morges, a settlement belonging to the Bronze period. The earliest remains of the ass mentioned by Prof. Eiiti- meyer are those found at Chavannes and Noville, which, HORSE. BOAR, 191. however, were not connected witli Pfahlbauten, and belonged to post-Eoman times. In the Bible, the ass is first mentioned in the time of Abraham, wlio had " sheep, and oxen, and he- asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels." * It will be observed that in this enumeration no mention is made of horses. Laban, again, had sheep, and goats, and cattle, and camels, and asses, but apparently no horses. Again, the present which Jacob sent to Esau con- sisted of two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten foals.f Indeed, no mention whatever is made of horses until the children of Israel went into Egypt ; and from the copious and interesting details of their pastoral life, we may feel sure that horses would have been alluded to if the Hebrews had possessed them. As regards Egypt, the horse is not repre- sented on any of the monuments anterior to the 18th dynasty, after which, however, it appears to have become abundant in that country. As regards the Swiss Lake villages, it is singular that though remains of the horse have been found in all the Pile- works, they are so rare that their presence may almost be considered accidental : thus, Wangen has only produced a single tooth ; Moosseedorf, a metatarsal bone, which has been polished on one side ; Eobenhausen, a single os naviculare tarsi ; and Wauwyl, only a few bones, which may all have belonged to a single individual. On the other hand, when we come to the Bronze period, we find at Nidau numerous bones of this species ; so that, as far as these slight indications go, the horse, even if present in the Stone Age, seems to have been rarer than at subsequent periods. All the remains of this animal belonged apparently to the domestic horse (Equus caballus), while those which occur in the Drift gravel beds * Gen. xii. 16. + Gen. xxxiii. 14. 102 SUS PULUSTRIS. and in caves fall into two well-marked races, named by Prof. Owen, E. fossilis and E. spekeus. " The genealogy of the domestic liog," says Mr. Boyd Daw- kins* " has been ascertained by MM. Etitimeyer, Nathusius, and Sohiitz, with great accuracy, and Dr. Darwin has svimmed up the evidence with judicial impartiality .f It is traced, by these observers, to two distinct strains, the one being the wild boar, which is found throughout the temperate and hot regions of Europe, Asia, and in North Africa ; and (the other) that which is termed by Nathusius the Sus Indica, of Pallas, and which is known commonly as the small, short-legged, and short-headed pig of Siam and China." M. Etitimeyer, in a letter with which he has favoured me, says he is now convinced that the Sus palustris " was imported from the East, and stands in nea,rest relation to Sus vittatus of East Asia, the stock from which all Asiatic, most African and Southern European (Eoman and Greek) races are derived," the Northern European race being, on the contrary, derived from the wild boar. Our domestic hog first makes its appearance in the later Pile-works. Prof. Etitimeyer does not, however, believe that it was tamed by the inhabitants of Switzerland, but is rather disposed to look upon it as having been introduced during the Bronze Age, and the more so as he also finds at Concise traces of a variety of the ox ( B. trochoceros) which does not occur in the earlier Pile-works. The discovery of dung among the remains of the Pfahl- bauten sufficiently proves that the Lake-dwellers had domestic animals, but there are also other indications from which we may draw the same conclusion. In endeavouring to ascertain whether any given bones belonged to a wild or domesticated animal, we must be guided * Paheontograpliical Soc. 1878, t Variations under Domestica- vol. xxxii. p. 13. tion, vol. i. ch. i. COMPARISON OF THE BONES BELONGING TO OXEN. 193 by the following considerations: the number of individuals FIO. 17G. Part of the Vertebra of a Cow. represented ; the relative proportions of young and old ; the FIG. 177. Part of the corresponding Vertebra of the Bison. absence or presence of very old individuals, at least in the case of species that serve for food ; the traces of long, though N nu coMrArasoN of the bones belonging. to oxen. indirect, selection, in diminishiug the size of any natural weapons Nvhich might he injurious to man ; the direct action of man during the life of the animal ; and, finally, the texture and condition of the hones. Applying these considerations to the Sus palustris from I^Ioosseedorf, Prof. Eiitimeyer concludes that there is no evidence that any of them belonged to domesticated speci- mens. Prof. Eiitimeyer has also paid great attention to the texture and condition of the bones themselves, and believes that he can, in many cases, from these alone distinguish the species, and even determine whether the hone belonged to a wild or a domesticated animal. In wild animals the bones are of a firmer and closer tex- ture; there is an indescribable, but to the accustomed eye very characteristic, sculpturing of the external surface, pro- duced by the sharper and more numerous impressions of vessels, and the greater roughness of the surfaces for the attachment of muscles. There is also an exaggeration of all projections and ridges, and a diminution of all indifferent surfaces. The contrast thus produced will be seen from figs. 176 and 177, the first of which represents a portion of a vertebra belonging to a domestic cow, the second the corresponding surface of the same bone from the bison. In considering the remains of oxen, these distinctions have proved of the greatest importance. By their assistance Prof. Eiitimeyer has convinced himself that, besides the two wild species of bos, namely, the urus (B. primigenius) and the aurochs (B. hison or Bison Burojjceus), four principal races of domestic oxen occur in the Lake villages.* The first of these, the Primigenius race, closely resembles the Urus or Bos primigenius, and was no doubt descended from it. It occurs in all the earlier Pile-works, and in tlie * Ar. fiir Antliropologie, 1866, p. 219. ABSENCE OF EXTINCT SPECIES. 195 present day is best represented by the great oxen of Friesland, Jutland, and Holstein. The second, or Troclioccros race, has not hitherto been found in any of the Stone Age villages. Elitimeyer regards it as scarcely distinguishable from the urus, and observes that its peculiarities are principally, though not exclusively, developed in the female sex. The third, or Frontosus race, occurs but sparingly in the older Pfahlbauten; becomes more frequent in the Bronze Age villages, and prevails at the present day in northern Switzer- land. Prof. Elitimeyer considers this variety also to be derived from the urus, and remarks that while the wild cattle of Chillingham are true to the primigenius form, some of the Lyme Park cattle approach to the frontosus type. He has, however, never seen a skull of this type belonging to an undoubtedly wild animal. The fourth is the Longifrons or Bracliyceros race. The name Brachyceros, by which it was at first known, must be abandoned, having been previously applied by Dr. Gray to an African ox. This variety is extremely abundant in all the Pfahlbauten. Prof. Eiitimeyer regards it as descended, not from the urus, but from a second and smaller species, perhaps from Bos indicus. He remarks, however, that if it be derived from the urus, it is at least a more distinct, and must be an older variety than any of the preceding. Prof. Eiitimeyer admits that we have no evidence that B. longifrons ever existed in a wild state in Central Europe. Prof, M'Kenny Hughes * considers that the Bison became extinct in Britain before the Neolithic period, and that none of our domestic Breeds can be traced to it : that the urus was domesticated in the Neolithic period, but became extinct before the Eoman period : that the shorthorn was the characteristic ox of the Bronze Age, but was improved in Eoman times by * Arcliceologia, 1898. IPG ABSENCE OF EXTINCT SPECIES. cattle brought from Italy : ami that the Chillingham wild cattle, which have been generally regarded as descended from the urns, are really derived from this breed and not from the urus. ;M. de Quatrefages * considers all our domestic oxen to be descendants of the urus; while Mr. Darwin f regards B. longifrons and B. frontosus as the modern representatives of wild ancestors, specifically distinct from B. primigenius ; and concludes therefore that our " domestic cattle are almost certainly the descendants of more than one wild form." Mr. Boyd Dawkins | has shown that, as far as this country is concerned, we have no conclusive evidence of more than two species of wild oxen, namely, the urus and the bison. The smaller varieties appear to have been introduced as domesticated animals, and probably do not go back beyond the Neolithic period. According to Nilsson, on the contrary, both the B. frontosus and B. longifrons inhabited Sweden as wild races. § My own impression is that the urus was domesticated in Europe ; but also that some at least of the early settlers brought domestic cattle with them, which may very probably have belonged to a distinct wild race. Further evidence, however, is much needed on this interesting subject. ]\Iaking allowance then for the marine animals, such as seals, fish, oysters, cockles, whelks, etc., which we could not expect to find so far away from the sea, the fauna indicated by the remains found in the Swiss lakes agrees remarkably with that which characterises the Danish Kjokkenmoddiugs, so far as wild animals are concerned, and belongs evidently to a far later age than that of the celebrated stone hatchets, which were first made known to us by the genius and perse- verance of M. Boucher de Perthes. * Rev. des Cours Scientifiqiies, J Boyd Dawkins, Geol. Jour. 1868, p. 563. 1867, p. 182. t Animals and Plants under § Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. Domestication, vol. i. p. 81. 1849, pp. 349-351. AUROCHS. ELK. IBEX. 197 Instead of the elephant and rhinoceros, we find in the Neolithic or second Stone period — in that, namely, of the Kjokkenmoddings and " Pfahlbauten " — the urus and bison, the elk and the red deer, already installed as monarchs of the forest. Even the reindeer is altogether absent. The red deer, on the contrary, and the boar, appear to have been very frequent, and to have formed a most important article of food for the Lake-dwellers, The urus, or great fossil ox, is now altogether extinct, at least as a wild species.* It is mentioned by Ctesar, who describes it as being little smaller than an elephant. (Hi sunt magnitudine paulo infra eleph- antos specie et colore et figura tauri.) According to Herberstein, it still existed in Germany during the six- teenth century, soon after which, however, it must have become extinct. The aurochs, or European bison, seems to have disappeared from Western Europe at about the same period as the urus. There is no historical record of its existence in England or Scandinavia. In Switzerland we cannot trace it later than the tenth century; but it is mentioned in the "Niebelungen Lied," of the twelfth century, as occurring in the Forest of Worms; and in Prussia the last was killed in the year 1775. At one period, indeed, it appears to have inhabited almost the whole of Europe, much of Asia, and part even of America ; but at present it is confined in Europe to the imperial forests in Lithuania, where it is preserved by the Emperor of Eussia; while, according to Nordmann and Von Baer, it still exists in some parts of Western Asia. We have no notice of the existence of the elk in Switzer- land during the historical period, but it is mentioned by Caesar as existing in the great Hercynian forest; and even * Prof. Riitimeyer, as I have al- ville Park are unmistakeable, ready mentioned, considers tliat the though dwarfish, descendants of celebrated wild cattle of Tanker- the B. primigenius. 198 GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE FAUNA. ill tlie twelfth century it was to be met with in Sclavonia tiiid Hungary, according to Albertus Magnus and Gesner. In Saxony, the death of the last elk is recorded as having occurred in 17-46. At present it inhabits Prussia and Lithuiinia, Finland and Enssia, Scandinavia and Siberia, as far as the shores of the Amoor. The ibex survived in the Swiss Alps somewhat longer than the elk. It has lingered longest in the West. In Glarus the last one perished in 1550, though near Chiavenna it existed until the commencement of the seventeenth century, and in the Tyrol until the second half of the eighteenth ; while a few still exist in the neighbourhood of Mount Iseran, where they are protected by the King of Italy. The extermination of the bear, like that of the ibex, seems to have begun in the East, and is not yet complete, since this animal still occurs in the Jura and the Grisons, whence it occasionally visits the Valais and the south-eastern parts of Switzerland. The fox, the otter, and the different species of weasel, are still the common carnivora of Switzerland, and the wild cat, badger and wolf still occur in the Jura and the Alps, the latter in cold wdnters venturing even into the plains. The beaver, on the contrary, has at last disappeared from Swit- zerland, It has long been very rare, but some survived until the beginning of the present century in Lucerne and Valais. A few still exist in France near the mouth of the Ehone. Eed deer were abundant in the Jura and the Black Forest in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, though they do not appear to have been so large as those which lived in earlier times. The last was shot in the canton of Basle, at the close of the eighteenth century, w'hile in western Switzerland and Valais they lingered somewhat longer. The roe-deer still occurs in some places. It appears, therefore, that the animals of the Swiss Pile- works belong to the fauna which has occupied Europe from GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE FAUNA. 199 the commencement of the Palaeolithic period down to the present time. While, however, we must regard the fauna of the Stone Age as belonging to the same great zoological epoch as that of the river drift gravels on the one hand, and the present time on the other, we cannot forget that the immense period which has elapsed since the end of the tertiary period has produced great changes in the fauna of Europe. In this post- tertiary era the Pile-works occupy, so to say, the middle position. Distinguished from the present fauna of Switzer- land by the possession of the urus, the bison, the elk, the stag, and the wild boar, as well as by the more general distribution of the beaver, the bear, the ibex, etc., their fauna differs from that of the drift gravels in the absence of the mammoth, the rhinoceros, the musk ox, the cave hytena, and the reindeer. Prof. Eiitimeyer thinks that from similar considerations alone, even if w^e had no other evidence, we might carry this division farther ; and if we take the settlements at Moossee- dorf, Wauwyl, Eobenhausen, and Nidau, which have been the most carefully studied in this respect, it certainly appears that the three former, which belong to the Stone Age, offer a marked contrast to the latter, which is the locality whence the largest number of bronze objects has as yet been obtained. It is of course unnecessary to point out the interest and importance of such a distinction, which accords so well with that indicated by the study of the weapons and the state of preservation of the piles. Thus, the urus has only occurred at Moosseedorf, Wauwyl, Eobenhausen, Wangen, and Concise ; the aurochs only at Moosseedorf, Wauwyl, and Eobenhausen ; the bear only at Moosseedorf, Wauwyl, Eobenhausen, Wangen, and Concise. A glance at the table given at page 204 will show that several other species have as yet only occurred at Moosseedorf and Eobenhausen ; a fact, however, which indicates, perhaps, rather the richness than the antiquity of 200 COMPARISON OF THE DIFFERENT LAKE VILLAGES. these Idealities. Possibly we may consider the presence of these larger species as an indication of their greater abundance iu the oldest period ; but we must not forget that not only the bear and the elk, but also the aurochs and the urus appear at a comparatively late period. On the other hand, the abun- dance of wild animals, and the fact that at Moosseedorf and Wauwyl the fox was more abundant than the dog, while else- where the reverse is the case, certainly speak in favour of the greater antiquity of these two settlements. The evidence derived from the distribution of the domestic animals is more satisfactory. The sheep occurs even at Moosseedorf, though not so numerous as at Nidau. On the other hand, the horse is frequent at ISTidau, while at Moossee- dorf only a single bone of this animal was discovered, in a different condition from that of the other bones, and probably more recent. Finally, the domestic hog of the present race is absent from all the Pile-works of the Stone period, excepting the one at Wauwyl ; and becomes frequent only at Nidau. The following table shows the proportions of wild and tame animals at Wauwyl and Moosseedorf, as representing the Age of Stone; and at Nidau, as perhaps the best illustration of that of Bronze. 1 represents a single individual ; 2, several ; 3, the species which are common; 4, those whch are very common ; and 5, those which are present in large numbers. If succeeding investigations confirm the conclusions thus indicated, we may infer that the domestic animals, which were comparatively rare in the Stone period, became more frequent after the introduction of bronze ; a change which indicates and perhaps produced an alteration of habits on the part of the inhabitants. Pare, indeed, as they may have been, oxen, horses, sheep, and goats could not be successfully kept through the winter in the climate of Switzerland without store of provisions and some sort of shelter. A pastoral people, therefore, must have THE FLORA OF THE PFAHLBAUTEX. 201 reached a higher grade than a mere nation of Iiunters. We know, moreover, in another way, that at this period agriculture Wild Animals. Brown Bear Wiuiwyl. Moosseedoi-f. Nidau. 2 2 3 3 2 1 3 2 2 1 "i 2 2 5 ?1 o ■ H 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 3 1 1 1 5 4 3 5 ?"i 5 2 2 2 "i "5 3 3 3 5 3 4 3 Pine Marten . . Polecat Wolf Fox Wild Cat Beaver... . Elk Urus , Bison Stag Roe Deer Wild Boar Marsh Boar* Domestic Animals. Domestic Boar Horse . , Ox Goat ... Sheep Dog was not entirely unknown. This is proved in the most unex- pected manner, by the discovery of carbonized cereals at various points. Wheat is most common, having been dis- covered at Meilen, Moosseedorf, and Wangen. At the latter place, indeed, many bushels of it were found, the grains being united in large thick lumps. In other cases the grains are free, and without chaff, resembling our present wheat in size and form, while more rarely they are still in the ear. Ears of the Hordeum hexastichon L. (the six-rowed barley) are somewhat numerous. This species differs from the H. vulgare L. in the number of rows, and in the smaller size of the grains. According to De Candolle, it was the species generally culti- vated by the ancient Greeks, Eomans, and Egyptians. In the * Considered by Prof. Riitimeyer to have been at first wild, but do- mesticated at Nidau, and in the later Pfahlbauten. 202 GRAINS. FRUITS. ears from Wangen, each row has generally ten or eleven grains, which, however, are smaller and shorter than those now grown. Three varieties of wheat were cultivated by the Lake- dwellers, who also possessed two kinds of barley, and two of millet. Of these the most ancient and most important were the small six-rowed barley and small " Lake-dwellers " wheat. The discovery of Egyptian wheat (Triticum turgidum) at "Wangen and Eobenhausen is particularly interesting. Oats were cultivated during the Bronze Age, but are absent from all the Stone Age villages. Eye also was unknown. "Wheat and millet only seem to have been used for making bread. Prof. Heer thinks the barley was probably roasted. In six-rowed barley the husks adhere very closely to the grain, and it would have been difficult to separate them ; when roasted, however, they could be easily detached from one another. Still more unexpected was the discovery of bread, or rather cakes, for their texture is so solid that leaven appears not to have been used. They were flat and round, from an inch to fifteen lines in thickness, and, to judge from one specimen, had a diameter of four or five inches. In other cases the grains seem to have been roasted, coarsely ground between stones, and then either stored up in large earthenware pots, or eaten after being slightly moistened. Grain treated in a similar manner is even now eaten in German}' and Switzerland. In what way the ground was prepared for the cultivation of corn we know not, as no implements have as yet been dis- covered which can with certainty be regarded as agricidtural. Carbonized apples have been found at Wangen, sometimes whole, sometimes cut into two, or more rarely into four pieces, and evidently dried and put aside for winter use. They have occurred not only at "Wangen, but also at Eobenhausen in Lake Pfeffikon, and at Concise in Lake Neufchatel. They are small, and resemble generally those which still grow wild TRAPA NATANS. FLAX. 203 in the Swiss forests ; at Eobenhausen, however, specimens have occurred which are of larger size and were probably cultivated. No trace of the vine, the walnut, the cherry, or the damson has yet been met with, but stones of the wild plum and the Prunus padus have been found. Seeds of the raspberry and blackberry, and shells of the hazel-nut and beech-nut occur plentifully in the mud, but those of the strawberry are rare. Peas have been found at Moosseedorf, but beans do not appear until the Bronze Age. From all this, therefore, it is evident that the nourishment of the dwellers in the Pile-works consisted of corn and wild fruits, of fish, and the flesh of wild and domestic animals. ]\lilk also was doubtless an important article of their diet. Altogether 115 species of plants have been dete^rmined. The wild species are almost entirely the same as those now living; the Silene cretica, however, a South European weed, which was doubtless introduced originally and accidentally with the cereals, and which has been found at Eobenhausen, does not now inhabit Switzerland ; and the Trapa natans, which was used as food by the inhabitants of Moosseedorf and Eobenhausen, was supposed to be extinct in Switzerland, but is now known to occur in one locality. I subjoin a table which I have compiled from Dr Heer's memoir, and which shows the more interesting species and varieties. Neither hemp, oats, nor rye have yet been found. Small pieces of twine and bits of matting made of flax may have been part of some article of clothing. Por this purpose also there can be little doubt that the skins of animals were used. Fragments of leather have been met with, and some of the stone implements seem well adapted to assist in their prepara- tion, while the bone pins, and needles made from the teeth of boars, may have served to fasten them together. 20-4 ANCIENT AGEICULTUKE. Dr Ileer, from whose very interesting memoir * the above facts are borrowed, calls particular attention to the fact that, wliile the remains of wdld species found in the Pfahlbauten agree in the most minute particulars with those still living in Switzerland, the cultivated plants, on the contrary, differ from all existing varieties, and invariably have smaller seeds or fruits. Man has evidently in the course of time effected STONE AGE. TRANSITION. BRONZE AGE. 1 Hordeum (barley)liexastichon sanc- tum 2 Hordeum hexasticlion densum.. 3 ,, distichum 4 Triticnin (wheat) vulgare anti- quorum 5 Triticum vulgare compactum muti- cum 6 Triticum turgidum (Egyptian wheat) 7 Triticum spelta 8 ,, dicoccum 9 ,, monococcum 10 Secale cereale 11 Avena sativa (oats) 12 Panicum miliaceum 13 Setaria italica 14 Silene cretica 15 Centaurea cyanus (corn-flower). 16 Pastinaca sativa 17 F aba vulgaris 18 Pisum sativum 19 Ervum lens 20 Pyrus malus (small crab-apple) 21 Trapanatans 22 Linum angustifolium (Flax) considerable improvements. It is also very interesting to observe how the evidence derived from the Swiss Lake-dwel- lings agrees with that contained in the most ancient writings which we possess. Thus flax is mentioned in the Pentateuch * Die Pflanzen der Pfalilbanten. + Only one ear, subsec[uently lost. SCARCITY OF HUMAN REMAINS. 205 and in Homer ; it was also largely used by the ancient Egyp- tians, while hemp seems to have been unknown until a later period. So also wheat and barley, but neither oats nor rye,* are mentioned in Exodus or by Homer. Even in the time of David, when Barzillai the Gileadite -f " brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse, and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine," it will be observed that neither oats nor rye are mentioned. Flax also is alluded to nine times in the Old Testament, and linen thirteen times, but hemp not once. To what race of men the Swiss Lake-dwellings are ascrib- able we have as yet no direct evidence. Human bones are very rare in the Pile-works, and may probably be referred to accidents, especially as we find that those of children are most numerous. M. Desor, indeed, states that not a single human skeleton has yet been found in any of the stations l}elonging to the Stone Age ; and Dr. Keller, in his fifth report, informs us that all the lake villages taken together have not yet produced more than half-a-dozen. One mature skull from Meilen has been described by Professor His, who considers that it does not differ much from the present Swiss type. While his work was in the press. Prof. Elitimeyer received from Col. Schwab four more skulls, two of which were obtained at Nidau, one at Sutz, and one at Biel. Another skull shown to me by Prof. Desor, and found at Auvernier, completes the number mentioned by Dr. Keller. All these settlements, however, appear to have belonged to the Bronze Age, nor has it yet been possible certainly to refer any of the ancient tumuli found in Switzerland to the earlier period. Passing now to the Lake-habitations belonging to the * According to the best Hebrew in Exodus ix. 32, really means scholars, the word translated " rye" spelt. t 2 Sam. xviii. 28. 206 BRONZE AGE LAKE VILLAGES. Bronze Age, we tiud that they are less generally distrilnited than those of the earlier period. They have as yet been found principally on the Lakes of Geneva, Luissel, Neufchatel, Morat, Bienne, and Sempach ; scarcely any in eastern Switzerland. It has been supposed from this that the Age of Stone lasted longer in the east than in the west, and that flint and serpen- tine were in use on Lake Constance long after bronze had replaced them on the western lakes. We can, however, hardly suppose that the inhabitants of Inkwyl and Moossee- dorf in Berne, who imported flint from France, can have been ignorant of the neighbouring civilization on the Lake of Bienne. Moreover, one settlement of the Bronze Age has been found on the Lake of Constance ; but as the question now stands, Pile-works of the Metallic period are almost peculiar to westein and central Switzerland. The construc- tions of the Bronze Age are more solidly built, but do not otherwise appear to have differed materially from those of the Stone Age. They are often, however, situated farther from the laud and in deeper water, partly no doubt on account of the greater facility of working timber, but partly also, per- haps, because more protection was needed as the means of attack were improved. The principal objects of bronze are swords, daggers, axes, spear-heads, knives, fish-hooks, sickles, pins, rings, and bracelets. The number of these articles which have been discovered is already very great, the collection of Col. Schwab alone containing no less than 4346 objects of metal. They are classified in the table in p. 46, which gives an idea of the relative proportions in which they occur. Many of them are really beautiful, and as bronze must have been at that early period of considerable value, it is difficult to understand how so many can have been left uncared for and forgotten, along the shallow margins of the Swiss lakes. " II est evident," says Prof. Desor, " que ce ne sont pas de rebuts qui se seraient perdus, sans qu'on sen inquietat. lis THE WOESHIP OF LAKES. 207 ne sont pas tombes a I'eau par hasard, non plus que cette quautite de vases qui sont accumul^s sur certain points, ni las jattes a provisions qu'on retire intactes." On the whole he is inclined to think that in some of these cases at least we have " de simples magasins destines aux ustensiles et aux provisions, et qui auraient ete detruits par I'incendie, comme semble I'indiquer la trace du feu que montrent frequemment les poutres aussi bien que les vases en terre. On expliquerait ainsi comment il se fait que les objets en bronze sont presque tons neufs, que les vases sont entiers et reunis sur un seul point." Col. Schwab, however, than whom no man has had more experience in such matters, while agreeing that compar- atively little is ever found except in such Lake villages as show traces of fire, expresses himself decidedly, and I think with reason, against the " bazaar " theory. It has been suggested that the early inhabitants of Switzer- land may have worshipped the lakes, and that the beautiful bracelets, etc., may have been offerings to the gods. It appears from ancient writers that among the Gauls, Germans, and other nations, many lakes were regarded as sacred. Accord- ing to Cicero,* Justin,-|- and Strabo,! there was a lake near Toulouse in which the neighbouring tribes used to deposit offerings of gold and silver. Tacitus, Pliny, and Virgil also mention the existence of sacred lakes. Even so late as the sixth century, Gregory of Tours tells us (De Glor. Confes., chap, ii.) that on Mount Helanus there was a lake which was the object of popular worship. Every year the inhabitants of the neighbourhood brought to it offerings of clothes, skins, cheese, cakes, etc. Traces of a similar superstition may still be found lingering in the remote parts of Scotland and Ireland ; in the former country I have myself seen a sacred spring surrounded by the offerings of the neighbouring peasantry, * De Nat. Deor., lib. iii. xxx. + Just., xxxii. iii, X Geog., vol. iv. 208 THE POTTERY OF THE BRONZE AGE. Nvho soemed to consider pence and halfpence as the most appropriate and agreeable sacrifice to the Spirit of the Waters. Neither the coarse, broken pottery, the castaway fragments of bones, nor the traces of habitations, can, however, be accounted for in this manner.* The pottery of the Bronze period is more varied and more skilfully made than that of the Stone Age, but the potter's wheel does not seem to have been in use. Eings of earthen- ware are common, and appear to have been used as supports for the round-bottomed vases. The ornaments are of the same general character as those on the objects of bronze. Many of the large urns appear to have been used as store-places for the grain, etc., which was collected during the summer for winter's use. In the absence, perhaps, of boxes and cup- boards, even ornaments and instruments seem to have been kept in large jars. Some beautiful bracelets were found with several sickles in a jar at Cortaillod. Pieces of pottery, distorted by fire, during the process of baking, have, according to M. Troyon, been found in many of the Lake villages ; whence he concludes that the pottery was manufactured on the spot. Colonel Schwab has found at Nidau more than twenty crescents made of earthenware, with the convex side flattened, to serve as a foot. They are compressed at the sides, some- times plain, sometimes ornamented, from ten to twelve inches wide, and six to eight in height. Dr. Keller was at first inclined to regard them as emblems of moon worship, but it is more probable that they were pillows.-f- Though this seems at first very unlikely, and they must, one would think, have been very uncomfortable, still we know that several barbarous races at the present day use wooden pillows or neck-rests of the same kind, as, for instance, the Fijians, who, having enor- * See also Wylie, " On Lake- t Vogt's Lectures on Man, p. dwellings of the Early Periods." 368. Arclifieol., vol. xxxviii. p. 18L INHABITANTS OF THE LAKE VILLAGES, 2G9 mous heads of hair, sacrifice comfort to vanity, and use a mere wooden bar as a pillow. The very long bronze pins found with these " crescents " indicate that during the Bronze Age the hair was worn very long and was carefully arranged. M. Troyon is of opinion that the inhabitants of Switzerland during the Bronze Age were of a different race from those who had lived there during the earlier period, and he agrees with some of the Scandinavian archaeologists in regarding them as the true " Celts," and in attributing to them the habit of burning their dead. It would be very desirable to have some statistics, in order that we might appreciate the value of the evidence to be derived from the ancient Swiss burials. M. Troyon relies on the fact that many of the Lake villages were destroyed by fire, and that when, as appears to have been the case at several places, they were rebuilt during the Bronze Age, this was done, not exactly on the same spot, but farther away from the bank. Dr. Keller, on the other hand, considers that the primitive population did not differ, either in disposi- tion (aulage), mode of life, or industry, from that which was acquainted with the use of bronze ; and that the whole pheno- mena of the Lake villages, from their commencement to their conclusion, indicate clearly a gradual and peaceable develop- ment. The number of instances in which Lake villages had been destroyed by fire has been, he considers, exaggerated. Of the settlements on the Lakes of Bienne and Neufchatel, amounting in all to more than seventy, only a quarter have, according to Col. Schwab, shown any traces of combustion ; a proportion which is, perhaps, not greater than might have been expected, remembering that the huts were built of wood, and in all probability covered by thatch. Moreover, if these con- flagrations had resulted from the attacks of enemies, we ought surely to have found numerous remains of the slain, whereas all the Lake villages together have not as yet supplied us with the remains of more than half-a-dozen human skeletons. o 210 CHARACTER OF THE OBJECTS FOUND IN LAKE VILLAGES. It must, 1 think, be confessed that the arguments used by M. j'royon fail to prove that the introduction of bronze was accompanied by an entire change of population. However this may be, I have in a previous chapter (ch. iii.) given my reasons for believing that the use of bronze in Europe was introduced by a race coming from the East, Towards the close of the Bronze Age the Lake villages appear to have gradually become less numerous. During the Stone Age they were spread over the whole country. Bronze Age settlements are very rare in the east of Switzerland, and the Iron Age is represented only on the Lakes of Bienne and Neufchatel. In these settlements not only has a new sub- stance made its appearance, but the forms of the implements are different. We have, indeed, copies of the bronze axes made in iron, just as we found before that some of the earlier bronze celts resembled the stone axes in form ; but these are exceptional cases. The swords have larger handles, and are more richly ornamented ; the knives have straight edges ; the sickles are larger ; the pottery is more skilfully made, and is of the kind generally known as Eoman; coins occur, the per- sonal ornaments are more varied, and glass for the first time makes its appearance. Bronze also is present ; but in the first place it is no longer used for weapons, and in the second it is worked in a different manner, being hammered,* while, as already mentioned, all the objects of the Bronze Age are cast. A field of battle at Tiefenau, near Berne (see p. 9), is re- markable for the great number of iron weapons and imple- ments which have been found on it. Pieces of chariots, about a hundred swords, fragments of coat of mail, lance-heads, rings, fibulae, ornaments, utensils, pieces of pottery and of glass, ac- companied by more than thirty Gaulish and Massaliote coins of a date anterior to our era, enable us to refer this battle- * See Desor, Les Constructions lacustres du Lac de Neuchatel, p. 27. ANTIQUITY OF LAKE VILLAGES. 211 field to the Eomau period. About forty Koman coins have also been found at the small island on the Lake of Bienne. After this peiiod we And no more evidences of Lake- habitations on a large scale. Here and there, indeed, a few fishermen may have lingered on the half-destroyed plat- forms, but the wants and habits of the people had changed, and the age of the Swiss Pile-works was at an end. We have, however, traced them through the ages of Stone and Bronze down to the beginning of the Iron period. We have seen evidences of a gradual progress in civilization, and improvement in the arts, an increase in the number of domes- tic animals, and proofs at last of the existence of an extended commerce. We found the country inhabited only by rude savages, and we leave it the seat of a powerful nation. Changes so important as these are not effected in a day ; the progress of the human mind is but slow ; and the gradual additions to human knowledge and power, like the rings in trees, enable us to form some idea how distant must be the date of their commencement. So varied, however, are the conditions of the human mind, so much are all nations affected by the influence of others, that when we attempt to express our impressions, so to say, in terms of years, we are baffled by the complexity of the problem. Some attempts have, indeed, been made to obtain a more definite chronology, and they will be alluded to in a later chapter. Though we must not conceal from ourselves the imperfection of the archffiological record, still we need not despair of eventually obtaining some approximate chronology. Our knowledge of primitive antiquity has made an enormous stride in the last ten years, and we may fairly look forward with hope to the future. The Swiss archseologists are continuing their labours, and they may rest assured that we in England watch with interest 212 ANTIQUITY OV LAKE YILT.AGES. the result of their investigations. Few things, indeed, can be more interesting than the spectacle of an ancient and long- forgotten people thus rising, as it were, from the waters of oblivion, to take tliat place which properly belongs to it in the historv of the human race. ( 213 ) CHAPTER VII. THE DANISH KJOKKENMODDINGS OR SHELL-MOUNDS. DENMARK occupies a larger space in the history than on the map of Europe ; the nation is greater than the country. With the growth of physical power in surrounding populations, she has lost much of her influence in political councils, and has been recently deprived of a great part of her ancient possessions, but the Danes of to-day are no un- worthy representatives of their ancestors. Many a larger nation might envy them the position they hold in science and art, and few have contributed more to tlie progress of human knowledge. Copenhagen may well be proud both of her museums and of her professors, and I would especially point to the celebrated Museum of Northern Antiquities, as being most characteristic and unique. For the formation of such a collection Denmaik offers great opportunities. The whole country appears to have been, at one time, thickly studded with tumuli; where the land has not been brought into cultivation, many of them are often in sight at once, and even in the more fertile and thickly populated parts, the plough is often diverted from its course by one of these ancient burial-places. Fortunately, the stones of which they are constructed are so large and so hard, that their destruction and removal is a laborious and expensive undertaking. While, however, on the one hand, land grows gradually more valuable, and the stones themselves are more •J 14 DANISH TUMULT. ami more coveted for building or other purposes ; on the other, the conservative traditions, the feeling of superstitious reverence for the dead, which have so long protected them from desecration, is gradually becoming weaker; and it is estimated that not a day passes without witnessing the de- struction of one or more of these tumuli, and the loss of some, perhaps almost irrecoverable, link in the history of the human race. Many of these barrows, indeed, contain in themselves a small collection of antiquities, and the whole country may even be considered as a museum on a great scale. The peat bogs, which occupy so large an area, may almost be said to swarm with antiquities, and Professor Steenstrup estimates that, on an average, every column of peat three feet square contains some specimen of ancient workmanship. All these advantages and opportunities, however, might have been thrown away but for the genius and perseverance of Pro- fessor Thomson, who may fairly be said to have created the Museum over which he so long and so worthily presided. In addition to the objects collected from the tumuli and the peat bogs, and to those which have been found from time to time scattered at random in the soil, the Museum of Northern Antiquities contains an immense collection of specimens from some very interesting shell-mounds, which are known in Denmark under the name of " Kjokkenmoddings," and were long supposed to be raised beaches, like those which are found at so many points along our own shores. True raised beaches, however, necessarily contain a variety of species ; the individuals are of different ages, and the shells are, of course, mixed with a considerable quantity of sand and gravel. But it was observed, in the first instance, I believe, by Professor Steenstrup, that in these supposed beaches, the shells belonged entirely to full-grown, or to nearly full-grown, individuals; that they consisted of foui^ species whicli do not kjOkkenmoddings, or shell-mounds. 215 live together, nor require the same conditions, and would not, therefore, be found together alone in a natural deposit ; and, thirdly, that the stratum contained scarcely any gravel, but consisted almost entirely of shells. The discovery of rude flint implements, and of bones still bearing the marks of knives, confirmed the supposition that these beds were not natural formations, and. it subsequently became evident that they were, in fact, the sites of ancient villages ; the primitive population having lived on the shore and fed principally on shell-fish, but partly also on the pro- ceeds of the chase. In many places hearths were discovered consisting of flat stones, arranged in such a manner as to form small platforms, and bearing all the marks of fire. The shells and bones not available for food gradually accumulated round the tents and huts, until they formed deposits generally from three to five feet, but sometimes as much as ten feet in thick- ness, and in some cases more than three hundred yards in length, with a breadth of from one hundred to two hundred feet. The name Kjokkenmodding, applied to these mounds, is derived from Kjokken, " kitchen," and modding (correspond- ing to our local word midding), a " refuse heap," and it was, of course, evident that a careful examination of these accumu- lations would throw much light on the manners and civiliza- tion of the then population. Under these circumstances a Committee was formed, con- sisting of Professor Steenstrup, the celebrated author of the treatise " On the Alternation of Generations," Professor Porch- hammer, the father of Danish Geology, and Professor Worsaae, the well-known archaeologist : a happy combination, promising the best results to biology, geology, and archaeology. Much was naturally expected from the labours of such a triumvirate, and the most sanguine hopes have been fulfilled. More than fifty of the deposits have been carefully examined, many thousand specimens have been collected, ticketed, and depo- 216 DESCEirTION OF THE SHELL MOUNDS. sited in ihc :\Iuseuin at Copeuhagen, cand the general results have been embodied in six Reports, presented to the Academy of Sciences at Copenhagen.* It is from these Reports, and from the excellent Memoir by M. Alorlot, that the following information has principally been derived. Being, however, anxious to present to my readers a complete and accurate account of the interesting shell- mounds, I have more than once visited Denmark ; first in 1861, with Professor Busk, and again in the summer of 1863. On both these occasions, through the kindness of Professor Thom- sen and Herr K. Herbst, every facility has been afforded me of examining the large collections made in different Kjokken- moddings, in addition to which I had the great advantage of visiting several of the shell-mounds under the guidance of Professor Steenstrup himself — especially one at Havelse in 1861, and those at Meilgaard and Fannerup in 1863. Mr. Busk and I also \isited by oui'selves one at Bilidt, on the Isef jord, close to Fredericksund ; but this is one of the places at which it would seem that the inhabitants cooked their dinners actually on the shore itself, so that the shells and bones are much mixed up with sand and gravel ; and we were not very successful in our search for flint implements. At Havelse, on the contrary, the settlement was on rather higher ground, and, though close to the shore, beyond the reach of the waves; the shells and bones are, therefore, almost unmixed with extraneous substances. At this place the Kjokkenmodding is of small extent, and is in the form of an irregular ring, enclosing a space on which the ancient dwelling or dwellings probably stood. In other cases, where the deposit is of greater extent, as, for instance, in the cele- * Untersogelser i geologisk-anti- excellent abstract of tbe Eeports in qiiarisk Retning af G. Forchliam- the Mem. de la Societe Yaudoise, mer, J. Steenstrup, og J. Worsaae. t. vi. 1860. M. Morlot also has published an DESCRIPTION OF THE SHELL-MOUNDS. 21? bra ted shell-mound at Meilgaard, the surface is undulating, the greater thickness of the shelly stratum in some places apparently indicating the arrangement of the dwellings. When the shell-mound at Havelse was previously visited by Professor Steenstrup, the shells were being removed to serve as manure, and the mound, presenting a perpendicular section, was in a very favourable condition for examination. The small pits thus formed had, however, been filled in, so that we were obliged to make a fresh excavation. In two or three hours we obtained about a hundred fragments of bone, many rude flakes, slingstones, and flint fragments, together with nine rude axes of the ordinary "shell-mound" type (figs. 114-116). Our visit to Meilgaard in 1863 was even more successful. This, which is one of the largest and most interesting shell- mounds hitherto discovered, is situated not far from the sea- coast, near Grenaa in north-east Jutland, in a beautiful beech- forest called " Aigt," or " Aglskov," on the property of M. Olsen, who, with a praiseworthy devotion to science, has given orders that the Kjokkenmodding should not be destroyed, although the materials of which it consists are well adapted for the improvement of the soil, and for other purposes, to which, indeed, they had already been m part applied before the true nature of the deposit was discovered. Arriving at his house, without invitation or notice, we were received by M. Olsen and his family with kindness and hospitality. M. Olsen immediately sent two workmen to clear away the rubbish which had fallen in since the last archaeological visit, so that when we reached the spot we found a fresh wall of the shell- mound ready for examination. In the middle, this Kjokken- modding has a thickness of about ten feet, frpm which, how- ever, it slopes away in all directions ; round the principal mound are several smaller ones, of the same nature. Over the shells a thin layer of mould has formed itself, on which trees grow. A good section of such a Kjokkenmodding can 218 DISTRIBUTION OF THE SIIELL-MOUNDS. hardly fail to strike with astonishment any one who sees it fur the tirst time, and it is ditficult to convey in words an exact idea of the appearance which it presents. The whole thick- ness consists of shells, oysters being at Meilgaard by far the most numerous, with here and there a few bones, and still more rarely stone implements or fragments of pottery. Except- ing just at the top and bottom, the mass is quite unmixed with sand and gravel ; and, in fact, contains nothing but what has been in some way or other subservient to the use of man. The only exceptions which I could see were a few, very few, rough Hint pebbles, w^hich were probably dredged up with the oysters. While we were in this neighbourhood, we visited another Kjokkenmodding at Fannerup on the Kolindsund, which was even in historical times an arm of the sea, but is now a fresh-water lake. Other similar deposits have been discovered at various points along the Danish coast. Generally it is evident that deposits of this nature were scattered here and there over the whole shore, but that they were never formed inland. The whole country was more intersected by fjords during the Stone period even than it is now. Under these circumstances it is evident that a nation which subsisted principally on marine mollusca would never form any large inland settlements. In some instances, indeed, Kjokkenmod- dings have been found as far as eight miles from the present coast, but in these cases there is good reason for supposing that the land has encroached on the sea. On the other hand, in those parts where Kjokkenmoddings do not occur, their absence is no doubt occasioned by the waves having to a certain extent eaten away the shore : an explanation which accounts for their being so much more frequent on the borders of the inland fjords than on the coast itself ; and which seems to deprive us of all hope of finding any similar remains on our eastern and south-eastern shores. Shell-mounds, although probably belonging to a later date, have, however, actually been found SHELL-MOUNDS IN SCOTLAND. 219 on our coasts. They were observed by Dr. Gordon, of Birnie, ou the shores of the Moray Firth. I have had the advantage of visitinci[ these shell-mounds with him. The largest '^ ° FIG. 178. of the Scotch Kjokkenmoddings is on Loch Spynie. We did not find any implements or pottery in it, al- though we searched for several hours ; but a labourer, who had been employed in carting it away for manure, had previously found some fragments of rude pottery and a bronze pin (fig. 178). Loch Spynie has been partially drained, and is shut out from the sea by a great accumulation of shingle, so that the water is now perfectly fresh. From ancient records it appears that the shingle barrier was probably completed, and the lake shut out from the sea in the thirteenth and four- teenth centuries. On the other hand, I have submitted the bronze pin figured here to Mr. Franks, who gives it as his opinion that it is probably not older than 800 or 9U0 a.d. If, therefore, it really belongs to the shell-mound, and there seems no reason to doubt the statement of the men who found it, we thus get an approximate date for the accumulation of the mound itself. Mr. Pengelly and Mr. Spence Bate have recently described some shell-mounds in Cornwall and Devon- shire, and similar shell-mounds have also been found at various places on the Irish coast. At St. Valery, close to the mouth of the Somme, Sir John Evans, Mr. Prestwich, and I found a large accumulation of shells, from which I obtained several flint flakes, and some pieces of rude pottery. Similar remains have been pf,, from 1 T. • iflii 11 ji.a Scotch observed m various parts or the world, as, lor m- sheii- mound. stance, in Australia, by Dampier,* in Tierra del Fuego by Mr Darwin,-]- in the Malay Peninsula by Mr Earle,J in the * Pinkerton's Travels, vol. ii. p. 473. t Journal, p. 234. X Etliuologieal Soc. Ti-ans., New Ser. vol. ii. p. 119. 220 SllELL-MOUXDS IN OTHER COUNTRIES. Aiulaman Islaiuls by Dr Stolickza * in Japan,-]- in both North + and Soutli Amoiica,§ in Tasmania, and in Sonth Africa. T\w fact tliat the majority of the Danish shell-mounds are found at a height of only a few feet above the sea appears to ])rove that there has been no considerable subsidence of the land since their formation, while, on the other hand, it clearly shows that there can have been no elevation. In certain cases, however, where the shore is steep, they have been found at a considerable heiglit. It might indeed be supposed that where, as at Bilidt, the materials of the Kjokkenmodding were rudely interstratified with sand and gravel, the land must have sunk ; but if for any length of time such a deposit was sub- jected to the action of the waves, all traces of it would be obliterated, and it is, therefore, probable that an explanation is rather to be found in the fact that the action of waves and storms may have been greater at that time than it is now. At present the tides only affect the Kattegat to the extent of about a foot and a half, and the configuration of the land protects it very much from the action of the winds. On the other hand, the tides on the west coast of Jutland rise about nine feet, and the winds have been known to produce differ- ences of level amounting to twenty-nine feet; and as we know that Jutland was anciently an archipelago, and the Baltic was more open to the German Ocean than it is now, 'we can easily understand that the fluctuations of level may have been greater, and we can thus explain how the waves may have risen over the Kjokkenmodding at Bilidt (which is after all not much more than ten feet above the water), with- out resorting to the hypothesis of a subsidence and subsequent elevation of the coast. * Proc. As. Soc. Bengal, Jan. Naturalist, vol. ii. Nos. 8, 9, and 1870. 11. Foster, Pre-liistoric Races of t Morse, Mem. of Univ. of To- the United States, p. 156. kio, vol. i. g Brett's Indian Tribes of Guiana. J n. Wyman, The American Agassiz, Journey in Brazil. FAUNA IN SHELL-MOUNDS. 221 In the Lake-habitations of the Stone Age in Switzerland, grains of wheat and barley, and even pieces of bread, or rather biscuit, have been found. It does not, however, appear that the men of the Kjokkenmoddings had any knowledge of agri- culture, no traces of grain of any sort having been hitherto discovered. The only vegetable remains found in them have been burnt pieces of wood, and some charred substance, referred by M. Forchhammer to the Zostera marhia, a sea- plant, which was, perhaps, used in the production of salt. The four species which are the most abundant in the shell- mounds are : — The oyster, Ostrea edulis, L. The cockle, Cardium edule, L. The mussel, Mytiliis edtdis, L., and The periwinkle, Littorina littorea, L. all four of which are still used as food for man. Other species occur more rarely, namely, — Nassa reticulata, L. Buccinum undatum, L. Venus pidlastra, Mont. Helix nemoralis, Miill. Venus aurea, Gm. Trig onella 'plana, Da. C. Littorina obtiisata, L. Helix strigella, Miill., and Carocolla lapicida, L. It is remarkable that the specimens of the first seven species are well developed, and decidedly larger than any now found in the neighbourhood. This is especially the case with the Cardium edtde and Littorina littorea, while the oyster has entirely disappeared, and even in the Kattegat itself occurs only in a few places ; a result which may, perhaps, be partly owing to the quantities caught by fishermen. Some oysters 222 FI-'^H. BIRDS. MAMMALS. ^volv, lunvcver, still living in the Isefjord at the beginning of this century, and their destruction cannot be altogether ascribed to the lishermeri, as great numbers of dead shells are still present ; but in this case it is attributed to the abundance of starfislics, which are very destructive to oysters. On the whole, their disappearance, especially when taken in connec- tion with the dwarf size of the other species, is evidently attributable in a great measure to the smaller proportion of salt in the water. Of Crustacea, only a few fragments of crabs have hitherto been found. The remains of vertebrata are very numerous and extremely interesting. In order to form an idea of the number of bones, and of the relative proportions belonging to different animals. Professor Steenstrup dug out from three different parts of the shell-mound at Havelse, square pillars w'ith sides three feet in length, and carefully collected the bones therein contained. In the first pillar he found 175, bones of mammals and 35 of birds ; in the second, pillar he found 121 of mammals and 9 of birds; in the third, 309 of mammals and 10 of birds. The pillars, however, were not exactly comparable, because their cubic contents depended on the thickness of the shell-mound at the place where they were taken, and varied between seventeen and twenty cubic feet. On the whole, Professor Steenstrup estimates that there were from ten to twelve bones in each cubic foot. It will be seen, therefore, that the number of bones is very great. Indeed, from the mound at Havelse alone the Committee obtained in one summer 3500 bones of mammals, and more than 200 of birds, besides many hundred of fishes, wdiich latter, indeed, are almost innumerable. The most common species are — Clupea harengus, L. (the herring), Gadus callarias, L. (the dorse), rieuronectes limancla, L. (the dab), and Murcena anguilla, L. (the eel). BIRDS. MAMMALS. 223 The remains of birds are highly interesting and instructive. The domestic fowl {Gallus do7nesticus) is entirely absent. The two domestic swallows of Denmark {Hiriindo rustica and H. urhica), the sparrow and the stork, are also missing. On the other hand, fine specimens of the capercailzie (Tetrao ttrogal- his), which feeds principally on the buds of the pine, show that, as we know already from the remains found in the peat, the country was at one time covered with pine forests. Aquatic birds, however, are the most frequent, especially several species of ducks and geese. The wild swan {Cygnus musicus), which only visits Denmark in winter, is also fre- quently found ; but perhaps the most interesting of the birds whose remains have been identified, is the Great Auk {Alca impennis, L.), a species which is now almost, if not altogether, extinct. Of Mammalia, by far the most common are — The stag {Cervus elephas, L.) The roedeer {Cervus cajweolus, L), and The wild boar {Sas scrofa, L.). Indeed, Professor Steenstrup estimates that these three species form ninety-seven per cent, of the whole ; the others are — The urus {Bos urus, L.) The dog {Canis familiar is, L.) The fox {Canis mdpcs, L.) The wolf {Canis hqncs, L.) The marten {Maries sp.) The otter {Zutra vidgaris, Exl.) The porpoise {Delphinus phocwna, L.) The seal {Phoca sp.) The water-rat {Hypudoius amphihius, L., and Hypudwus agrcstis, L.) The beaver {Castor fiber, L.) The lynx {Felis lynx, L.) 224 CONDITION OF THE BONES. The wild cat (Fdls catus, L.) The hodghog {Erinaceus europmus, L.) The bear (Ursus arctos, li.) The mouse {Mus fiavicollis, Mel.). Tlierc are also traces of a smaller species of ox. The Lithu- anian aurochs {Bison europceus) has been found, though rarely, in the peat bogs, but not yet in the Kjokkenmoddings. The musk ox (Ovihus moschatus) and the domestic ox {Bos taarus), as well as the reindeer, the elk, the hare, the sheep, and the domestic hog, are all absent.* Professor Steenstrup does not agree \\ith Prof. Ptiitimeyer that the domestic hog of ancient Europe was directly derived from the wild boar, but rather that it was introduced from the east ; and the skulls which he showed me in support of this belief certainly exhibited very great differences between the two races. The sheep, the horse, and the reindeer are entirely absent, the domestic cat was not know"n in Europe until about the ninth century, and the bones of the urus are probably those of wild specimens, so that the dog-]- appears to have been the only domestic animal of the period ; and though it may fairly be asked whether the bones may not have belonged to a race of wild dogs, the question admits of a satisfactory answer. Among the remains of birds, the long bones which form about one-fifth of the skeleton, are, in the Kji)kkenmoddings, about twenty times as numerous as the others, and are almost always imperfect, the shaft only remaining. In the same manner it would be impossible to re-construct a perfect skele- ton of the quadrupeds, certain bones and parts of bones being * It 13 a cuiioiis fact that, as t From the marks of knives on Prof. Steenstrup informs me, the the bones, it seems evident that the bones from the Kjokkenmoddings dog was then, as it is still among of Jutland indicate, as a general several savage tribes, an article of rule, larger and more powerful food, animals than those of the Islands. PREVALENCE OF CERTAIN BONES. 225 always absent. In the case of the ox, for instance, the missing parts are the heads of the long bones (thovigh wliile the shaft only of the femur is found, in the humerus one end is gener- ally perfect), the backbone except the first two vertebrce, the spinous processes, and often the ribs, and the bones of the skull except the lower jaw and the portion round the eyes. It occurred to Professor Steenstrup that these curious results might, perhaps, be referred to dogs ; and, on trying the ex- periment, he ascertained that the bones which are absent from the Kjokkenmoddings are precisely those which dogs eat, and those which are present are the parts which are hard and solid and do not contain much nourishment. Prof. Steenstrup has since published a diagram of a skeleton, tinted in such a manner as to show at a glance which of the bones occur in the Kjokkenmoddings, and points out that it coincides exactly with one given by M. Flourens to illustrate those portions of the skeleton which are first formed. Although a glance at the longitudinal section of a long bone, as, for instance, of a femur, and a comparison of the open cancellated tissue of the two ends with the solid, close texture of the shaft, at once justifies and accounts for the selection made by the dogs, it is interesting thus to ascertain that their predilections were the same in primaeval times as at present. Moreover, we may in this manner explain the prevalence of some bones in fossil strata. I have already mentioned that of the skull, the hard parts round the eye and the lower jaw are the only parts left ; now the preponderance of lower jaws in a fossil state is well known. Dr. Falconer indeed has pointed out " that in the smaller mammalia, unless the bone be complete, and supposing it to be a long bone, with both its articular surfaces perfect, it is almost hopeless, or at any rate, very discouraging, to attempt to make out the creature that yielded it ; whereas the smallest fragment of a jaw, with a minute tooth in it, speaks volumes P 226 IIADITS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. of eviaencc at Iho first glance." " This," he suggests, " is one 'Teat reason wliy we hear so much of jaw remains, and so little of other hones." No doubt it is so ; but these observations, made by I'rof. Steenstrup, afford a further explanation of the fact, and it is to be regretted that the parts of the long bones which are most important to the palaeontologist are also those which are preferred by beasts of prey. In every case the bones which contained marrow are split open in the manner best adapted for its extraction ; this peculiarity, which is in itself satisfactory proof of the presence of man, has not yet been observed in bones from the true tertiary strata. The Kjokkeumoddings were not mere summer quarters; the ancient fishermen resided on these spots for at least two- thirds, if not the whole of the year. This we learn from an examination of the bones of the wild animals, as it is often possible to determine, within very narrow limits, the time of year at which they are killed. For instance, the remains of the wild swan {Cygnus musicus) are very common, and this bird is only a winter visitor, leaving the Danish coast in March, and returning in November. It might naturally have been hoped that the remains of young birds would have sup- plied evidence as to the spring and early summer, but unfor- tunately, as has been already explained, no such bones are to be found. It is therefore fortunate that among the mammalia two periodical phenomena occur ; namely, the shedding and reproduction of stags' antlers, which, with slight variations according to age, have a fixed season ; and, secondly, the birth anH growth of the young. These and similar phenomena render it highly probable that the " mound-builders " resided on the Danish coast all the year round, though I am disposed to think that, like the Fuegians, who lead, even now, a very similar life, they frequently moved from spot to spot. This appears to me to be indicated not only by the condition of J-LA It \.\ I li.\ l- 1,1 NT IMPLEMENTS. 179 [/'• 227. 180 181 182 For description of figures cUle p. xxix. FLINT IMPLEMENTS FROM THE SHELL-MOUNDS. 227 tlie deserted hearths, but by tlie colour of the flmt flakes, etc. ; for while many of these retain the usual dull bluish Ijlack colour which is characteristic of newly - broken flints, and which remains unaltered as long as they are surrounded by carbonate of lime, others are whitened, as is usual with those which have been exposed for any length of time. Perhaps, therefore, these were lying on the surface during some period of desertion, and covered over only when the place was again inhabited. The flint implements found in the Kjokkenraoddings re- semble those which are characteristic of the " coast-finds." They may be classed as flakes (figs. 83-97) ; " shell-mound " axes, which, as we have already observed, present a peculiar form (figs. 114-116); awls (fig. 179), sling-stones or net- weights, and rude lance-heads (figs. 180-182). With these occur other forms, which, though very rude, are evidently artificial, such as fig. 183, which appears to have been a kind of axe, and others of which the sharp edges were evidently used for cutting purposes. In the tw^o days which we spent at Meilgaard, we found the following objects : — " Shell-mound " axes 19 Flint flakes 139 Bone pins, etc 6 Horns 6 Pottery, only 4 pieces Stone hammer 1 Slingstones, about 20 195 Of the three " pillars" of material just alluded to (p. 222), the first contained seven flint flakes, two axes, one worked piece of horn, three worked pieces of bone, and some pottery ; in the second were sixteen flint flakes, one axe, and seven 228 ABSENCE OF rOLISIIED FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 8liui,'stonos ; in ilic tliii.ljour flint flukes, two flint axes, aud a iH»intoil bniu>. In short, wilhout appearing to be richer than other Kjokkonnakklings, Aleilgaard and Havelse have eiu'li produced ah-eady more than a thousand of these rude ri'lits, though but a small portion of the mound has in either ease been hitherto removed. We need not, therefore, wonder at the number of axes found in the valley of the Somme, where so much larger a mass of material has been examined. No polished axes have yet been found in the Kj()kkenmod- dinfjs ; but a fragment of one which was discovered at Havelse, and which had been worked up into a scraper, may indicate that they were not altogether unknown, though it would not be safe to decide from a single specimen. A very few care- fully formed weapons have been found, but the implements generally are very rude, and of the same types as those which have been already described as characteristic of the " Coast- flnds." Small pieces of very coarse pottery have also been discovered, and many of the bones from the Kjokkenmoddiugs bear evident marks of a sharp instrument; several of the pieces found by us were in this condition, and had been fashioned into rude pins. The observations of Arctic travellers prove that even if human bones had been found in the shell-mounds, this would not of itself be any evidence of cannibalism ; but the absence of such remains satisfactorily shows that the primitive popu- lation of the North were free from this practice. On the other hand, the tumuli have supplied us with numerous skeletons which probably belong to the Stone Age. The skulls are very round, and in many respects resemble those of the Lapps, but liave a more projecting ridge over the eye. One curious peculiarity is, that their front teeth do not overlap as ours do, but meet one another, as do those of the Greenlanders of the present day. This perhaps is due to the manner of eating, rather than any indication of race. FOOD OF THE SIIELL-MOUND BUILDERS. 229 Much as still remains to be made out respecting the men of the Stone period, the facts already ascertained, like a few strokes by a clever draughtsman, supply us with the elements of an outline sketch. Carrying our imagination back into the past, we see before ns on the low shores of the Danish Archipelago a race of small men, with heavy overhanging brows, round heads, and faces probably much like those of the present Laplanders. As they must evidently have had some protection from the weather, it is most probable that they lived in tents made of skins. The total absence of metal in the Kjokkenmoddings indicates that they had not yet any weapons except those made of wood, stone, horn, and bone. Their principal food must have consisted of shell-fish, but they were able to catch fish, and often varied their diet by game caught in hunting. It is evident that marrow was considered a great delicacy, for every single bone which con- tained any was split open in the manner best adapted to extract the precious morsel. We have already seen that the mound-builders were regular settlers, and not mere summer visitors ; and on the whole they seem to have lived in very much the same manner as the Tierra del Fuegians, who dwell on the coast, feed princi- pally on shell-fish, and have the dog as their only domestic animal. A good account of them is given in' Darwin's Journal (p. 234), from which I extract the following passages, which give us a vivid and probably correct idea of what might have been seen on the Danish shores, long, long ago. " The inhabitants, living chiefly upon shell-fish, are obliged con- stantly to change their place of residence ; but they return at intervals to the same spots, as is evident from the pile of old shells, which must often amount to some tons in weight. These heaps can be distinguished at a long distance by the bright green colour of certain plants which invariably grow on them, . . . . . The Fuegian wigwam resembles, in size and 230 I'llK FUEC.IANS. iliniensions, ii haycock. It merely consists of a few lnoken l.ranclu's stwck in tlie ground, and very imperfectly thatched on one side with a few tufts of grass and rushes. Tiie whole cannot he so much as the work of an hour, and it is only used for a few days At a subsequent period, the Beagle anchored fi>r a couple of days under Wollaston Island, which is a short way to the northward. While going on shore, we ])nlk'd alongside a canoe with six Fuegians. These were the most abject and miserable creatures I anywhere beheld. On the east coast, the natives, as w^e have seen, have guanoco cloaks, and on the west, they possess sealskins. Amongst the central tribes the men generally possess an. otter-skin, or some small scrap about as large as a pocket-handkerchief, which is barely sufficient to cover their backs as low down as their loins. It is laced across the breast by strings, and according as the wind blows, it is shifted from side to side. But these Fuegians in the canoe were quite naked, and even one full- grown woman was absolutely so. It was raining heavily, and the fresh water, together with the spray, trickled down her body These poor wretches were stunted in their growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with white pamt, their skins filthy and greasy, their hair entangled, their voices discordant, their gestures violent and without dignity. Viewing such men, one can hardly make oneself believe they are fellows-creatures and inhabitants of the same world At night, five or six human beings, naked and scarcely protected from the wind and rain of this tempestuous climate, sleep on the wet ground coiled up like animals. Whenever it is low water, they must rise to pick shell-fish from the rocks ; and the women, winter and summer, either dive to collect sea eggs, or sit patiently in their canoes, and, with a baited hair line, jerk out small fish. If a seal is killed, or the floating carcase of a putrid whale discovered, it is a feast ; such miserable food is assisted by a few tasteless berries and fungi. Nor are they exempt THE RELATION OF THE SHELL-MOUNDS TO THE TUMULL 231 from famine, and, as a consequence, cannibalism accompanied by parricide." In this latter respect, however, the advantage appears to be all on the side of the ancients, against whom we have no evidence of cannibalism. If the absence of cereal remains justifies us, as it appears to do, in concluding that they had no knowledge of agricul- ture, they must certainly have sometimes suttered from periods of great scarcity, indications of which may, perhaps, be seen in the bones of the fox, wolf, and other carnivora, which would hardly have been eaten from choice ; on the other hand, they were blessed in the ignorance of spirituous liquors, and saved thereby from what is at present the greatest scourge of Northern Europe. The shell-mounds and coast-finds, according to Professor Worsaae, are characterized by rough flint implements (figs. 114-116, 179-183), and are the remains of a much ruder and more barbarous people than that which constructed the large Stone Age tumuli, and made the beautiful weapons, etc., found in them. He does not altogether deny that a few well- worked implements, and fragments of such, have been found in the Kjokkenmoddings, but he considers that some of these at least may be altogether more recent than the shell-mounds in which they are reported to have been found, and, at any rate, that their presence is altogether exceptional. At Meil- gaard, for instance, the researches undertaken under the superintendence of the late king in June, 1861, produced jnore than five hundred flint flakes and other rude implements, but not a single specimen with a trace of polishing, or in any way resembling the flint implements found in the tumuli. On the other hand, these rude implements are said to be wanting in the tumuli, where they are replaced by instru- ments of a different character and more skilful workmanship. Moreover, while it is admitted on all hands that the shell- mound makers had no domestic animal but the dog, and no •j;>2 TiiK i;ki.aii('n ok iiie siif.ll-mounds to the tumuli. kno\vlo»li,v of a^'iiculture, Professor Worsiiae considers that iluriiiu' tlie laler Stone Age the inhabitants of Denmark I'l'itainly p(»ssessed tame cattle and horses, and had in all prulialality some knowledge of agriculture. I'rofessor Stoenslrnp is of an entirely different opinion, and considers that the Kjokkenmoddings and Stone Age tumuli were contemporaneous. He denies altogether that remains of tame oxen or horses have been found in tumuli of the Stone Ai;e, except in a very few instances, and in these he main- tains that the fragments which have occurred are evidently not coeval with the mounds themselves, and that in all probability they have been introduced by foxes. He admits that the stone implements from the shell-mounds and coast- tiuds are altogether different from, and much ruder than, those from the tumuli ; he considers the two classes as repre- senting, not two different degrees, but two different phases of one shigle condition of civilization. The tumuli are the burial-places of chiefs, the Ivjdkkenmoddings are the refuse lieaps of fishermen. The first contained all that skill could contrive, affection offer, or wealth command ; the second, those things only which art could not make available, which were thrown away as useless, or accidentally lost. In order, therefore, to compare these two classes of objects, we must take, not the ordinary rude specimens which are so numerous in the shell-mounds, but the few better-made implements which, fortunately for science and for us, were lost among the oyster-shells, or which had been broken, and therefore thrown away. These, though few in number, are, in Professor Steenstrup's opinion, quite as numerous as could have been expected under the circumstances. Morever, the long flint flakes, which are so common in the Kjokkenmoddings, are suflicient evidence that great skill in the treatment of flint had already been attained. Some of the flakes found in the Kjokkenmoddings are equal to any from the tumuli ; several THE OPINIONS OF MESSRS. STEENSTRUP AND WORSAAE. 233 of those which we found at Meilgaard were more than five, and oue was more than six inclies in length ; while I have in my possession a giant flake from Fannerup (figs. 84-86), given to me by Professor Steenstrup, which has a length of eight inches and three quarters. As regards the rude, more or less triangular "axes" (figs. 114-116) which are so characteristic of the Kjokkenmoddiugs and coast-finds, Professor Steenstrup, as we have already seen declines to compare them with the polished axes of the tumuli, because in his opinion they were not intended for the same purposes. In addition to the direct evidence derived from the discovery of some few well-made flint axes of the tumulus type. Pro- fessor Steenstrup relies much on the indirect evidence deriv- able from the other contents of the shell-mounds. Thus the frequent remains of large and full-grown animals — for instance, of the seal and the wild ox — are in his opinion sufficient evidence that the shell-mound builders must have had weapons more useful and destructive than any which Professor Worsaae will concede to them ; moreover, he considers that many of the cuts which are so common on the bones found in the shell-heaps must have been made by polished implements, and are too smooth to be the marks of flint flakes, according to the suggestion of Professor Worsaae. Finally, Professor Steenstrup, though not attributing so much weight as Pro- fessor Worsaae to the absence of the ruder implements from the tumuli, even if this had been the case, disputes the fact on the ground that these implements would not until recently have been recognized and collected, and that they have, in fact, been found whenever they were looked for. After having carefully considered the evidence on both sides, I find myself, as might naturally be expected, unable altogether to agree with either. The small rude axes seem to me even less well adapted to the purpose suggested by Professor Steenstrup, than for those 2'M ANTIQUITY OF THE SIIELL-MOUXDS. wliicli liiive gtMu-rully been attributed to them. There are, no iloubt, soino which could uevcr have been used for cutting, bill those may liave been faihires, owing to some want of skill on the part of the manufacturer, or some flaw in the flint itself. Others ajipear to me, as to Professor Worsaae, service- able, though rude ; and well adapted for some purpose (pos- sibly for oyster dredging or chopping wood) which required a strong, rather than a sharp edge. They also very closely resemble in form some of the adzes used by the South Sea Islanders, one of which I have figured for comparison (see PL XX.). They seem to me, however, as to Professor Steen- strup, to differ in character from the well-made and generally polished axes, and not to be ruder implements of the same type. Although the carefully formed knives, axes, lance- heads, etc., would not be likely to abound in the Kjokken- moddiugs, any more than works of art or objects of value in modern dust-heaps; still I confess I should have expected that fragments of these instruments, recognizable to us, though useless to their original owners, would have been more numerous than, in reality, they appear to be. In addition to the five hundred rude implements described by Professor Worsaae as having been found at Meilgaard during the king's visit, I myself obtained a hundred and forty Hint flakes, with about fifty other implements, in the visit to this celebrated locality which I made some years ago under the guidance of Professor Steenstrup. To these, again, must be added many which had previously been collected by M. Olsen, and the members of the Kjokkenmodding Committee ; and yet among so large a number of instruments of various kinds there is only one which in any respect resembles the well-worked implements of the tumuli. So, again, at Havelse only a single fragment of polished axe has been found among more than a thousand objects of the ruder kind. It might, however, faiidy be urged that in such a comparison neither ANTIQUITY OF THE SHELL-MOUNDS. 235 the flakes nor " slingstones " ought to be brought into con- sideration in this case ; and if we were to count the axes only, the numbers would be greatly diminished. Moreover, the alleged absence of rude implements in the Stone Age barrows has been satisfactorily explained by Pro- fessor Steenstrup. In this country it might be argued, from the statements of so intelligent an antiquary as Sir R. Colt Hbare, that rude implements were never, or very rarely, found in tumuli; but the more recent researches of Mr Bateman, Mr Greenwell, and other archaeologists, have shown that this is very far from being the case, and have made it evident that the ruder implements of stone were overlooked by the earlier archaeologists. In the tumuli examined by Mr Bateman, he obtained many flint flakes, etc., quite as rude as those which are found in the shell-mounds. So far as I am aware, how- ever, none of the small triangular axes, which are so charac- teristic of the shell-mounds, have yet been met.with in the tumuli. Nor, on the other hand, has a single specimen resembling those which are characteristic of the Paloeolithic Age yet been found in the shell-mounds. Finally, we have, I think, no conclusive evidence of the remains of domestic animals (other than the dog) in Stone Age tumuli. On the whole, the evidence appears to show that the Danish shell-mounds represent a definite period in the history of that country, and are probably referable to the early part of the jSTeolithic Age, when the art of polishing flint implements was known, but before it had reached its greatest development. It is, however, as yet, impossible to affix even an approxi- mate date in years to the formation of the Kjokkenmoddings. Their accumulation, indeed, must evidently have occupied a considerable period, and it is of course highly probable that some are much older than others. They must all, however, be of very considerable antiquity. We know that the country 23G ANTIQUITY OF THE SHELL- MOUNDS. has Khiij: been covered by boocli forests, and yet it appears tlmt (hiring the Bronze Age beeches were absent, or only ii'prosenled by stragglers, while the whole country was covered witli naks. This change implies a great lapse of time, even if we suppose that but a few generations of oaks succeeded one another. We know also that the oaks had been preceded by l)ines, and that the country was inhabited even then. Again, tlie immense number of objects belonging to the Bronze Age, which have been already found in Denmark, and the great number of tumuli, appear to justify the Danish arcliailogists in assigning to this period a great lapse of time. This argument applies with peculiar force to the remains of the Stone period : for a country, the inhabitants of which live by hunting and fisliing, can never be thickly populated ; and, on the whole, the conclusion is forced upon us, that the country must have been inhabited for a lengthened period, although none of the Danish remains yet discovered belong to a time as ancient as some of those which have been found in other parts of Europe, and which will be described in sub- sequent chapters. ( 237 ) CHAPTER VIIT. NORTH AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY. OUR knowledge of North American Archaeology is derived mainly from the valuable researches of Mr. Caleb Atwater, contained in the first volume of the Aich^eologia Americana, and from four excellent memoirs published under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution: — 1. Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, comprising the Eesults of extensive Original Surveys and Explorations, by E. G. Squier, A.M., and E. H. Davis, M.D. 2. Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York, comprising the Eesults of Original Surveys and Explorations, with an illustrative Appendix, by E. G-. Squier, A.M. 3. The Antiquities of Wisconsin, as surveyed and described by J. A. Lapham. 4. Tne Archaeology of the United States, or Sketches, Historical and Biographical, of the Progress of Information and Opinion respecting Vestiges of Antiquity in the United States ; by Samuel F. Haven. Nor must I omit to mention Schoolcraft's History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States.* The antiquities fall into two great divisions : Implements (including ornaments) and Earthworks. The earthworks have been again divided by the American archaeologists into * Among more recent works on of the Soiithern Indians ; Foster's the subject, I may specially refer Pre-historic Races of the United to Bancroft's Native Races of the States ; Abbott's Stone Age in New Pacific States ; Jones's Antic^uities Jersey. 238 CLASSIFICATION OF ANTIQUITIES. six c'liissos:—!, Defensive enclosures; 2, Sacred and miscel- luneous enclosures ; 3, Sepulchral mounds ; 4, Temple mounds : f). '• Animal " moimds ; and G, Miscellaneous mounds. These cliisses I slmll treat separately, and we can then better con- sider the "mound-builders" themselves. The simple weapons of bone and stone, found in America, closely resemble those which occur in other countries. The Hakes, hatchets, axes, arrow-heads, and bone implements are, for instance, very similar to those which occur in the Swiss Lakes, if only we make allowance for the differences of mate- rial. In addition to the simple forms, which may almost be said to be ubiquitous, there are some, however, which are more complicated, The perforated axes found in Europe are generally considered to belong to the Metallic Age ; but as far as America is concerned, we have not yet any evidence as to the relative antiquity of the perforated and imperforated types. At the time of the discovery of America, iron was absolutely unknown to the natives, with the exception, perhaps, of a tribe near the mouth of the La Plata, who had arrows tipped with this metal, which they are supposed to have obtained from masses of native iron. The powerful nations of Central America were, however, in an age of Bronze, while the North Americans were in a condition of which we find in Europe but scanty traces — namely, in an age of Copper. Silver is the only other metal which has been found in the ancient tumuli, and that but in very small quantities. It occurs sparingly in a native form with the copper of Lake Superior, whence, in all probability, it was derived. It does not appear to have been ever smelted. From the large quantity of galena which is found in the mounds, Messrs. Squier and Davis are disposed to think that lead must have been used to a certain extent by the North American tribes ; the metal itself, how- ever, has not, I believe, yet been found. Copper, on the other hand, both wrought and uuwrought, IMPLEMENTS. 239 occurs frequently in the tumuli. It is interesting to observe that the copper arrow- or spear-heads (fig. 184) resemble the American type of stone arrow-heads. The axes have a strik- ing resemblance to those simple European forms which contain the minimum quantity of tin, and as in them the socket when there is one, is made by flattening the copper and turning over the edge (fig. 185); and some of the Mexican paintings give us interesting evidence fig. isi. as to the manner in which they were handled and used. These, however, were of bronze, and had, therefore, been fused ; but the Indian axes, which are of pure metallic copper, appear in all cases to have been worked in a cold state, which is remarkable, because, as Messrs. Squier and Davis have pointed out, "the fires upon the altar were sufficiently intense to melt down the copper implements and ornaments deposited upon them. The hint thus afforded does not seem to have been seized upon." Mr. Perkins, indeed, who has devoted much attention to these implements, is of opinion that some of them were cast ; and this view has also been adopted by Mr. Foster and Professor Butler. Sir John Evans has also called attention to a passage in which De Champlain, the founder of Quebec, tells us that in 1610 he met a party of Algonquins, one of whom met him on his barque, and after conversation, " tira d'une sac une piece de cuivre de la longueur d'un pied qu'il me donna, lequel estoit fort beau et bien franc, me donnant a entendre qu'il en avoit en quantite la oil il I'avoit pris, qui c'etoit sur le bort d'une riviere proche d'une grand lac et qu'ils le prenoient par morceaux, et le faisant fondre le mettoient en lames, et avec des pieries le rendoient uny." * Mr. Foster gives a * Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain. Paris, 161.3. Copper Arrow- head. 240 THE USE OF COPPER. Ki.;. 1>:. pl.ilo • sliowiuj^f what ho considors to be the mark left by the line of junction between the two halves of the mould. Dr. Schmidt f has, liowever, given strong reasons for douliting this conclusion, and certainly the marks shown on the above- nu'ntioned figures have rather the appearance of weathering. On the whole, though it would seem that they sometimes at any rate softened the metal by heat, we have not, I think, at present any suffi- cient evidence that the Eedskins were acquainted with the art of casting. This is the more surpris- ing, because, as Schoolcraft I tells us, " in almost all the works lately opened there are heaps of coals and ashes, showing that fire had much to do with their operations." Thus, though they were ac- quainted with metal, they did not know how to use it ; and, as Professor Dana has well observed in a letter with which he has favoured me, they may in one sense be said to have been in an age of Stone, since they used the copper, not as metal, but as stone. This intermediate condition be- tween an age of Stone and one of Metal is most interesting. In the neighbourhood of Lake Superior, and in some other still more northern localities, copper is found native in large quantities, and the Indians had therefore nothing to do but to break off pieces, and hammer them into the required shape. Hearne's celebrated journey to the mouth of the Coppermine Eiver, under the auspices of the Hudson's Bay Company, was undertaken in order to examine the locality whence the natives of that district obtained the Copper Spear-head • Pre-historicRaces of the United States, p. 259. t Ar. fiir. Anthropologie, 1878, p. 65. X Indian Tribes, p. 97. ANCIENT COPPER MINES. 241 metal. In this case it occurred in lumps actually on the surface, and the Indians seem to have picked up what they could, without attempting anything that could be called mining. Eound Lake Superior, however, the case is very different. A short account of the ancient copper mines is given by Messrs. Squier and Davis in the work already so often cited, by Mr. Squier in " The Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York," by Mr. Lapham,* and by Mr. School- craft ;-|- while the same subject is treated at considerable length by Professor Wilson. The works appear to have been first discovered in 1847 by Ml". Knapp, the agent of the Minnesota Mining Company. His observations have " brought to light ancient excavations of great extent, frequently from twenty-five to thirty feet deep, and scattered over an area of several miles. He counted three hundred and ninety-five annular rings on a hemlock-tree which grew on one of the mounds of earth thrown out of an ancient mine. Mr. Foster also notes the great size and age of a pine stump, which must have grown, flourished, and died since the works were deserted ; and Mr. C. Whittesley not only refers to living trees upwards of three hundred years old, now flourishing in the gathered soil of the abandoned trenches, but adds, ' On the same spot there are the decayed trunks of a preceding generation or generations of trees that have arrived at maturity, and fallen down from old age.' Accord- ing to the same writer, in a communication made to the American Association, at the Montreal meeting in 1857, these ancient works extend over a tract from 100 to 150 miles in length, along the southern shore of the lake." Wooden implements are so perishable that we could not expect many of them to have been found. Two or three wooden bowls, a trough, and some shovels with long handles, are all that appear to be recorded. * 1. c. p. 74. t 1. c. l^. 95. Q 2 JO rOTTERY. It has often been stated that the Indians possessed some method, at present nnknown, by which they were enabled to harden the copper. This, however, seems to be an error. Some copper implements, which Mr. Wilson submitted to Professor Crofts, were found to be no harder than the native copper from Ltxke Superior. " The structure of the metal was also hii^ddy laminated, as if the instrument had been brought to its present shape by hammering out a solid mass of copper." Before the introduction of metallic vessels, the art of the potter was more important even than it is at present. Accord- ingly, the sites of all ancient habitations are generally marked by numerous fragments of pottery; this is as true of the ancient Indian settlements, as of the Celtic towns of England, or the lake villages of Switzerland. These fragments, how- ever, would generally be those of rude household vessels, and it is principally from the tumuli that we obtain those better- made urns and cups from which the state of the art may fairly be inferred. In North America the art of the potter attained to a con- siderable degree of perfection ; some of the vases found in the tumuli are said to rival, " in elegance of model, delicacy, and finish," the best Peruvian specimens. The material used is a fine clay: in the more delicate specimens, pure; in the coarser ones, mixed with pounded quartz. The art of glazing and the use of the potter's wheel appear not to have been known, though that " simple approximation to a potter's wheel may have existed," which consists of " a stick of wood grasped in the hand by the middle, and turned round inside a wall of clay, formed by the other hand, or by another workman." * Among the most characteristic specimens of ancient Ameri- can pottery are the pipes. Some of these are simple bowls, not unlike a common every-day pipe, from which they differ in having generally no stem, the mouth having apparently * Sqiiier and Davis, 1. c. p. 195. ORNAMENTS. 243 been applied direct to the bowl. Many are highly orna- mented, others are spirited representations of monsters or of animals, such as the beaver, otter, wild cat, elk, bear, wolf, panther, racoon, opossum, squirrel, manatee, eagle, hawk, heron, owl, buzzard, raven, swallow, parroquet, duck, grouse, and many others. The most interesting of these, perhaps, is the manatee or lamantin, of which seven representations have been found in the mounds of Ohio. These are no mere rude sculptures, about which there might easily be a mistake, but we are assured that " the truncated head, thick semicircular snout, peculiar nostrils, tumid, furrowed upper lip, singular feet or fins, and remarkable moustaches, are all distinctly marked, and render the recognition of the animal complete."* This curious animal is not at present found nearer than the shores of Florida, a thousand miles away. The ornaments which have been found in the mounds consist of beads, shells, necklaces, pendants, plates of mica, bracelets, gorgets, etc. The number of beads is sometimes quite surprising. Thus the celebrated Grave Creek mound contained between three and four thousand shell-beads, besides about two hundred and fifty ornaments of mica, several brace- lets of copper, and various articles carved in stone. The beads are generally made of shell, but are sometimes cut out of bone or teeth ; in form they are generally round or oblong ; some- times the shell of the Uuio is cut and strung so as to "exhibit the convex surface and pearly nacre of the shell." The neck- laces are often made of beads or shells, but sometimes of teeth. The ornaments of mica are thin plates of various forms, each of which has a small hole. The bracelets are of copper, and generally encircle the arms of the skeletons, besides being frequent on the " altars." They are simple rings " hammered out with more or less skill, and so bent that the ends approach , or lap over, each other." The so-called "gorgets" are thin * Scpier and Davis, 1. c. p. 252. 121-1 rOltTIFICATIONS. EAKTIIWOEKS. ]il;ilos of copper, always with two holes, and prohubly there- fore worn as bailj^vs of authority. The earthworks are most abundant in the central parts of the l^'nited States. They decrease in number as we approach the Atlantic, and are very scarce in British America and on the west of the Eocky Mountains. The works belonging to this class " usually occupy strong natural positions," and as a fair specimen of them we may take the Bourneville Enclosure in Eoss County, Ohio, which consists of a wall of stone, which is carried round the hill a little below the brow ; but at some places it rises, so as to cut off the narrow spurs, and extends across the neck that connects the hill with the range beyond. It must not, however, be understood that anything like a true wall now exists ; the present appearance is rather what might have been "expected from the falling outwards of a wall of stones, placed, as this was, upon the declivity of a hill." Where it is most distinct it is from fifteen to tw^euty feet wide, by three or four in height. The area thus enclosed is about one hundred and forty acres, and the wall is two miles and a quarter in length. The stones themselves vary much in size, and Messrs. Squier and Davis suggest that the wall may originally have been about eight feet high, with an equal base. At present, trees of the largest size are growing upon it. On a similar work known as " Fort Hill," Highland County, Ohio, Messrs. Squier and Davis found a splendid chestnut tree, which they suppose to be six hundred years old. " If," they say, " to this we add the probable period intervening from the time of the building of this work to its abandonment, and the subsequent period up to its invasion by the forest, we are led irresistibly to the conclusion that it has an antiquity of at least one thousand years. But when we notice, all around us, the crumbling trunks of trees, half hidden in the accumulating soil, we are induced to fix on an antiquity still more remote." ENCLOSURES. 245 The enclosure known as " Clark's Work," in Eoss County, Ohio, is one of the largest and most interesting. It consists of a parallelogram, two thousand eight hundred feet by eighteen hundred, and enclosing about one hundred and eleven acres. To the right of this, the principal work is a 'perfect square, containing an area of about sixteen acres. Each side is eight hundred and fifty feet in length, and in the middle of each is a gateway thirty feet wide, covered by a small mound. Within the area of the great work are several smaller mounds and enclosures, and it is estimated that not less than three millions of cubic feet of earth were used in this great undertaking. Yet from the peculiarly mottled character of the earth forming these mounds, it would appear to have been brought in bags or small parcels. It has also been observed that water is almost invariably found within or close to these enclosures. It is remarkable that there is not a single case in which counter-works occiu' near any of the ancient North American fortifications. It is probable, therefore, that the warfare of the mound - builders, like that of the more modern Eed Indians, consisted, not of persevering sieges, but of sudden attacks and surprises. If the purpose for which the works belonging to the first class were erected is very evident, the same cannot be said for those which we have now to mention. These differ from the preceding in their small size, from the ditch being inside the embankment, and from their posi- tion, which is often completely commanded by neighbouring heights. Dr. Wilson (vol. i. p. 324) follows Sir E. C. Hoare in con- sidering the position of the ditch as being a distinguishing mark between military and religious works. Catlin, however, tells us that in a Mandan village, which he describes, the ditch was on the inner side of the embankment, and the •J4(', SACRED ENCLOSURES. warriors wore tlius slioltcrccl while they sliot tlieir arrows throuj^h the stockade. We see, therefore, that in America, at least, this is no certain guide. ^^'hile, however, the defensive earthworks occupy hill tops and other situations most easy to defend, the so-called sacred enclosures are generally found on " the broad and level river hot toius, seldom occurring upon the table-lands or where the surface of the ground is undulating or broken." They are usually square or circular in form ; a circular enclosure being often combined with one or two squares. Occasionally they are isolated, but more frequently in groups. The greater' number of the circles are of small size, with a nearly uniform diameter of two hundred and fifty or three hundred feet, and the ditch is invariably inside the wall. Some of the circles, however, are larger, enclosing fifty acres or more. The squares or other rectangular works never have a ditch, and the earth of which they are composed appears to have been taken up evenly from the surface, or from large pits in the neighbourhood. They vary much in size ; five or six of them, however, are " exact squares, each side measuring one thousand and eighty feet — a coincidence which could not pos- sibly be accidental, and which must possess some significance." The circles also, in spite of their great size, are so nearly round, that the American archaeologists consider themselves justified in concluding that the mound-builders must have had some standard of measurement, and some means of de- termiuing angles. Tlie most remarkable group is that near Newark, in the Scioto Valley, which covers an area of four square miles ! A plan of these gigantic works is given by Messrs. Squier and Davis, and another, from a later survey, by Mr, Wilson. They consist of an octagon, with an area of fifty, a square occupying twenty acres, and two large cu'cles occupying re- spectively thirty and twenty acres. From the octagon an EARTHWORKS OF THE SCIOTO VALLEY. 247 avenue formed by parallel walls extends southwards for two miles and a half; there are two other avenues which are rather more than a mile in length, one of them connecting the octagon with the square. Besides these, there are various other embankments and small circles, the greater number about eighty feet in diameter, but some few much larger. The walls of these small circles, as well as those of the avenues and of the irregular portions of the works generally, are very slight, and for the most part about four feet in height. The other embankments are much more considerable ; the walls of the large circle are even now twelve feet high, with a base of fifty feet, and an interior ditch seven feet deep and thirty-five in width. At the gate- way, however, they are still more imposing ; the walls being sixteen feet high, and the ditch thirteen feet deep. The whole area is covered with " gigantic trees of a primitive forest ; " and, say Messrs. Squier and Davis, " in entering the ancient avenue for the first time, the visitor does not fail to experience a sensation of awe, such as he might feel in passing the portals of an Egyptian temple, or gazing upon the silent ruins of Petra of the Desert." The city of Circleville takes its name from one of these embankments, which, however, is no more remarkable than many others. It consists of a square and a circle, touching one another ; the sides of the square being about nine hundred feet in length, and the circle a little more than a thousand feet in diameter. The square had eight doorways, one at each angle, and one in the middle of each side, every doorway being protected by a mound. The circle was peculiar in having a double embankment. This work, alas ! has been entirely destroyed ; and many others have also disappeared, or are being gradually obliterated by the plough. Under these cir- cumstances, we read with pleasure that " the Directors of the Ohio Land Company, when they took possession of the country 248 AZTALAN. at tlio nin\itli (»f the Muskingmn River, in 1788, adopted iininediate moasmvs for the pieseivatiou of these monuments. To their civdit be it said, one of their earliest official acts was the pissatje of a resolution, which is entered upon the Journal of their proceedings, reserving the two truncated pyramids and the r^reat mound, with a few acres attached to each, as pulilic squares." Such enlightened conduct deserves the thanks of archaeologists. Another group of Earthworks in "Wisconsin is interesting as presenting a resemblance to a fortified town. It was situated on the west branch of Eock River, discovered in 1836 by N. F. Hyer, Esq., who surveyed them roughly, and l)ultlished a brief description, with a figure, in the " Milwaukee Advertiser," Tlie most complete description is contained in Mr, Lapham's "Antiquities of Wisconsin."* The name " Aztalan '' was given to this place by Mr. Hyer, because the Aztecs had a tradition that they originally came from a country to the north, which they called Aztalan, It is said to be derived from two Mexican words, Atl, ' water,' and An, ' near,' " The main feature of these works is an enclosure of earth (not brick, as has been erroneously stated), extending around three sides of an irregular parallelogram ; " the river " forming the fourth side on the east. The space thus enclosed contains seventeen acres and two-thirds. The corners are not rectangular, and the embankment or ridge is not straight." " The ridge forming the enclosure is 631 feet long at the north end, 1419 feet long on the west side, and 700 feet on the south side ; making a total length of wall of 2750 feet. The ridge or wall is about 22 feet wide, and from one foot to five in height. The wall of earth is enlarged on the outside, at nearly regular distances, by mounds of the same material. They vary from sixty-one to ninety -five feet apart, the mean distance being eighty-two feet. Near the south-west angle * P. 41. VITRIFIED WALLS. 249 are two outworks, constructed in the same manner as the main embankment. In many places the earth forming the walls appears to have been burnt. " Irregular masses of hard reddish clay, full of cavities, bear distinct impressions of straw, or rather wild hay, with which they had been mixed before burning." " This is the only foundation for calling these ' brick walls.' The ' bricks ' were never made into any regular form, and it is even doubtful whether the burning did not take place in the wall after it was built." These walls must therefore present some faint resemblance to the celebrated vitrified forts of Scotland. Some of the mounds or buttresses, though forming part of an enclosure, were also used for sepulchral purposes, as was proved by their containing skeletons in a sitting posture, with fragments of pottery. The highest point inside the enclosure is at the south-west corner, and is " occupied by a square truncated mound, which .... presents the appearance of a pyramid, rising by successive steps like the gigantic structures of Mexico." "At the north-west angle of the enclosure is another rectangular, truncated, pyramidal elevation, of sixty-five feet level area at the top, with remains of its graded way, or sloping ascent, at the south-west corner, leading also towards a ridge that extends in the direction of the river." Within the enclosure are some ridges about two feet high, and connected with them are several rings, or circles, which are supposed to be the remains of mud houses. " Nearly the whole interior of the enclosure appears to have been either excavated or thrown up into mounds and ridges; the pits and irregular excavations being quite numerous over much of the space not occupied by mounds." The last Indian occupants of this interesting locality had no tradition as to the history or the purpose of these earth- works. 250 MOl'KHN EARTHWORKS. Amons;: the Northern tribes of existing Indians, there do not ajipoar to be any earthworks corresponding to these so- callod sacred enclosures. " No sooner, however, do we pass to the soutliward, and arrive among tlie Creeks, Natchez, and alliliated Floridian tribes, than we discover traces of structures wliich, if they do not entirely correspond with the refnilar earthworks of the West, nevertheless seem to be somewhat analogous to them." * These tribes, indeed, appear to liave been more civilized than those of the North, since they were agricultural in their habits, lived in considerable towns, and had a systematized religion, so that, in fact, they must have occupied a position intermediate, as well econo- mically as geographically, between the powerful monarchies of Central America and the hunting tribes of the North. The " structures " to which Mr. Squier alludes are described by him, both in his " Second Memoir," and also in the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" (p. 120). The " Chunk Yards," now or lately in use among the Creeks, and which have only recently been abandoned among the Cherokees, are rectangular areas, generally occupying the centre of the town, closed at the sides, but with an opening at each end. They are sometimes from six to nine hundred feet in length, being largest in the older towns. The area is levelled and slightly sunk, being surrounded by a low bank formed of the earth thus obtained. In the centre is a low mound, on which stands the Chunk Pole, to the top of which is some object which serves as a mark to shoot at. Near each corner, at one end, is a small pole, about twelve feet high ; these are called the " slave posts," because in the " good old times" captives condemned to the torture were fastened to them. The name " Chunk Yard " seems to be derived from an Indian game called " Chunke," which was played in them. At one end of, and just outside, this area stands generally * Sc[uier, 1. c. p. 136. CHUNK YAEDS. 251 a circular eminence, with a flat top, upon which is elevated the Great Council House. At the other end is a flat-topped, square eminence, about as high as the circular one just men- tioned ; " upon this stands the public square." These and other accounts given by early travellers among the Indians throw much light on the circular and square enclosures, some of which, though classed by Messrs Squier and Davies under this head, seem to me to be the slight fortifications which surrounded villages, and were undoubtedly crowned by stockades. "VVe have already seen that the posi- tion of the ditch is no conclusive argument against this view ; nor does the position of the works seem conclusive, if we suppose that they were intended less to stand a regular siege than to guard against a sudden attack. The Sqmlchral mounds are very numerous in the central parts of the United States. " To say that they are innumer- able, in the ordinary sense of the term, would be no exaggera- tion. They may literally be numbered by thousands and tens of thousands." They are usually from six to eight feet in height ; generally stand outside the enclosures ; are often isolated, but often also in groups ; they are usually round, but sometimes elliptical or pear-shaped. They cover gene- rally a single interment, often of burnt bones. Occasionally there is a stone cist, but urn burial also prevailed to a con- siderable extent, especially in the South. The corpse, if not burnt, was generally buried in a contracted position. Imple- ments both of stone and metal occur frequently ; but while personal ornaments, such as bracelets, perforated plates of copper, beads of bone, shell or metal, and similar objects, are very common, weapons are but rarely found ; a fact which, in the opinion of Dr. Wilson, " indicates a totally different condition of society and mode of thought " from those of the present Indian. No remains of the mastodon, or indeed of any extinct 2r.2 SErULCIllJAL MOUNrS. nninials, hiive boon ftunul in any of the American burial uunnuU. Some of llio tumuli contain great quantities of human remains. This was long supposed to be the case with the great Grave Creek Mound, which indeed was positively stated by Atwater * to be full of human remains. This has turned out to be an error, but the statement is not the less true as rogjvrds other mounds. In conjunction with them may be mentioned the " bone pits," many of which are described by ;Mr Squier. " One of these pits," he says, " discovered some years ago in the town of Cambria, Niagara County, was esti- mated to contain the bones of several thousand individuals. Another which I visited in the town of Clarence, Erie County, contained not less than four hundred skeletons." A tumulus described by Mr Jefferson in his " Notes on Virginia," was estimated to contain the skeletons of a thousand individuals, but in this case the number was perhaps exaggerated. The description given by various old writers of the solemn "Festival of the Dead" satisfactorily explains these large collections of bones. It seems that every eight or ten years the Indians used to meet at some place pre^dously chosen, that they dug up their dead, collected the bones together, and laid them in one common burial-place, depositing with them fine skins and other valuable articles. Several of these ossuaries are described by Schoolcraft, f Another class of mounds, called by Messrs. Squier and Davis " Temple Mounds," are pyramidal structures, truncated, and generally having graded avenues to their tops. In some instances they are terraced, or have successive stages. But whatever their form, whether round, oval, octangular, square, or oblong, they have invariably flat or level tops, of greater or lesser area." These mounds much resemble the Teocallis of Mexico, and had probably a similar origin. They are rare * See also Lapham, 1. c, p. 80. f 1. c p. 102. TEMPLE MOUNDS. 253 in the North, though examples occur even as far as Lake Superior, but become more and more numerous as we pass down the Mississippi, and especially on ^approaching the Gulf, where they constitute the most numerous and important por- tion of the ancient remains. Some of the largest, however, are situated in the North. One of the most remarkaljle is at Cahokia, in Illinois. This gigantic mound is stated to be seven hundred feet long, five hundred feet wide at the base, and ninety feet in height. Its solid contents have been roughly estimated at twenty millions of cubic feet. Probably, however, these mounds were not used as temples only, but also as sites for dwellings, especially for those of the chiefs. We are told that among the Natchez Indians " the temples and the dwellings of the chiefs were raised upon mounds, and for every new chief a new mound and dwelling were constructed." Again, Garcilasso de la Vega, in his History of Florida, quoted by Mr. Haven,* says, " The town and house of the Cacique of Osachile are similar to those of all other caciques in Florida, and, therefore, it seems best to give one description that will apply generally to all the capitals, and all the houses of the chiefs in Florida. I say, then, that the Indians endeavour to place their towns upon elevated places ; but because such situations are rare in Florida, or that they find a difficulty in procuring suitable materials for building, they raise eminences in this manner. They choose a place, to which they bring a quantity of earth, which they elevate into a kind of platform two or three pikes in height (from eighteen to twenty-five feet), of which the flat top is capable of holding ten or twelve, fifteen or twenty houses, to lodge the cacique, his family, and suite." j- Not the least remarkable of the American antiquities are the so-called Animal Mounds, which are principally, though * 1. c. p. 57. t See also Schoolcraft, 1. c. vol. iii. p. 47. 2-,4 ANIM\L MOUNDS. not oxc'lusivi'ly, I'ouiul in Wisconsin. In tliis district " thou- Siinds of exiiniples occur of gigantic basso-relievos of men, Lojists, birds, and reptiles, all wrought witli persevering labour on the surface of the soil," while enclosures and works of defence arc almost entirely wanting, the " ancient city of Aztalau " being, as is supposed, the only example of the former chxss. The "Animal Mounds" were discovered by Mr. Lapham in 1836, and described in the newspapers of the day, but the first account of them in any scientific journal was that by ^Ir. li. C. Taylor, in the American Journal of Science and Art. for April 1838. Messrs. Squier and Davis devoted to them a part of their work on the " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley;" but the seventh volume of the Smithsonian Contributions contains the work, by Mr. Lapham, which gives the most complete account of these interesting remains. Mr. Lapham adds a map, showing the distribution of these curious earthworks. They appear to be most numerous in the southern covmties of AVisconsin ; and extend from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, following generally the course of the river, and being especially numerous along the great Indian trail, or war-path, from Lake Michigan, near J\fil- waukee, to the Mississippi, above the Prairie du Chien. This, however, does not prove any connection between the present Indians and the mounds ; the same line has been adopted as the route of the United States' military road, and may have been in use for an indefinite period. The mounds themselves not only represent animals, such as men, buffaloes, elks, bears, otters, w^olves, racoons, birds, serpents, lizards, turtles, and frogs, but also some inanimate objects, if at least the American archaeologists are right in regarding some of them as crosses, tobacco-pipes, etc. Many of the representations are spirited and correct, but ANIMAL MOUNDS. 255 otheis, probably through the action of time, are less definite; one, for instance, near the village of Muscoda, may be either " a bird, a bow and arrow, or the human figure." Their height varies from one to four feet, sometimes, liowever, rising to six feet ; and as a " regular elevation of six inches can be readily traced upon the level prairies " of the West, their outlines are generally distinctly defined where they occupy favourable positions. It is probable, however, that many of the details have disappeared under the action of rain and vegetation. At present a " man " consists generally of a head and body, two long arms and two short legs, no other details being visible. The " birds " differ from the " men " principally in the absence of legs. The so-called " lizards," which are among the most common forms, have a head, two legs, and a long tail ; the side view being represented, as is, indeed, the case with most of the quadrupeds. One mound has been supposed to repre- sent a mastodon, but the similarity is, I think, far from conclusive.* One remarkable group in Dale County, close to the great Indian war-path, consists of a man with extended arms, seven more or less elongated mounds, one tumulus and six quadrupeds. The length of the human figure is one hundred and twenty-five feet, and it is one hundred and forty feet from the extremity of one arm to that of the other. The quadrupeds vary from ninety to one hundred and twenty-six feet in length. At Waukesha are a number of mounds, tumuli, and animals, including several " lizards," a very fine " bird," and a mag- nificent " turtle." " This, when first observed, was a very fine specimen of the art of mound-building, with its graceful curves, the feet projecting back and forward, and the tail, with its gradual slope, so acutely pointed, that it was im- possible to ascertain precisely where it terminated. The * M'Lean. The Mound-builders. 2:.(j ANIMAL MOUNDS. l.tuly was fifty-six feet iu length, and the tail two hundred and fifty; the height six feet." This group of mounds is now, alas, covered with buildings: "A dwelling-house stands on tlie body of the turtle, and a Catholic church is Ijuilt upon tlie tail." " But," says ^Ir. Lapham, " the most remarkable collection of lizards and turtles yet discovered is on the school section about a mile and a half south-east from the village of Pew- aukee. This consists of seven turtles, two lizards, four ob- long moimds, and one of the remarkable excavations before alluded to. One of the turtle mounds, partially obliterated by the road, has a length of four hundred and fifty feet, being nearly double the usual dimensions. Three of them are remarkable for their curved tails, a feature here first observed." In several places a curious variation occurs. The animals, with the usual form and size, are represented, not iu relief, but intaglio ; not by a mound, but by an excavation. The " Animal Mounds " which have been observed out of AVisconsin differ in many respects from the ordinary type. Near Granville, in Ohio, on a higher spur of land, is an earth- work, known in the neighbourhood as the "Alligator." It has a head and body, four sprawling legs, and a curled tail. The total length is two hundred and fifty feet ; the breadth of the body forty feet, and the length of the legs thirty-six feet. " The head, shoulders, and rump are more elevated than the other parts of the bod;/, an attempt having evidently been made to preserve the proportions of the object copied." The average height is four feet, at the shoulders six. Even more remarkable is the great serpent in Adams County, Ohio. It is situated on a high spur of land, which rises a hundred and fifty feet above Brush Creek. " Conforming to the curve of the hill, and occupying its very summit, is the serpent, its head resting near the point, and its body winding back for ROCK CARVINGS. 257 seven hundred feet, in graceful undulations, terminating in a triple coil at the tail. The entire length, if extended, would be not leas than one thousand feet. The work is clearly and boldly defined, the embankment being upwards of five feet in height, by thirty feet base at the centre of the body, but diminishing somewhat toward the head and tail. The neck of the serpent is stretched out, and slightly curved, and its mouth is opened wide, as if in the act of swallowing or ejecting an oval figure, which rests partially within the dis- tended jaws. This oval is formed by an embankment of earth, without any perceptible opening, four feet in height, and is perfectly regular in outline, its transverse and conjugate diameters being one hundred and sixty, and eighty feet respectively." When, why, or by whom these remarkable works were erected, as yet we know not. The Indian tribes, though they look upon them with reverence, have thrown no light upon their origin. Nor do the contents of the mounds themselves assist us in this inquiry. Several of them have been opened, and, in making the streets of Milwaukie, many of the mounds have been entirely removed ; but the only result has been to show that they are not sepulchral, and that, excepting by accident, they contain no implements or ornaments. Under these circumstances speculation would be useless ; we can but wait, and hope that time and perseverance may solve the problem, and explain the nature of these remarkable and mysterious monuments. There is one class of objects which I have not yet mentioned, and which yet ought not to be left entirely unnoticed. The most remarkable of these is the celebrated Dighton Rock, on the east bank of the Taunton River. Its history, and the various conclusions which have been derived from it, are very amusingly given by Dr. Wilson.* In 1783, the Rev. * Pre-historic Man, vol. ii. p. 172. 2;"S AVAMPUM. Kzni Stilos, D.D., Tiesideiit of Yale College, appealed to this roi-k, inscribed, ixs lie believed with Phoenician characters, for A proof that the Indians were descended from Canaan, and were therefore jiccursed. Count de Gebelin regarded the inscription as Carthaginian. In the eighth volume of the " Archreologia," Colonel Vallency endeavours to prove that it is Siberian ; while certain Danish antiquaries regard it as liunic, and thought that they could read the name " Thorfinn," "with an exact, though by no means so manifest, enumeration of the associates who, according to the Saga, accompanied Karlsefne's expedition to Vinland, in a.d. 1007." Finally, Mr. Schoolcraft submitted a copy of it to Chingwauk, an intelligent Indian chief, who " interpreted it as the record of an Indian triumph over some rival native tribe," but without ottering any opinion as to its antiquity. In the " Grave Creek Mound " is said to have been found a small oval disk of white sandstone, on which were engraved twenty-two letters. I mention it because it has been the subject of much discussion, but it is now generally admitted to be a fraud. It is inscribed with Hebrew characters, but the forger has copied the modern instead of the ancient forms of the letters. One or two other equally unsatisfactory cases are upon record, but upon the whole we may safely assert that there is no reason to suppose that the nations of America had deve- loped for themselves any thing corresponding to an alphabet. The art of picture-writing, which they shared with the Aztecs and the Quipa of the Peruvians, was supplemented among the North American Indians by the "wampum." This curious substitute for writing consisted of variously-coloured beads, generally worked upon leather. One very interesting example is the belt of wampum " delivered by the Lenni Lenape Sachems to the founder of Pennsylvania, at the Great Treaty, under the elm-tree at Shachamox in 1682." It is still pre- THE MOUND-BUILDEES. 259 served in the collection of the Historical Society at Phila- delpliia, and consists of "eighteen strings of wampum formed of vvliite and violet beads worked upon leather thongs," the whole forming a belt twenty-eight inches long, and two-and-a- half broad. " On this, five patterns are worked in violet beads on a white ground, and in the centre Penn is represented taking the hand of the Indian Sachem." The numerous beads found in some of the tumuli were perhaps in a similar manner intended to commemorate the actions and virtues of the dead. Just as the wigwam of the recent Mandan consisted of an outer layer of earth supported on a wooden framework, so also, in the ancient sepulchral tumuli, the body was protected only by beams and planks ; when therefore these latter decayed the earth sank in and crushed the skeleton within. Partly from this cause, and partly from the habit of burying in ancient tumuli, which makes it sometimes difficult to distinguish the primary from secondary interments, it happens that from so many thousand tumuli we have very few well-preserved skulls which indisputably belong to the ancient race. These are decidedly brachy cephalic ; but it is evident that we must not attempt to build much upon so slight a basis. No proof of a knowledge of letters, no trace of a burnt brick, have yet been discovered ; and so far as we may judge from their arms, ornaments, and pottery, the mound-builders closely resembled the more advanced of the recent Indian tribes, and the earthworks agree in form with, if they differ in magni- tude from, those still, or until lately in use. Yet this very magnitude is sufficient to show that, at some early period, the great river valleys of the United States must have been more densely populated than they were when first discovered by Europeans. The immense number of small earthworks, and the mounds, " which may be counted by thousands and tens of thousands," might indeed be supposed to indicate either a long time or a great population ; but in other cases we have 2G0 EVIDENCE OF ANCIENT POPULATION. no such alteniutive. The Newark constructions ; the mound near riovence in Alabama, which is forty-five feet in height by four luuulrod and forty feet in circumference at the base, with a level area at the summit of one hundred and fifty feet in circumference ; the still greater mound on the Etowah river, also in Alabama, which has a height of more than seventy-five feet, with a circumference of twelve hundred feet at the base, and one hundred and forty at the summit ; the embankments at the mouth of the Scioto river, which are estimated to be twenty miles in length ; the great mound at Selserstown, Mississippi, which covers six acres of ground ; and the truncated pyramid at Cahokia, to which we have already alluded; these works, and many others which might have been quoted, indicate a population both large and stationary ; for which hunting cannot have supplied enough food, as it has been estimated that in a forest country each hunter requires an area of not less than 50,000 acres for his support; and which must, therefore, have derived its support, in a great measure, from agriculture. " There is not," say Messrs. Squier and Davis, " and there was not in the sixteenth century, a single tribe of Indians (north of the semi-civilised nations) between the Atlantic and the Pacific, which had means of subsistence sufiicent to enable them to apply, for such purposes, the unproductive labour necessary for the work ; nor was there any in such a social state as to compel the labour of the people to be thus applied." We know also that many, if not most of the Indian tribes, at that time still cultivated the ground to a certain extent, and there is some evidence that, even within historic times, this was more the case than at present. Thus De Nonville estimates the amount of Indian corn destroyed by him in four Seneca villages at 1,200,000 quarters. In many places, moreover, the ground is covered with small mammillary elevations, which are known as Indian corn-hills. TRACES OF ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. 261 " They are without order of arrangement, being scattered over the ground with the greatest irregularity. That these hillocks were formed in the manner indicated by their name, is inferred from the present custom of the Indians. The corn is planted in the same spot each successive year, and the soil is gradually brought up to the size of a little hill by the annual additions." But Mr. Lapham has also fou.nd traces of an earlier and more systematic cultivation. These consist " of low parallel ridges, as if corn had been planted in drills. They average four feet in width, twenty-five of them having been counted in the space of a hundred feet ; and the depth of the walk between them is about six inches. These appearances, which are here denominated ' ancient garden-beds,' indicate an earlier and more perfect system of cultivation than that which now pre- vails; for the present Indians do not appear to possess the ideas of taste and order necessary to enable them to arrange objects in consecutive rows. Traces of this kind of cultiva- tion, though not very abundant, are found in several other parts of the State (Wisconsin). The garden-beds are of various sizes, covering, generally, from twenty to one hundred acres, though some are much larger. As a general fact, they exist in the richest soil, as it is found in the prairies and bun oak plains. In the latter case, trees of the largest kind are scattered over them." In the " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, "it is stated that no earthwork has ever been found on the first or lowest terrace of any of the great rivers, and that " this observation is confirmed by all who have given attention to the subject." If true, this would indeed have indicated a great antiquity, but in his subsequent work Mr. Squier informs us that " they occur indiscriminately upon the first and upon the superior terraces, as also upon the islands of the lakes and rivers." Messrs. Squiers and Davis * are of opinion that the * I.e., p. 168. 0(J2 .VNTIQUITY OK THE KEMAINS. ilecayed state of the skeletons found in the mounds may enahle us to form " some approximate estimate of their remote anti- quity," especially when we consider that the earth round them " is wonderfully compact and dry, and that the conditions for their preservation are exceedingly favourable." " In the bar- rows of the ancient Britons," they add, " entu^e well-preserved skeletons are found, although possessing an undoubted anti- quity of at least eighteen hundred years." Dr. Wilson * also relies much on this fact, which, in his opinion, " furnishes a stronger evidence of their great antiquity than any of the proofs that have been derived either from the age of a subse- quent forest growth, or the changes wrought on the river terraces where they most abound." It is true that the bones in Stone Age graves are often extremely well preserved ; but it is equally true that those in Saxon barrows have in many cases entirely perished. In fact, the condition of ancient bones depends so much on the circumstances in which they have been placed, that we must not attribute much importance to this argimient. The evidence derived from the forests is more to be relied on. Thus Captain Peck -f observed near the Ontonagon river, and at a depth of twenty-five feet, some stone mauls and other implements in contact with a vein of copper. Above these was the fallen trunk of a large cedar, and " over all grew a hemlock -tree, the roots of which spread entirely above the fallen tree," and indicated, in his estimation, a growth of not less than three centuries, to which must then be added the age of the cedar, which indicates a still " longer succession of centuries, subsequent to that protracted period during which the deserted trench w-as slowly filled up with accumulations of many winters." The late President Harrison, in an address to the Historical Society of Ohio, made some interesting remarks on this * 1. c, vol. i. p. 359. t. Wilson, 1. c, vo]. i. p. 256. AMERICAN FORESTS. 263 subject, which are quoted by Messrs. S({uier and Davis.* " The process," he says, " Ijy which nature restores the forest to its original state, after being once cleared, is extremely slow. The rich lands of the west are, indeed, soon covered again, but the character of the growth is entirely different, and continues so for a long period. In several places upon the Ohio, and upon the farm which I occupy, clearings were made in the first settlement of the country, and subsequently abandoned and suffered to grow up. Some of these new forests are now of fifty years' gTOwth, but they have made so little progress towards attaining the appearance of the immediately contiguous forest, as to induce any man of reflection to determine that at least ten times fifty years must elapse before their complete assimilation be effected. We find in the ancient works all that variety of trees which give such unrivalled beauty to our forests, in natural pro- portions. The first growth of the same kind of land, once cleared and then abandoned to nature, on the contrary, is nearly homogeneous, often stinted to one or two, at most three kinds of timber. If the ground has been cultivated, the yellow locust will quickly spring up ; if not cultivated, the black and white walnut will be the prevailing growth. Of what immense age, then, must be the works so often referred to, covered as they are by at least the second growth, after the primitive forest state was re- gained ! " -j- We obtain another indication of antiquity in the " garden- beds," wliich we have already described. This system of cultivation has long been replaced by the irregular " corn- hills ;" and yet, according to Mr. Lapham,;|: the garden-beds are much more recent than some of the mounds, across which they sometimes extend in the same manner as over the * 1. c, p. 306. t See also Arch. Amer., vol i. p. 306. • J 1. c, p. 19. 2(34 INDKWTIOXS OF FOUR PERIODS, mljoiniiig gromuls. If, therefore, these mounds Ijclong to the s;iiuo area as those which are covered with wood, we get tlius indications of three periods: the first, that of the mounds themselves; the second, that of the garden-beds; and tlie third, that c»f I lie forests. But American agriculture was not imported from abroad ; it resulted from, and in return rendered possible, the gradual development of American semi-civilization. This is proved by the fact that the grains of the Old World were entirely absent, and that American agriculture was founded on the maize, an American plant. Thus, therefore, we appear to have indications of four long periods : 1. That in which, from an original barbarism, the Ameri- can tribes developed a knowledge of agriculture and a power of combination. 2. That in which for the first time mounds were erected, and other great w^orks undertaken. 3. The age of the " garden-beds," which occupy some at least of the mounds. Hence it is probable that these parti- cular " garden-beds " were not in use until after the mounds had lost their sacred character in the eyes of the occupants of the soil ; for it can hardly be supposed that works executed with so much care would be thus desecrated by their builders. 4. The period in which man relapsed into partial barbarism, and the spots which had been first forest, then, perhaps, sacred monuments, and thirdly, cultivated ground, relapsed into forest once more. But even if we attriljute to these changes all the importance which has ever been claimed for them, they will not require an antiquity of more than three thousand years. I do not, of course, deny that the period may have been, and in all probability was, very much greater. There are, moreover, other observations, which appear to indicate a very much higher antiquity. MAN AND THE MASTODON. 265 Dr. A. C. Koch * records the case of a mastodon found in Gasconade County, Missouri, which had apparently been stoned to death by the Indians, and then partially consumed by fire. The same writer mentions a second case in which several stone arrow-heads were found mingled with the bones of a mastodon. These statements, however, are not generally accepted by geologists, and the evidence in support of them is, to say the least, very doubtful. In the valley of the Mississippi, Dr. Dickeson, of Natchez, found the os innoviiiiatum of a man with some bones of the Mastodon ohioticus, which had fallen from the side of a cliff undermined by a rivulet. This case, however, is also open to doubt, and Sir C. Lyell was of opinion that this bone might have been derived from one of the Indian graves, which are very numerous in this locality. Dr. Usher, on the contrary,f regards it as " an undoubted fossil," belonging to the same period as the remains of the mastodon with which it was discovered. Count Pourtalis records the discovery of some human bones in a calcareous conglomerate, estimated by Agassiz to be ten thousand years old, though it must be added that this calculation has been disputed by the Count himself. The so-called " Calaveras " skull was found in the county so named by Mr. Mattison, who assures us that he took it with his own hands from a bed of gravel 130 feet from the surface and under four layers of lava. The antiquity of this skull has been much questioned, but Mr. Whitney seems to feel no doubt on the subject. He maintains J that the chemical condition proves that it is of considerable antiquity, * Trans, of the Academy of J Whitney, Auriferous Gravels Science of St Louis, 1857, p. 61. of the Sierra Nevada, j). 271. t Dr Usher, in Nott and Glid- don's Types of Mankind, p. 344. 'J{:){j ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMERICA. ami not a mere niodeni skull, as some have supposed. Of t'oui-so if it really belonged to the bed in which Mr. Mattison supposes that it was found, it must be of great antiquity, but we do not know enough of the locality to be able to form even a vague idea of its age. Dr. Wright believes it to be genuine, and mentions the occurrence of a stone mortar in the same gravel bed. This discovery, however, suggests doul)t as to its great antiquity.* Dr. Douler obtained from an excavation near New Orleans some charcoal and a human skeleton, to which he was inclined to attribute an antiquity of no less than fifty thousand years. The plain on which the city of New Orleans is built, and which rises only about ten feet above the sea level, consists of alluvial soil, which has been proved by borings to have a depth of more than five hundred feet, and which contains several successive layers of cypresses. The river banks show similar remains of ancient forests, and Messrs. Dickeson and Brown have found remains of no less than ten cypress forests at different levels below the present surface. These trees are not unfrequently as much as ten feet in diameter, and there are from 95 to 120 rings in an inch. The human skeleton above referred to was found at a depth of sixteen feet, and beneath the roots of a cypress-tree belonging to the fourth forest level below the surface.f Dr. Andrews, indeed, in a letter cited by Mr. Southall, J questions this calculation. He maintains that the accretion of river mud in the region of the lower Alississippi is very rapid, aud points out as a proof of this that trunks of trees may be seen standing in the banks of the river, showing that the accretion must have been rapid enough to cover them before they had had time to decay. Whether, however, we accept Dr. Douler's calculation * Wright, Man and the Glacial t Dr Usher, in Nott and Glid- Period. don's Types of Mankind, p. 338. X Kecent Origin of Man, p. 472. ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AMEPJCA. 267 or nofc, it is obvious that, if the statements are trustworthy, this skeleton certainly must carry back the existence of man in America to a very distant period. In another case a piece of a wicker basket is said to have been found in Louisiana,* in association with elephants' remains. Lastly, implements curiously resembling the Palaeo- lithic implements of Western Europe, have been found by Mr. Jones at a depth of nine feet in the gravel of the Chatta- hoochee valley ,-]- and by Mr. Abbott in the drift gravels of New Jersey. I On the whole, then, the evidence certainly seems to indi- cate that Man has inhabited America for a considerable period, and it is even probable, though there may not as yet be any absolute proof, that he co-existed there with the mammoth and mastodon. * Desnoyers, Cong. Int. d'An- J Rep. of the Peabody Museum, thropologie, p. 98. 1878. t Jones, Ant. of the Southern Indians, p. 294. ( 2G8 ) CHAPTER IX. QUATERNARY MAMMALIA. IN addition to those still existing, the fauna of Northern Europe during the Palaeolithic period comprised several species of mammalia which have either become entirely extinct, or very much restricted in their geographical distri- tion, since the appearance of man in Europe. The principal of these are — Vrsus spelceus (the cave-bear). Ursus priscus. Hyccna spelaxt (the cave-hysena). Felis spelcea (the cave-lion). Elephas primigenius (the mammoth). Ulephas antiquus. Rhinoceros tichorhinus (the hairy rhinoceros). BJiinoceros leptorhimbs, Cuv. Rhinoceros hemitcechus. nippopotamus major (the hippopotamus). Ovibos moschatus (the musk ox). Megaceros hibernicus (the Irish elk). Uquusfossilis (the wild horse). Gido luscus (the glutton). Cervics tarandus (the reindeer). Bison Buropceus (the aurochs). Bos primigenius (the urus). Besides many smaller, but very interesting, species. SUCCESSION OF SPECIES. 2G9 The first ten of these have been regarded, until lately, us altogether extinct, but recent researches have induced many naturalists to regard some of them as the direct ancestors of species still existing in other parts of the world, so that the Irish elk, the elephants, and the three species of rhinoceros are perhaps the only ones which have left no descendants. Most of the smaller species now inhabiting Europe already existed in quaternary times, from which we may conclude that the changes which have taken place were due to a gradual change of circumstances, rather than to any sudden cataclysm, or general destruction of life : it is also very im- probable that the extinction of the different species was simultaneous; and, acting on this idea, M. Lartet has at- tempted * to construct a palgeontological chronology. He considered that we may establish four divisions, namely, the age of the cave-bear, of the mammoth and rhinoceros, of the reindeer, and of the aurochs. It is evident, I think, that the appearance of these mammalia in Europe was not simul- taneous, and that their disappearance has been successive. The evidence is very strong that in Central and Western Europe the aurochs survived the reindeer, and that the rein- deer, on the other hand, lived on to a later period than the mammoth or the woolly-haired rhinoceros. But the chrono- logical distinction between these two species and the cave- bear does not appear to be so well established. Admitting that the cave-bear has not yet been found in the river gravels of the Somme valley, we must remember that the animal was essentially a cave-dweller, and that its absence is, perhaps, to be attributed rather to the absence of caves than to the extinction of the species. Moreover, the bones found in the gravel are very much broken, and are seldom in such a condi- tion as to enable the palaeontologist to distinguish the remains of U. spelmus from those of other large bears. * Ann. des Sci. Nat. 1861, p. 217. 270 THE CAVE-BEAR. There is as yet no evidence that the cave-bear existed in Europe beftn-e the commencement of the quaternary period, wIk'u it appears to have been abundant in Central Europe and in Ihe southern parts of Eussia. It has not yet been found in Siberia* it is doubtful whetlier it has been dis- covered north of the Baltic, nor has it yet been found in Spain or in Ireland. In Italy, on the contrary, it has been met with, and in one instance apparently in association vs^ith a polished stone implement, and even pottery, f M. Eegnoli has been so good as to forward me a cast of the specimen on W'hicli this statement rests ; it belongs to the cave-bear, but I can hardly regard it as being undoubtedly contempo- raneous with the pottery and stone axe which were found near it. In Northern Europe no such case has yet been met with, but it is of course possible that in Italy the cave-bear may have survived to a more recent period than in the region north of the Alps. No trace of it has yet been found by Mr. Busk and Dr. Falconer among the numerous remains from Gibraltar, nor has it yet been met with in Siberia. The late Dr. Falconer referred to this species the leg bones of a bear found in Brixham Cave, above a flint implement. Mr. Busk, however, who has carefully examined these bones, and detached them more completely from the matrix in which they were imbedded than was the case when they were examined by Dr. Falconer, is of opinion that there is no sufficient reason for referring them to Ursus spelceus rather than to one of the other large species of fossil bear. It has been stated that remains of the cave-bear have occurred in the river gravels at Ilford and Gray's Thurrocks. In the opinion, however, both of j\Ir. Busk and Mr. Boyd * Brandt, Bull, de I'Acad. Imp. t Riclierche Paleoetnologicbe de St. Petersburg, 1870, vol. vii. nelle Alpi Apuaiie. Nota del Dolt. pt. 3. C. Regnoli. THE CAVE-BEAR. 271 Dawkins, we have no clear case of the remains of this species being found in river-drift gravels. In fact, as materials for comparison have increased, it has proved more and more difficult to separate Ursus spelceus from other large species of bear. The jaws and teeth are characteristic, but the other portions of the skeleton are scarcely distinguishable, especially when they are so much fractured, as is generally the case with those found in gravel deposits. Vogt, indeed, has expressed the opinion that every gradation may be traced between this species and our common brown bear (Ursus Arctos), and Brandt leans to the same opinion.* Mr. Boyd Dawkins also says that " those who have compared the French, German, and British specimens gradually realize the fact that the fossil remains of the bears form a graduated series, in which all the variations that at first sight appear specific vanish away." f Whether, however, the cave-bear will eventually be regarded as belonging to the same species as the brown bear or not, it will still remain a well-charac- terized variety, and one which has never yet been certainly met with in the peat mosses, in the tumuli of AVestern Europe, in the Danish shell-mounds, the Swiss lake-villages, or, in short, associated with Neolithic remains. Mr. Busk, whose views have more recently been supported by Dr. Leith Adams and Mr. Boyd Dawkins, has made the interesting observation that some remains of bear found in our British caves and gravels are identical with the corresponding bones of U. Ferox, or grizzly bear of the Rocky Mountains. The cave-hyccna, like the preceding species, is in Europe characteristic of the Palaeolithic age ; by some authorities it is now regarded as scarcely distinguishable from the Hyccna crocuta, or spotted hyiena of Southern Africa, * Zoogeographische imd Palieon- t Pleistocene Mammalia, Palte- tologisclie Beitiage, 1867, p. 220, ontographical Soc. vol.xviii. p. xxii. o-o THE CAVE-LION. Ftlis sjH'la'u, the cave-lion, attained a somewhat larger size than tlie lion of the present day, and possessed in an eva'T'nn-uted do^n-ee the characters by which that species is distinguishable from the tiger. It has hitherto been regarded as a distinct species, but Messrs. Dawkins and Sanford now consider * it as only a large variety of the lion. It has not yet been found in Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia, Denmark, or Prussia. It occiu-s, however, in France, Germany, Italy, and Sicily. As long ago as 1672, Dr. John Haius figured a bone of this species from the Carpathians, an observation of considerable interest, as it carries the area of the F. spelma so near to the mountains of Thessaly, where, as Herodotus tells us, the camels attached to the army of Xerxes were attacked by lions.f Messrs. Boyd Dawkins and Sanford refer also to the same species the remains found at Natchez, in Mississippi, which were described by Dr. Leidy as a new species under the name of Felis atrox. The characters, however, which induced Dr. Leidy to regard his specimens as distinct, are met with in some of the bones of F. sijdcea from the Mendip Hills. If this opinion be correct, F. spelcea must have stretched eastwards across Eussia and Siberia, where no remains of it have yet been observed. Inasmuch, however, as the mam- moth, the musk ox, the reindeer, the bison, the elk, the horse, the wolf, — in short, many of our most characteristic quaternary mammalia — occur also in America, it seems a 2)riori rather probable than otherwise that Messrs. Dawkins and Sanford are correct in regarding F. atrox of that continent as specifically identical with the F. spdaM of Europe. Eemains of a second large species of Felis, considered to be identical with the leopard, have been discovered in the bone- caves of England, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and * Palseontological Soc, vol. for resting memoir on the Zoology of 1868, p. 149. Ancient Europe, Cam. Phil. Soc, t See also Mr. Newton's inte- March, 1862. THE MAMMOTH. 273 Spain ; and the lynx has been found hy Dr. Ransom in a Derbyshire cave. The Mammoth, or Elephas primigenius, had very extensive geographical range. Its remains are foimd in North America, but not east of the Eocky Mountains nor south of Columbia Kiver; in the old continent, from the farthest extremity of Siberia to the extreme west of Europe, occurring, though rarely, even in Ireland ; it crossed the Alps, and established itself in Italy as far southward as Eome, but it has not yet been discovered in Naples, in any of the Mediterranean islands, or in Scandinavia. In Spain and Denmark it occurs, but is very rare. In the extreme north, on the contrary, remains of this species are remarkably abundant. Kotzebue was struck by this in Escholtz Bay (N. W. America), and his remarks have been fully confirmed by Beechey.* The islands of Lachowski and New Siberia are said to contain innumerable bones of extinct animals, and particularly of the mammoth ; from them and from other parts of Siberia so much fossil ivory is obtained that it forms a regular article of commerce. Nor have skeletons alone been discovered. In 1799 a Tungusian hunter discovered the body of a mammoth embedded in a cliff of frozen soil, where it remained for several years. In 1806 it was visited by Mr. Adams, who found it partly devoured by wolves and other wild animals, and partly removed by the Yakuts, who used it as food for their dogs. Fortunately, however, a considerable portion of the animal still remained. The skin was dark grey, covered with reddish wool, mixed with long black bristles, somewhat thicker than horsehair. Another frozen mammoth was discovered in 1846, besides several other well-preserved portions, and it was probably from earlier finds of a similar nature that the Siberian tribes began to regard the mammoth as a gigantic * Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific, vol. i. p. 257. 274 EXISTENCE OF THE AFIUCAN ELErilANT IN EUROPE. burrowin*^ animal. It is hardly necessary to observe that the state of preservation in which mammoths have been fonnil is no evidence of recent existence, for when once enveloped in frozen soil they might remain unchanged for an indefinite jxniod. The best authorities consider that the mammoth and the woolly-haired rhinoceros lived in Siberia before, as well as during the glacial period, and though as regards Europe the evidence is not so conclusive, it appears probable that they also existed in Europe in pre-glacial times. It is probable that during the severer portions of the period they retreated south, and advanced northward again during the milder inter-glacial period. Whatever doubt, however, there may be as to the date at which this species made its appearance in Europe, we can no longer hesitate to believe that our ancestors, or at least our predecessors, co-existed in England with the mammoth, which they no doubt hunted, as the wildest tribes of Africa and India do now. The only other species of elephant which inhabited Northern Europe during the quaternary period was the nearly allied Elcphas antiqicus, remains of which have been found in English caves and river gravels, though, on the whole, it had a more southerly range than the mammoth. It is generally associated with Rhinoceros leptorhinus, Cuv., while, on the contrary, the mammoth and E. tichorhinv.s usually occur together. In Southern Europe unmistakable remains of the existing African elephant have been met with. Fig. 186 represents a molar tooth of U. antiquus, and fig. 1 87 one belonging to J^. jjrimigenius ; it will at once be seen that the plates are much narrower in the latter than in the former. At least three species of rhinoceros inhabited Europe during the quaternary period; on this all are agreed, but. THE QUATERNARY SPECIES OF RHINOCEROS. 275 unfortunately, the nomenclature is involved in very consider- able confusion. B. leptorhimis was originally so named by Cuvier in 1812, from a drawing of a specimen found in the Val d'Arno, and in which the bony septum between the nostrils was represented as deficient. In 1835, M. de Christol stated that he had examined the specimen in question, that the drawing was incorrect, and the name consequently inapplicable. Subsequently, however, Dr. Falconer visited Italy and satis- fied himself, that after all, the original drawing was correct, and that therefore Cuvier's name must be restored. In the meantime Prof. Owen had unfortunately described another species of rhinoceros found at Clacton as R. le-ptorliinus, Fig. 186. Molar Tooth of E. Antiquus. which name must of course be abandoned if Cuvier's name is permitted to stand. . Hence Dr. Falconer proposed to call this latter species H. JiemitcccJms. It is necessary therefore to bear in mind that the B. leptorMmis of Owen is not the B. leptorhinus of Cuvier, but that it is the B. hemitcechus of Falconer, while M. Lartet maintains that it is identical with the B. Merhii of Kaup. On the other hand, M. de Christol, in 1835, described a rhinoceros, which undoubtedly wanted the nasal septum, and believing himself to have proved that the figure on which Cuvier based his description of B. lepto^ rhinus was incorrect, he named this species B. megavMnus. Hence Cuvier's B. leptorhinus is identical with De Christol's B. megarhinus. The third species is the B. tichorhinus of 276 THE QUATERNARY SPECIES OF RHINOCEROS. Cuv., a name which has been generally adopted, although rdinnonl>acli had previously proposed that of R. anfAquitatis. Mr. Inn'd Dawkins considers that there is still some doubt about the real character of the specimen on which Cuvier founded his B. Icptorhinus, and consequently adopts the fol- Idwing nomenclature: R. megarhimis, De Christol ; B. lepto- rhinus, Owen; and -S. iichorhinus, Cuvier. M. Lartet uses tlie names B. leptoi^hinus, Cuv. ; B. Merkii, Kaup ; and R. Iichorhinus, Cuvier. These differences of opinion, however, relate merely to the nomenclature, and do not touch the existence of the species themselves. The first two belonged to the pre-glacial as well as to the post-glacial period. The Fig. 187. Molar Tooth of Mammoth. woolly-haired, two-horned, smooth-skinned B. tichorhinus, on the contrary, which appears to have been the commonest in post-glacial times, has not yet been proved to have existed in Europe in the period before the glacial epoch. The two other species also have a more southerly range, having been found in Italy and Spain, while B. tichorhinus, though it has been met with from the extreme north of Siberia,* throughout Central Europe and England, does not appear to have crossed either the Alps or the Pyrenees. It is somewhat remarkable that no remains of rhinoceros have yet been discovered in * In more than one instance the actual carcase of this animal has been found preserved like the mam- moth, by being imbedded in frozen soil. RHINOCEROS TICHORHINUS. 277 Sicily, Malta, Scotland, Ireland,* or America,! in all of which countries the elephant has been met with. On the other hand, a single tooth has, according to Brandt, been found in Scandinavia, where no remains of elephant have yet been discovered. The Musk-ox, or rather Musk-sheep, is at present confined to the northern part of Arctic America. Its remains, how- ever, occur in Siberia; and in 1856 Mr. Kingsley and I were so fortunate as to obtain a portion of a skull from the large gravel- pit near Maidenhead Station. Since then I have met with it again at Greenstreet Green, near Bromley, in Kent; it has also been found in the gravel of the Avon, near Bath, in that of the Severn, near Gloucester, and at Crayford. It has since been found, though rarely, in France and Germany. The Hipi)02wtamus, though hitherto regarded as a distinct species from the H. amp)liihius of Africa, was, if not identical with, at any rate very closely allied to it. Some palaeontolo- gists believe that, like the mammoth and the R. tichorinus, it was covered with hair ; we have, however, no distinct evidence in support of this view. It may, moreover, be remarked, though too much importance must not be attached to the observation, that our ancient hippopotamus has been less frequently found in association with these two species, than with E. antiquiis and B. hemitcechus, Falc. (leptorhinus, Owen), which, as just mentioned have a more southerly range. Thus, in this country, it has only been found in four bone-caves, those of Durdham Down, Kirkdale, Kent's Hole Cavern, and Eaveuscliff in Gower, and in the two former it was associated with U. mttiquus and B. hemitcechus. In the river gravels its remains are found at Grays and Ilford, * Lartet, Note sur deux tetes de t D'Arcliiac, Le9ons sur le Faune Carnassiers Fossiles. Ann. d. Sci. Quaternaire, p. 196. Nat. 5 Ser. vol. viii. 279 THE IRISH ELK. assi'ci-iU'il Nvilh tlie it. tkliorliinus, R. leptorhinus, and R. hnnitarhus; tit Walton and ^Folkestone, with Elephas an- tiquus; at reckhani, with K antiquus, and U. primigenius ; at Bedford, with E. antiquus, the tichorhine rhinoceros, and the reindeer; and at Barton, with the mammoth and R. hcmitachus* The magnificent Irish Elk, or Mcgaceros hibernicus, which attained a height of more than ten feet, with antlers measur- ing eleven feet from tip to tip, may perhaps have lived to a somewhat more recent period, but appears to have had a much more restricted range. Its remains have been found in Sweden, in Germany, in France as far as the Pyrenees, and in Central Italy. It seems, however, to have been most abundant in the British Isles, and especially in Ireland. It is reported to have been frequently found in peat-bogs, but Professor Owen believes that, in reality, the bones generally occur in the lacustrine shell marl, which underlies the peat or bog earth, f In the Niebelungen Lied of the twelfth century, a myste- rious animal is mentioned under the name of schelch : "After tills lie straightway slew a bison and an elk, Of tlie strong uri four, and one fierce schelch." It has been supposed by some writers that the schelch was, in fact, the Megaceros hibernicus. There is, however, no sufficient reason for this hypothesis, and we must remember that the same poem, as Dr. Buckland has pointed out, con- tains allusions to giants, dwarfs, pigmies, and fire-dragons. Neither C«sar nor Tacitus mentions the Irish elk, and they would surely not have omitted such a remarkable animal, if it had been known to them. No remains of the Irish elk have yet been found in asso- * The British Pleistocene Mammalia, Paloeontological Soc. 1866, p. *^vi"- t Owen, 1. c. p. 465. WILD HORSES. 279 elation with bronze, nor indeed am I aware of any which can be referred to the later Stone or Neolithic Age. These twelve species, then, are especially characteristic of the river-drift deposits. Most of them occur also in the loess of the Khine and its principal tributaries, but, except perhapa the last, they have not yet been met with in the peat-bogs. They never occur in the Kjokkenmoddings, the Lake-habita- tions, or tumuli ; nor are there any traditions in Western Europe which can be regarded as indicating, even in the most obscure manner, any recollection of these gigantic mammalia. Another remarkable group of animals which invaded Europe soon after the glacial period, from the dry steppes of Central Asia. Amongst these were the Saiga Antelope (A. saiga), the Layopus fusillios, the Common Hamster (Cricet'us vulgaris), the Small Hamster (C. phmus), the Steppe Marmot (Ardomys bobac), the Spermophilus rufescens, Alactaga jaculus, and Arvicola gregaris (Kriz. Mit. Anthr. Ges. Wien, 1898, p. 8). These have been supposed to indicate the pre- valence of a very dry period. Of fourteen special "Tundra" species, twelve have been found in Western Europe. Is it not possible, however, that they happened to be amongst the first arrivals on the return of a milder period, and were not able to maintain themselves in the struggle for existence ? The Wild Horses, which in ancient times inhabited Europe, differed somewhat from our present breed, and have been described as separate races by Professor Owen, under the names of Uquus fossilis and Uqnus spelwus. The latter is the race which was largely used for food by the ancient inhab- itants of the Bruniquel Cave in Dordogne.* It was rather small in size, but appears to have resembled the true horse more than the ass. Some naturalists have, indeed, been disposed to believe that Europe contained two wild species * Owen, Philosophical Transac- meyer, Beitrage zur Kenntniss der tions, 1869, p. 535. See also Riiti- fossilen Pferden. 2S0 THE REINDEER. of the mMHis E(2i(i'''^ during quateruaiy times. This opinion, howoYor, siH'His to (U-peml on difference of size rather than of form, and ui" know that the varieties of the horse differ I'onsiderahly in magnitiide. Kkkohard, in the " Benedictiones ad mensas Ekkehardi monaehi Sangallensis," mentions " ferales eqiii" as existing iu tlie eleventh century in Switzerland. Lucas David also (Reuss. Chrouik. Bd. ii. s. 121) alludes to the wild horse as existing in 1240 in Russia. Even at the begiiming of the seventeenth century, Herberstein expressly says, " Feras habet Lithuania, prseter eas, qute in Germania- referuntur, bisontes, tu'os, alces, eqi'.os sylvestres" etc. Perhaps, however, these mediaeval wild horses were merely tame ones which had escaped and bred in the extensive forests of Central Europe. Indeed, the history of the horse in Europe seems to have been much the same as in America. In the one country as in the other, wild horses were at one time frequent, and their remains are abundant. The Spanish con- querors, however, found no trace or tradition of the horse at the time of the discovery of America; and so also in the Danish shell-mounds, and at the earlier Swiss lake villages, the horse was either unknown, or at least extremely rare. Gradually it seems to have become again abundant, both in a domesticated and a wild condition ; until at length, as population increased, the wild horse finally disappeared in Europe, as he seems destined ere long to do in America.* The Reindeer still exists in Northern Europe, in Siberia and iu Xorth America, where it has been found as far north as man has yet penetrated. Even so recently as the time of Pallas it might still be met with on the wooded summits of the Oural Mountains, as far south as the Caucasus. In Western Europe it is now an extinct species, though it was * See, for fxirtlier particulars, Brandt, Zoograpliische irnd Palteonto- logische Beitrage, p. 176. THE REINDEER. 281 at one time abundant in England and France, whence, how- ever, it is unnecessary to say, it has long disappeared. M. Lartet found no traces of it in any of the Spanish caves examined by him ; Ponzi mentions it, though apparently with some little doubt, as occurring among the animal remains collected by M. Regnoli, at Cantalupo, near Eome; but its existence south of the Alps seems still doubtful* At the present day the reindeer, like the Laplander, is gradually retiring northwards, unable to resist the pressure of advancing civilization. Even within the last ten years a few families of Lapps might still be found in the neigh- bourhood of Nystuen, on the summit of the Fillefjeld, and some other places in the south of Norway, but none are now to be found on this side of the Namsen river. The reindeer, in a wild state, indeed, even at the present day, is generally distributed, though in small numbers, over the highest and wildest of the Norwegian fjelds, protected, however, by stringent game laws, but for which it would probably have ere now ceased to exist. On the other hand, this species must have been at one time very abundant in Great Britain, no fewer than 1000 horns having been found by Colonel Wood in some of the Gower caves on the Welsh coast. As far as we can judge from the present evidence, the first appearance of the reindeer in Europe coincided with that of the mammoth, and took place at a later period than that of the cave-bear or Irish elk. It is generally found wherever the mammoth and woolly-haired rhinoceros occur; but, on the other hand, as^its remains are abundant in some of the bone caves in which the gigantic Pachyderms are wanting, it is probaljle that it survived to a still later period. The rein- deer has not, however, been found in the Kjokkenmoddings * Eapporto sngli Studi e sulle no della Campagna Romana. Roma, Scoperte Paleoetnologiciie nel Baci- 1867. ; -; 282 THE REINDEER. of iKMiinark, nor in any of the tumuli of England, France, or CJorniany. It is also wanting in the Swiss lake villages, alilmuuh wo know that it was at onetime an inhabitant of Switzerland, bones of it having been found in a cave at L'Kohelle, between the Great and Little Saleve, near Geneva, whore they were mixed with worked flints, ashes, and remains of the ox and horse. As might naturally have been expected, remains of- the reindeer occur in the peat mosses of Sweden, as well as in those of Scotland and England. It is not, however, represented on any of the ancient British or Gallic coins. Ciosar, indeed, mentions it as existing in the great Her- cynian forest ; but his description is both imperfect and in- correct. He seems to have heard of it only at second-hand, and never to have met with anybody who had actually seen one. It does not appear to have been ever exhibited in the Eoman circus. Buffon stated on the authority of Gaston, Comte de Foix, that in his time (1331 to 1390) the reindeer still lived in the south of France. Cuvier, however, by examining an ancient manuscript, sent by Gaston himself to Philippe le Hardi, showed that, though his expression is a little ambi- guous, he probably intended to say exactly the reverse, his words being — " J'en ay veu en Nourvegne et Xuedene et en ha oultre mer, mes en Komain pays en ay je pen veu." * Remains of the reindeer have been found in Scotland in beds of marl and till, and also, though very rarely, in peat.f Hibbert,^ Brandt,§ Boyd Dawkins, J. A. Smith, and other good authorities, consider that it survived in the extreme * Recherches sur les Ossements, J Edinburgh Journal of Sci., Fossiles, vol. vi. p. 125, 1831. t See Dawkins, Popular Science § Zoogeogr. und Palaeont. Bei- R«view, Jan. 1868. Smith, Proc. trage, 1867, pp. 62, 256. Soc. Ant, Scot., 1869, p. 186. THE EEINDEER. 283 north down to the twelfth century ; relying on the statement of Torfteus, that the Norwegians used to make incursions from the Orkneys into Caithness for the purpose of hunting reindeer (hreina) and other game.* While, however, fully admitting the high authority of Torfaeus, I cannot regard a casual statement of this character as conclusively deciding the question, and I may add that Sir G. Dasent, who was so great an authority on all questions connected with Scandinavian literature, was convinced that the reindeer was extinct in Scotland at the period in question. It may also he remarked that several attempts which have been made to introduce the reindeer into Scotland have completely failed, the animals dying without any very apparent reason, while, on the contrary, in Iceland they have become numerous. I admit that these experiments are far from conclusive ; but, on the other hand, in Scandinavia the deer are said to be larger in the northern districts than in the southern, while the Spitzbergen specimens are the finest of all. If, indeed, Torfseus had distinctly stated that the reindeer existed in northern Scotland during the twelfth century, the state of the case would have been very different ; the passage referred to, however, could hardly be accepted as conclusive by itself, especially as long as no traces of reindeer had been found among the ancient ruins which abound in that district. On the other hand. Dr. J. A. Smith has carefully examined the horns and bones found in the ruins of the curious towers known as " Brochs," or " Burghs,'' and has shown that some of them certainly belonged to the reindeer, j- Thus fragments of reindeer's horns have been collected by Mr. Joass among the ruins of the Cill-TroUa Broch, on the farm of Kintradwell, near Brora, on the sea-coast of Sutherlandshire. Dr. Smith, on carefully examining the remains of deer obtained by Mr. * Reruin Orcadensium His. i. 36. t Proc. Soc. Antiq., 1868, vol. viii. p. 186. 284 THE REINDEER. I^iiif: nt Koiss, in Caithness, finds that they do not all belong, as at first supposed, to the red deer, but that some of them were those of the reindeer. Lastly, remains of this species liave been collected by Mr. Anderson in the ruins of the Yarliouse Broch, in the same county. It is indeed more than probable that in other cases remains of the reindeer have been incorrectly ascribed to the red deer. "We do not, unfortunately, know the date at which these Biu-ghs or Brochs were first constructed, but it is on record that some of them were in use down to the twelfth century (see ante, pp. 50, 51). No doubt these observations tend to support the inference derived from the statement of Torfseus, and though I am not entirely convinced, it must be admitted that there are strong grounds for believing that the reindeer survived in northern Scotland down to a comparatively recent period, if not so late as the time mentioned by Torfseus. The true Arctic Fox has also been found in English bone- caves, as well as in those of Central Europe. Indeed, in the Kessorloch cave in Switzerland, out of 150 lower jaws of foxes, only two belonged to our Common Fox, 66 to the Arctic Eox {Canis lagojms), and the remainder to the Red Fox of North America.* In the same cave the Common Hare was represented by two individuals only, while of the Alpine Hare not less than 250 individuals were indicated by the remains. The Glutton, of North Europe, which is the wolverine of the North American fur-hunters, has been found in several of the English bone-caves, as well as in the Norfolk " Forest-beds," f and is abundant in those of Belgium. The Aurochs, or European Bison, appears to have been * Merk. Mitt, der Ant. Ges. in Schweiz seit Anwesenheit der Zurich, 1875. Riitimeyer, Die Menschen. Verand. der Thierwelt in der t ISre\\-ton, Quart. Journ, Geol. Soc, 1880. THE AUROCHS. 285 abundant in "Western Europe. It has been found in Scot- land, England, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and Italy, as well as in Kussia, Its remains occur in the river-drift gravels, the bone-caves, the Lake villages of Swit- zerland, and in the peat-bogs, though none have yet been found in the shell-mounds of Denmark, nor, so far as I am aware, in any of our British peat-bogs or tumuli. M. Lartet thinks that it is represented on a coin of the Santones, which was shown to him by M. de Saulcy. It is stated by Pliny and Seneca to have existed in their time, with the urus, in the great forests of Germany. Though not mentioned by Csesar, it is alluded to in the Niebelungen Lied, and is said to have existed in Prussia down to the year 1775. According to Nordmann and Von Baer, it still survives in some parts of Western Asia, The bison is also preserved by the Emperor of Eussia in the imperial forests of Lithuania, where, however, its existence seems to be very precarious. In 1830 the herd numbered 711 head, of which, during the Polish revolution in 18.31, 115 were killed. From that time they gradually increased until 1857, when the numbers were 1898, but during the late Polish rebellion they fell to 874. Since 1863 no numbers have been given. According to Eiitimeyer, than whom it is impossible to cite a greater authority on such a question, our ancient bison (B.priscus) was specifically identical with the existing Ameri- can bison. Every stage, however, between the fossil form and the existing European aurochs can be traced, so that it is impossible to separate the two, an opinion in which Brandt also coincides. It would appear, moreover, that the American form of bison is more archaic than that of Europe. Allen regards the gigantic Bos latifrons, which had immense horns spreading from 10 to 12 feet, as the parent form, passing through B. prisms into the present European, and through o,qf) THE URUS. B. honmi's into the American bison.* We have here, there- fore, a I'loar case, in which two now distinct species are connected by the evidence of fossil remains. The Urns, or Bos primigenius, did not extend its range to America, nor, so far as I am aware, have its remains yet been met with in North-eastern Asia. They occur, however, throughout Europe — in England, Scotland, Denmark, and the south of Sweden, in France and Germany. Across the Alps and Pyrenees, it occurs in Italy and Spain, and even, accord- inc' to M. Gervais, in Northern Africa. In the Museum at Lund is a skeleton belonging to this species, in which one of the vertebrge still shows traces of a wound, made, in the opinion of Professor Nilsson, by a flint arrow. Bones of this species have also been met with in ancient tumuli, as well as in the lake-habitations, and in the Kjokkenmoddings. Caesar particularly mentions the urus as occurring in the Hercynian forest ; it is alluded to in the Niebelungen Lied, and, according to Herberstein, it existed in Germany down to the sixteenth century. In England, wild bulls are men- tioned by Fitz-Stephen, in his Life of Becket, as occurring near London as late as the twelfth century. It does not seem certain, however, that these were uri. The celebrated wild cattle of Chillingham, and some of our domestic breeds, are generally regarded by palaeontologists as being descended from the ancient urus. ]\Ir. Dawkins is of opinion that Machairodus latidcns, one of the most remarkable of the Pliocene carnivora, survived to post-glacial times. It was found by MacEnery in Kent's Hole, but this is denied by others, who consider that the Chillingham cattle are descended from the imported Short- horn breed (see ante, p. 211), but was apparently very rare, and our committee only found a single tooth in the subsequent examination of that interesting cavern. Nor has it occurred * The American Bisons, p. 35. ELK. LEMMING. SNOWY OWL. 287 in any other of our bone-caves or river gravels with remains of post-glacial mammalia. The Norway Elk, which is identical with the American moose, was also an inhabitant of this country, but has long become extinct here, as, indeed, through- out Western Europe. Even in Prussia it is said that there are only about 22G remaining.* The lemming has been discovered by Dr. Blackmore, in the river gravels at Fisher- ton, near Salisbury; and the lagomys, or tailless hare, a genus now confined to the Himalayas, Siberia, and the colder regions of North America, has been identified by Prof. Owen among the bones from Kent's Cavern, and by Dr. Falconer among those from the Brixham Cave. Among other northern and eastern forms may be also mentioned a species allied to Dipus, Alacdaga gcranus, and a small mouse, Arvicola gregalis.\ Another glacial genus, that of the marmots, is represented by two species, one of them very closely resembling that now living in Siberia. Lastly, it may be observed that remains of the great snowy owl {Strix nivca), and of the willow grouse (Tetrao albus) are met with in abundance in most of the caves of the south-west of France. The river gravels contain also thirty -six species of shell-fish, of which thirty-four at present live in Sweden,J and twenty- nine in Lombardy. These latter, however, are principally species having a very wide range, and we shall see still more clearly that the leaning of the molluscan fauna is towards the north, if we remember that out of seventy-seven Finland species, thirty-one have been found in the upper level gravels, while of 193 Lombard species, only twenty-nine have as yet occurred. A very interesting point connected with this quaternary * See Report from Her Majesty's f Aicli. f. Anthrojjologie, 1876, representatives abroad, on the laws p. 162. and regulations relating to game, % Proc. Roy. Soc. 1862, p. 44. presented to Parliament, 1871. 2.^S LINKS BETWEEN EXISTING SPECIES. fauna is the manner in which it connects together species now quite distinct. Opponents of Mr. Darwin's theory often ask for the links connecting any two species. In fact, however, every species is a link between other allied forms. Of course, indeed, as long as any varieties remain undescribed there will be intervals — indicating however, gaps not in nature, but in our knowledge. Moreover, it is admitted by every one that there are variable species, that is to say, species which present two or more extreme forms, with intermediate gradations. Now we may fairly ask those who assert that no two species are connected by links, how they would separate the instances of variable animals (which they admit to occur) from the case which they say does not exist. If we were to obtain to-morrow all the links between any two species which are now considered distinct, no one can deny that the two would at once be united, and would hereafter appear in our classifications as one variable species. In fact, therefore, they first unite into one species all these forms, however different, between which a complete series is known, and then argue in favour of the permanence of species because no two of them are united by intermediate links. Moreover, if species were in reality unconnected by common ancestors, then it would necessarily follow that, as our knowledge of any group increased, the separations between the different species would become more and more unmistak- able. On the contrary, however, it is a well-known fact that the difi&cult genera become still more difficult as they are more profoundly studied. If, indeed, we consider existing forms only, no doubt the distinctions between the greater number of species are well marked, nor does any one expect to find a living series of links between them. The interme- diate forms lived in tertiary and quaternary times. Thus directly we commence to study the extinct forms, all the con- LINKS BETWEEN EXISTING SPECIES. 289 venient lines of separation gradually thin out. For instance, the larger species of mammalia are at present in most cases well marked, but it becomes much more difficult satisfactorily to distinguish them from one another, when we consider fossil specimens as well as recent ones. To take only two cases from the grovip of quaternary mammalia, we have seen that, according to Eiitimeyer, the European and American bisons, which are now quite distinct, are connected by the Bison prisons, while between our brown bear and the grizzly bear of the Eocky Mountains a series of links has been discovered among the abundant remains in the bone-caves. Great • as is the interest attaching to the existence of man at a period so much more ancient than that hitherto assigned to him, there is something which, to many minds, will appear even more fascinating, in the presence of such a fauna as that which I have thus briefly indicated. For it must be regarded as a well-ascertained fact, that, even during the human period, the pleasant and sunny valleys of England and of France have been inhabited by the gigantic Irish elk, two species of ele- phant, and three of rhinoceros, together with the reindeer, a large bear closely resembling the grizzly bear of the Eocky Mountains, a bison scarcely distinguishable from that of the American Prairies, the musk ox of Arctic America, the lem- ming of the Siberian Steppes, the lion of the Tropics, the hyaena of the Cape, and a hippopotamus closely resembling that of the great African rivers. Influenced mainly by the presence of the great pachyderms, and particularly by that of the hippopotamus, M. dArchaic was disposed to consider that the climate of the quaternary period was warmer than ours,* while M. Lartet -f suggests that we may have had a climate like that of Chili, where, as Mr. Darwin had pointed out, glaciers actually come down to the * Le§ons sur la Faune Quater- t Lartet, Ann. des Sc. Nat. 1867, naire, pp. 15, 16. p. 37. T 290 CLIMATE OF THE QUATERNAEY PERIOD. sea-level in latitudes corresponding with that of our south eoast and the northern provinces of France. In otlier respects, however, the fauna of the quaternary deposits indicates a more severe climate. The presence of the reindeer and musk ox, the lemming and the marmot, corrobo- rated, as we shall see in the next chapter, by physical evidence, leaves little doubt on this subject. Moreover, we must remember that the tichorhiue rhinoceros and the mam- moth were not only w^ell provided against cold, but in some cases were enveloped in the ice and frozen mud of the Siberian rivers so soon after death that the flesh had not had time to decay. IMuch weight is also to be attributed, I think, to the presence of smaller quadrupeds, as, for instance, of the lemming and lagomys. Yet it cannot be denied that some of the species, and particularly the hippopotamus, indicate a warmer climate. Even if protected by fur, as Mr. Prestwich supposes, this animal could never live in a country where the rivers were frozen every winter. To meet this difficulty, a suggestion has been thrown out that it may have made annual migrations. In the Gulf of Penas, on the west coast of South America, lat. 47° S., Mr. Darwin has pointed out that glaciers now " descend to the sea within less than nine degrees of latitude from where palms grow, less than two and a-half from arbores- cent grasses, less than two from orchideous parasites, and within a single degree of tree-ferns." * The rein-deer in America makes, we know, very extensive annual migrations, but a hea\7' animal like the hippopotamus could hardly do so. I am, therefore, rather disposed to believe that the presence of the hippopotamus, the E. antiquus, and leptorhinus, indicates that the climate of the quaternary period was not uniformly severe, but contained at least one interval of exceptional mildness. * Researches iu Geology and Natural History, p. 285. PROBABLE FLUCTUATIONS OF CLIMATE. 291 The late M. Morlot, well known as an excellent and careful observer, was, I believe, the first to point out that, in Switzer- land, there was evidence of three periods of great extension of the glaciers, separated by epochs of comparative warmth. And in Great Britain also there is strong geological evidence of the existence of several such warm interglacial periods.* We shall also see presently that if tlie cold of the glacial epoch was due to the astronomical causes pointed out by M. Adhemar and Mr. Croll, the period of extreme cold must have been followed by one of unusual warmth, or rather there must have been several oscillations of climate from unusual heat to extreme cold. I am disposed then, on the whole, to consider that the quaternary fauna consists of two different groups, belonging to different periods and to (at least) two different conditions of climate, one warmer than the present, the other colder. The whole subject, however, w^hile of great interest, is also one of extreme difficulty, and I shall return to it more at length in a subsequent chapter. On many points we must be contented to suspend our judgment, but we may at least regard it as proved that, since the appearance of man, there have been great changes in the fauna of "Western Europe, which then contained several important species, either now altogether extinct, or existing only in distant parts of the world. * Geikie, The Great Ice Age. Croll, Climate and Time. ( 292 ) CHAPTER X. PRIMEVAL MAN. IT would be quite impossible, within the limits of a single chapter to describe all the caves in which human re- mains have been found in association with, and apparently belonging to, the same period as those of the extinct mammalia. I will only call attention to a few of those which have been most thoroughly examined, and by the researches in which the conclusions appear to be satisfactorily established. It is unnecessary to observe that a great number of caves present evidence of having been occupied during times long subsequent to those which we are now considering ; but for the Neolithic age, as well as for all later periods, we have, as has been already mentioned, other sources of information, and more satisfactory evidence than any which can be derived from the examination of caves. Some writers, indeed, have gone so far as to question alto- gether the value of what may be called cave e^'idence. They have suggested that the bones of extinct animals may have lain in the caves for ages before the appearance of man ; that relics of the human period may have been introduced subse- quently ; and that remains belonging to very different periods may have been mixed together. This was, for instance, the conclusion arrived at by M. Desnoyers, even so recently as CAVES IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE, 293 the year 1845, in his article on Bone-caves.* Unless this argnment admitted of a satisfactory answer, it must be con- ceded that the evidence derivable from cave contents would always be liable to grave suspicion. I trust, however, to be able to show that this is not the case. As long ago as the year 1828, MM. Tournal and Cliristol in the south of France had found fragments of pottery and human bones and teeth intermingled with remains of extinct animals ; and M. Tournal distinctly expressed the opinion that these had certainly not been washed in by any diluvial catastrophe, but must have been introduced gradually. The presence of pottery, however, throws much doubt on the suj)posed antiquity of these remains. A few years later, in 1833 and 1834, Dr. Schmerling f published an account of his researches in some caves near Liege in Belgium. In four or five of these he found human bones, and in all of them rude implements, principally flint flakes, were discovered, scattered in such a manner among the remains of the mammoth. Rhinoceros ticJiorhimis, cave- hyeena, and cave-bear, that Dr. Schmerling referred them to the same period. One feels a natural surprise that such animals as these should ever have been natives of England and France, ever have wandered about among our woods or along our streams ; but when it was also suggested that they were contemporary with man, surprise was succeeded by incredulity. Yet these cave researches appear to have been conducted with care, and the principal results have been confirmed by more recent discoveries. The hesitation, however, with which the statements of Dr. Schmerling were received by scientific men arose, no doubt, * Recherclies Geologiques et His- t Eeclierclies sur les Osaements toriques sur les Cavernes, particu- Fossiles decouverts clans les Cav- lierement sur les cavernes k osse- ernes de la Province de Liege. Par ments. Dictionnaire Universel le Dr. P. C. Schmerling. d'Histoire Naturelle. 204 BELGIAN CAVES. l»:irtly from the fact that some of the fossil remains discovered hy him wore eertaiuly referred to wrong species, and partly because, with reference to several of the extinct species, and especially to the mammoth, he expressed the opinion that the remains had been brought from a distance, and had very likely been washed out of some earlier bed. Even, therefore, though Dr. Schmerling might be quite right in his conclusion that the human remains had been " enfouis dans ces cavernes k la meme epoque, et par conse- quent par les memes causes qui y out entraine une masse d'ossements de diff(6rentes especes ^teintes," still it would not necessarily follow that man had lived at the same period as these extinct species. Careful explorations of the Belgian caves were subse- quently made, under the auspices of the Government, by M. E. Dupout.* These caverns belong principally to the so- called Eeindeer period, and the flint implements are never ground. Thus out of 30,000 worked flints found in the cavern of Chaleux, and 1200 in those of Furfooz, not one presents a trace of grinding. Some of these flint flakes, etc., appear to consist of Pressigny (Touraine) flint, and in the opinion of Dr. Dupont, as well as of M. de Mortillet, must have come from that distant locality. In this cavern the humerus of an elephant was discovered, but in M. Dupont's opinion, founded on the state of the bone, it belonged to an earlier period than the other remains. Human bones have been found in several of these caverns. The Trou du Frontal contained bones belong- ing to no less than thirteen individuals. They had probably been buried in the cave, the entrance to which seemed to have bsen purposely closed by a large block of stone. When dis- covered they were in great confusion, having, in the opinion of MM. Dupont and Van Beneden, been disturbed and re- * Notices Preliminaires sur les du Gouvernement Beige dans les Foiiilles ex^cutees sous les auspices Cavernes de la Belgique, 1867. Kent's hole. 295 arranged by water. The form of the cavern, and the fact that the opening was in great measure closed by the above-men- tioned stone, seem to me to speak strongly against this sug- gestion, and I should rather regard the disturbance of the bones as due to foxes and badgers. The Trou de la Naulette contained a very remarkable lower jaw, of w^hich M. Dupont says that " regarde dans la face interne, elle offre une telle proclivity d'arriere en avant de la partie symphysaire qu'on est porte a y voir un prognatisme tout animal. Les apophyses geni ne sont pas indiquees ; les fossettes laterales sont tres- prononcees et le rebord mentonnier est reduit a son minimum. Les alveoles des canines, bien que tres-rapprochees des alve- oles des incisives, et des molaires, nous rappellent la disposi- tion qu'on observe sur la machoire du singe. En eff'et, I'alveole qui logeait la canine est fort vaste et bombee a la face externe. Ce qui semble plus etrange encore, c'est que les trois alveoles des grosses molaires presentent absolument I'ordre typique du maxillaire simien par I'augmentation pro- gressive des alveoles de la premiere a la deuxieme et a la troisieme molaire." The celebrated cavern of Kent's Hole, near Torquay, was examined by Mr. MacEnery as long ago as 1825. He did not, however, publish his notes on the subject, and they remained iu manuscript until 1859, when Mr. Vivian suc- ceeded in obtaining them. Mr. MacEnery found human bones, flint flakes, etc., but all either on the surface or in disturbed soil, so that on the whole he regarded them, though apparently with much doubt, as posterior to the remains of the cave-bear, hycena, etc. In the year 1840, Mr. God win- Austen communicated to the Geological Society a memoir on the Geology of the South- east of Devonshire,* and in his description of Kent's Hole, he says that " human remains and works of art, such as arrow- * Transactions of the Geol. Soc, Ser. 2, vol. vi. p. 433. 296 KENT'S HOLE. heads aiul knives of liiut, occur in all parts of the cave, and throughout tlie entire thickness of the clay : and no distinction founded on condition, distribution or relative position, can be observed, whereby the human can be separated from the other reliquite," whicli included bones of the " elephant, rhinoceros, ox, deer, horse, bear, hytena, and a feline animal of large size." The value, he truly adds, " of such a statement must rest on the care with which a collector may have explored. I must therefore state that my own researches were constantly con- ducted in parts of the cave which had never been disturbed, and in every instance the bones were procured from beneath a thick covering of stalagmite; so far, then, the bones and vrorks of man must have been introduced into the cave before the flooring of stalagmite had been formed." Notwithstanding the high authority of Mr. Godwin-Austen, these statements attracted little attention ; and the very similar assertions made by Mr. Vivian, in a paper read before the Geological Society, were considered so improbable that the memoir con- taining them was not published. They have, however, been completely confirmed by the systematic examination which was instituted by the British Association. Worked flints were found less abundantly in the lower layers than near the surface, but several were dis- covered under cii'cumstances which left no doubt that they were deposited at the same time as the bones of the large mammalia. The researches were carried on by a Committee, consisting of Sir C. Lyell, Mr. Busk, Mr. Evans, Prof. Phillips, :Mr. Yi\dan, Mr Pengelly, and myself, and the work w-as under the more immediate superintendence of Mr. Pengelly and Mr. Vivian. In :May, 1858, Dr. Falconer called the attention of the Geological Society to a newly-discovered cave at Brixham, near Torquay, and a Committee was appointed to assist him in examining it. Grants of money were obtained for the same BEIXIIAM CAVE. 297 object from the Eoyal Society and Miss Burdett Coutts. In addition to Dr. Falconer, Mr. Busk, Mr. Evans, Mr. Pengelly, Mr. Prestwich, and Professor Eamsay, were entrusted with the investigations. In September, 1858, a preliminary notice was published by the Geological Society, but the General Eeport is contained in the Philosophical Transactions for 1874. The deposits in the cave were, in descending order — . 1. Stalagmite of irregular thickness. 2. Ochreous cave-earth with limestone breccia. 3. Ochreous cave-earth with comminuted shale. 4. Bounded gravel. The organic remains belonged chiefly to the following species : — 1 . Ele'^)lias 'priinigcn ius. 2. Bhhioccros ticJiorhinus. Teeth in considerable numbers and an astragalus. 3. Bus 2Jrimigenius. 4. Bos. 5. Equus cabcdlus. 6. Cervus tarandus. The reindeer — skull and horns. 7. Cervus elaphus. Horns. 8. C. caprcolus. 9. ITrsus spelceus — the cave-bear. Lower jaws, teeth, etc. 1 0. ?Z ferox. 11. U. ardos. 12. Hyama spelcea. Lower jaws, teeth, fragments of skulls, and other bones. 13. Fclis spelcea. 14. Lagomys. Several flint flakes were also found indiscriminately mixed with these bones, and, according to all appearance, of the same antiquity. They occurred at various depths, from ten 208 SICILIAN CAVES. inches to eleven feet, and some of them were in the gravel, below the whole of the ochreous cave-earth. Again, in the grotto of Maccagnone, in Sicily, Dr. Falconer found human traces, consisting of ashes and rude flint imple- ments, in a breccia containing bones of the Ekplias antiquus, of the hjiena, of a large Ursm, of a Fclis (probably F. spelcea), and especially with large numbers of bones belonging to the hippopotamus. The " ceneri impastati," or concrete of ashes, had at one time filled the cavern, and a large piece of bone breccia was still cemented to the roof, but owing to some chancre in the drainage, the greater part had been washed out again. The presence of the hippopotamus sufficiently proves that the geographical conditions of the country must have been very different from what they are now ; but I cannot do better than quote Dr. Falconer's own summary of his observations in this case : " The vast number of Hijjpojjotami implied that the physical condition of the country must have been greatly different, at no very distant geological period, from what obtains now. He considered that all deposits ahove the bone breccia had been accumulated up to the roof by materials washed in from above, through sinuous crevices or flues in the limestone, and that the uppermost layer, consisting of the breccia of shells, bone-splinters, siliceous objects, burnt clay, bits of charcoal, and hytena coprolites, had been cemented to the roof by stalagmitic infiltration. The entire condition of the large fragile Helices proved that the effect had been produced by the tranquil agency of water, as distinct from any tumultuous action. There was nothing to indicate that the different objects in the roof breccia were other than of contemporaneous origin : subsequently a great physical alteration in the con- tour, altering the flow of superficial water and of the subter- ranean springs, changed all the conditions previously existing, and emptied out the whole of the loose incoherent contents, GIBRALTAR CAVES. 299 leaving only the portions agglutinated to the roof. The wreck of these ejecta was visible in the patches of ' ceneri impas- tati,' containing fossil bones, below the mouth of the cavern. Tliat a long period must have operated in the extinction of the hysena, cave-lion, and other fossil species is certain, but no index remains for its measurement. The author would call the careful attention of cautious geologists to the infer- ences — that the Maccagnone Cave was filled up to the roof within the human period, so that a thick layer of bone splinters, teeth, landshells, hysenas' coprolites, and human objects, was agglutinated to the roof by the filtration of water holding lime in solution ; that subsequently, and within the human period, such a great amount of change took place in the physical configuration of the district as to have caused the cave to be washed out and emptied of its contents, excepting the patches of material cemented to the roof and since coated with additional stalagmite." Similar proofs of great and recent geographical changes have been afforded by the examination of certain Spanish caves. The Eock of Gibraltar abounds in caverns containing human remains, with stone, bone, and bronze implements, mixed with those of domesticated animals, such as the goat and ox. In the bone breccia from the Genista Cave and fissure, Mr. Busk and Dr. Falconer have discovered Bycuna crocvia, an existing African species, the leopard, lynx, serval and Barbary stag, together with Rh. hemitccchus and a species of ibex. But, although it is more than probable, it does not appear to be proved, that man co-existed with these animals on the Eock of Gibraltar. Among some bones found in another cave near Madrid, M. Lartet has discovered molars of the existing African elephant. M. Lartet* has also described with his usual ability an interesting grotto, or small cave, which was discovered some * Ann. des. Sc. Nat. 1861, p. 177. 300 AURIGNAC. Years ago at Aun'gnac, in the south of France. A peasant named Bonneniaison, seeing a rabbit run into a hole on a steep slope, put his hand in, and to his surprise pulled out a human bone. Curiosity urged him to explore farther, and on removing a quantity of rubbish, he found a large block of stone, which almost closed up the entrance to a small cliamber, in which were no less than seventeen human skeletons. Unfortunately for science, the Mayor of Aurignac, hearing of these discoveries, collected the human bones, had them reburied, and when M. Lartet some years afterwards explored the cavern, they could not be found again. After carefully examining the locality, M. Lartet came to the conclusion that this small cavern had been used as a burial-place, and from the remains of bones broken for marrow, and marks of fire immediately outside the cave, he inferred that funeral feasts had been held there. The following is the list of species determined by M. Lartet, together with the approximate number of individuals belong- ing to each : — Number of individuals. 1. Cawe Bear {U/'sus spelccus) 5 — 6 2. Brown Bear ( U. arctos ?) 1 3. Badger {Mdes taxus) 1 — 2 4. Polecat {Putorius vulgaris) 1 5. Cave Lion {Felis spelcea) 1 6. Wild Cat {F. coius) 1 7. Hyaena {Rymna spelcea) 5 — 6 8. WoU {Canis lupxis) 3 9. Fox {G. vidpes) 18 20 10. Mammoth {Elephas primigenius). Two molars and an astragalus. II- ^^hmoc&TOQ {Bhinoceros tichorhinus) . . 1 ]2. B-OTse {^quus cabalhis) 12 — 15 AURIGNAC. 301 13. Ass ?* {E. asinus) ■ . 1 14. Boar {Sus scrofa). Two incisors. 15. Stag (Cerviis elaphus) 1 16. Irish Elk {Megaceros hibcrnicus) ... 1 17. Roe (C. capreolas) 3 — 4 18. Eeindeer {C. tarandus) 10 — 12 19. Aurochs (Bison Europmiis) 12 — 15 Some of these were found in the grotto, others outside ; the latter had been gnawed by some large carnivorous animal, no doubt the hyasna, coprolites of which were found among the ashes. On the other hand, the bones inside the cave were untouched, from which M. Lartet concludes that after- the funeral feasts, hysenas came and devoured all that had been left by the men, but that they could not effect an entrance into the cave on account of the large block of stone by which the entrance was closed, and which was actually found in its place by Bonnemaison. In addition to the hypena, the animals occurring in this list, and yet no longer existing, or known historically to have existed in France, are the reindeer, cave-bear, rhinoceros, cave-lion, Irish elk, and mammoth. The contemporaneity of the reindeer with man is very evident; all the bones are broken for marrow, and many bear the marks of knives, besides which, the greater number of the bone implements are made out of the bones or horns of this species. That the rhinoceros also was contemporaneous with man is in- ferred by M. Lartet, firstly, on chemical grounds, the bones of this species, as well as those of the reindeer, aurochs, etc. having retained the same amount of nitrogen as the human bones from the same locality ; and secondly, because the bones appear to have been broken by man, and in some cases are marked by knives. Moreover, he has ingeniously * This is, I presume, a small variety of horse, and not the true ass. The query is in the original. 302 AUEIGNAC. |)ointoil out that these bones must have belonged to an iniUvidual recently killed, because, after having been broken by man, they were gnawed by the hysenas, which \ve)uld not have been the case if they had not been fresh and still full of tlieir natural juices. The elephant was represented only by some detached plates of molars and a calcaneura. This latter was the only gnawed bone found in the interior of the grotto. He is of opinion that these plates were purposely separated, and the calcaneum appears to have been placed in the vault at the time of the last interments; but there is no evidence that it was then in a fresh condition. Indeed, the fact of its being gnawed seems rather to point the other way. Eemains of the Ursus sjkIccus (cave-bear) were much more abundant, and some of them were found in the grotto. In one case a whole limb appears to have been buried with the tlesh on, as the different bones were all found together. It is well known that food and drink were in ancient times fre- quently buried with the dead, and M. Lartet thinks that we may account in this manner for the bones of quadrupeds found in the grotto at Aurignac. I have given the particulars of this case at length, because, if the evidence was well established, we should here have an instance of a sepulture belonging to the period at which the cave-bear, the reindeer, the Irish Elk, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, and probably the mammoth, still lived in the south of France. It is, however, much to be regretted that M. Lartet was not present when the place was first examined ; and, under ^all the circum- stances, we cannot, I think, feel satisfied that the human remains found in this cave were coeval with those of the extiact mammalia. Another remarkable case is that of the Hyaena-den at Wokey Hole, near Wells, which has been ably explored and WOKEY HOLE. 303 described by Mr. Boyd Dawkins.* In this instance the cave was filled with lUhris up to the very roof, and it appears that the accumulation of material was partly due to the disin- tegration of the dolomitic conglomerate forming the roof and walls of the cavern, and partly to the sediment washed in gradually by rain and small streams. It is evident that the bones and stones were not brought into the cave by the action of water ; firstly, because none of the bones are at all rolled ; secondly, because, though several rude flint im- plements were found in the cave, only one single lunworlced flint was met with ; and thirdly, because, in some cases, fragments of the same bone have been found close together, while, if they had been brought from a distance, it is almost incredible that they should have been again deposited close to one another. Again, there are several layers — one over the other — of album grgecum, that is to say, the excrement of hyaenas, each of which indicates, of course, an old floor, and a separate period of occupation ; so that the presence of, at least, one such floor above some of the flint implements, proves two things ; firstly, that the hyienas which produced the album grtecum occupied the cave after the savages who used the flint instruments ; and, secondly, that these imple- ments have not been disturbed by water since the period of the hyajna. During the last years of his life, Mr. Christy examined and described, in conjunction with M. Lartet, with great care a number of small caves and rock-shelters in the Dordogne, some of which had already attracted the attention of archieo- logists.f These caves are particularly interesting, because, so far at least as we can judge from the present state of the evidence, the remains found in them belong to M. Lartet's * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. May, + De rOiigine et de I'Enfance 1862, p. 115. des Arts en Perigord. Par M. I'Abbd Audierne. 304 ' CAVES IN THE DORDOGNE. roimloor i>erio(l, ami tend, therefore, to connect the later Stone or Xeolilhic Age with the period of the river-drifts and the great extinct mammalia ; representing a period about which we had previously very little information. Tliose which have been most carefully examined are ten in number, viz. Laugerie, La Madelaine, Les Eyzies, La Gorge d'Enfer, Le Moustier, Liveyre, Pey de I'Aze, Combe-Granal, and Badegoule, most of which I have myself had the advantage of visiting. Some of these, as, for instance, Les Eyzies and Le Moustier, are at a considerable height above the stream, but others — as those at La Madelaine and Laugerie — are little above the present flood-line, showing therefore, that the level of the river is now nearly the same as it was at the period during which these caves were inhabited. The rivers of the Dordogne run in deep valleys cut through calcareous strata ; and while the sides of the valleys in chalk districts are generally sloping, in this case, owing probably to the hardness of the rock, they are often vertical. Small caves and grottos frequently occur ; besides which, as the different strata possess unequal power of resistance against atmospheric influences, the face of the rock is, as it were, scooped out in many places, and thus " rock-shelters " are produced. In very ancient times these caves and rock- shelters were inhabited by men, who have left behind them abundant evidences of their presence. But as civilization advanced, Man, no longer content with the natural but in- convenient abode thus offered to him, excavated chambers for himself, and in places the whole face of the rock is honey- combed with doors and windows leading into suites of rooms, often in tiers one over another, so as to suggest the idea of a French Petra. Down to a comparatively recent period, as, for instance, in the troublous times of the Middle Ages, many of these, no doubt, served as very efficient fortiflca- FAUNA OF THE DORDOGNE CAVES. 305 tioiis, and even now some of them are still in use as store- houses, and for other purposes, as at Brantome, where there is an old chapel cut in the solid rock. Apart from the scientific interest, it was impossible not to enjoy the beauty of the scene which passed before our eyes as we dropped down the Vezere. As the river visited sometimes one side of its valley, sometimes the other, so we had at one moment rich meadow-lands on each side, or found ourselves close to the perpendicular and almost overhanging cliff. Here and there we came upon some picturesque old castle, and though the trees were not in full leaf, the rocks were in many places green with box and ivy and evergreen oak, which harmonized well with the rich yellow brown of the stone itself. But to return to the bone-caves. Eemains of the cave-bear have been found at the Pey de I'Aze of the cave-hyaena at Le Moustier, and separated plates of elephant molars have occurred at Le Moustier and at Laugerie, accompanied at the latter place by a piece of a pelvis. As regards the two first species, MM. Christy and Lartet regard them as probably belonging to an earlier period than the human remains found in the same caves. The presence of the pelvis has been regarded as an evidence of the contemporaneity of the mam- moth with the reindeer hunters of Laugerie, and it is certainly difficult to see why they should have brought a fossil-bone into their cave, more especially as the bones of elephants, from the looseness of their texture, are not well adapted for implements. As regards the Felis spelma, a metacarpal bone belonging probably to this species, and bearing marks of knives, was found in the cave of Les Eyzies. Still, so far as the positive zoological evidence is concerned, the antiquity of the human remains found in these grottos rests mainly on the presence of the reindeer, as regards which the evidence is conclusive. The bones of this species U 306 ABSENCE OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. lire all broken open for the marrow ; many of them liear tlie marks of knives, and at Les Eyzies a vertebra was found which had been pierced by a flint flake. MM. Christy and l.artet are quite satisfied that this bone must have been fresh when it was thus transfixed. Moreover, as we shall presently see there is still more conclusive evidence that man and the reindeer were contemporaneous in this locality. But in its negative aspect the zoological evidence is also very instructive. No remains have been found which, in the opinion of M]\I. Christy and Lartet,cau be referred to domestic animals. It is true that bones of the ox and horse occur, but there is no evidence that they belonged to domesticated individuals. Eemains of the boar are very rare, and if these animals had been domesticated we might have expected to find them in greater abundance. The sheep and goat are entirely wanting, and, wdiat is still more remarkable, even the dog appears to be absent. At the same time the bones of the horse and reindeer, especially of the latter, are very numerous ; but j\IM. Christy and Lartet do not think that they were domesticated. On the other hand, AI. Elitimeyer seems to be of a different opinion.* Of the bones from the cave of Veyrier he has drawn out the following list : Ptarmigan 31 individuals, reindeer 18, ibex 6, horse 5, stag 4, mountain hare 4, marmot 4, chamois 1, wolf 1, bear 1, ox 1, fox 1, stork 1. He points out that this is decidedly an Alpine fauna, and he asks why, if the reindeer were wild, they did not retire into the high Alps with the bear, the ibex and the chamois ? The condition of the bones, and especially of the horns, will enable us some day to answer this question, but we have at present no case in which the reindeer and the horse are held in domestication together by the same race, and we must be satisfied to wait for further evidence before the question can be decided. * Eevi;e Savoisienne, 25tli April, 1868. FLINT IMPLEMENTS FOUND IN CAVES. 307 In the collections made by MM. Christy and Lartet, as well as that of M. Le Vicouite de Lastic from Bruniiquel, a very lnrge proportion of the animal remains consists of teeth, lower jaws, and horns. Other bones do indeed occur, but they form a small fraction of the whole. Yet we canno attribute this to the presence of dogs, partly because no remains of this species have yet been discovered, partly because the bones which remain have not been gnawed, but principally because dogs eat only certain bones and parts of bones, as a general rule selecting the spongy portions, and rejecting the solid shafts. Mr. Galton has pointed out that some of the savage tribes of Africa, not content with the flesh of the animals which they kill, pound up also the bones in mortars, and then suck out the animal juices contained in them. So also, according to Leems, the Danish Laplanders used to break up with a mallet all the bones which contained any fat or marrow, and then boil them until all the fat was extracted.* The Esqui- maux also mash up the bones for the sake of the marrow con- tained in them.-f Some of the ancient stone hammers and mortars were no doubt used for this purpose, and the pro- portions of the different bones afford us, I think, indirect evidence that a similar custom prevailed among the ancient inhabitants of Southern France. Passing on now to the flint implements found in these caves, we must first call attention to their marvellous abun- dance. Without any exaggeration they may be said to be innumerable. Of course this adds greatly to the value of the conclusions ; nor need it surprise us, because flint is so brittle, that implements made of it must have been easily * Account of Danish Lapland, t Hall, Life with the Esquimaux , by Leems, Copenhagen, 1767. vol. ii. pp. 147, 176. Translated in Pinkerton's Voyages, vol. i. p. 396. ■ :?0S FLAKES. yCKAPERS. AWLS, ETC. ln-.tkea, ;iiul, in that case, the fragments would be thrown away as useless ; especially in a chalk district where the supply of iliut would, of course, be practically inexhaustible. Many implements, no doubt, would be left unfinished, having been rendered useless, either by some misdirected blow, or some Haw in the flint. Moreover, we should naturally expect tliat, in a bone-breccia of this nature, the flint implements would be relatively more abundant than in a Kjr>kkenmodd- ing. Each oyster furnishes but a single mouthful, so that the edible portions evidently form a greater proportion of the whole in the mammalia than iu the mollusca. The Kjukkenmuddings, therefore, would grow, ccderis paribus, more rapidly than the bone-breccia ; and supposing the flint implements to be equally numerous in both cases, they would, of course, be more sparingly distributed in the former than in the latter. The principal objects of stone found in the bone-caves which we are now considering, are flakes, both simple and worked, scrapers, cores, awls, lance-heads, cutters, hammers, and mortar-stones. The simple and worked tiakes are, of course, very numerous, but they do not call for any special observations. They present the usual varieties of size and form. Though less numerous than the flakes, the scrapers* are still very abundant. On the whole they seem to me longer and narrower than the usual Danish type. Some of them were probably intended to be used in the hand, as both ends are fashioned for scraping. They may be called double- scrapers. Others were apparently fixed in handles, as the end opposite to the scraper is broken, sometimes on one side, sometimes on both, so as to form a tapering extremity, which may have been fixed in a handle either of wood, bone, or horn. Many of the flakes are also nipped off at one end, in * See ante, pp. 89, 90. J'LATt. A A. ///.] FLINT nn'LKMHXTS. [p. 309. 188 189 190 191 For description of figures vide p. xxix. HAMMERS. LANCE-HEADS. 309 tlie same manner. Perhaps, as no trace of such a handle has yet been discovered by MM. Christy and Lartet, wood was the material used for this purpose. Of course, where there was a manufactory of flint flakes, the cores or nuclei, from which they were struck, must also be present. I was, however, astonished at the number of them in these caves ; during my short visit, I myself picked out more than ninety. Awls and saws are very much less frequent, but some few good specimens have been found. At some of the stations, curious flat implements (fig. 188) are met with. From the constancy of their form, which, moreover, is somewhat pecu- liar, we may safely infer that they were applied to some definite purpose. For hammers, the reindeer hunters seem to have used round stones, a good many of which occur in the caves, and which bear unmistakable marks of the purpose to which they were applied. Some of them, however, may have served also as heaters. The North American Indians, the Esquimaux, and some other savages, having no pottery, but only wooden vessels, which could not be put on the fire, used to heat stones, and then place them in the water which they wished to boil. Many of the stones found in these caverns appear to have been used in this manner, firstly from their position on the lower terraces, and secondly from the character of the implements. These, the commonest sorts of flint implements, are found indiscriminately in all the grottos, but there are some other types which appear to be less generally distributed. Thus, at Laugerie and Badegoule, fragments of leaf-shaped lance- heads, almost as well worked as some of those from Den- mark, are far from uncommon. If, therefore, we were to attempt any classification of the grottos, according to the periods of their occupation, we might be disposed to refer these to a somewhat later period than most of the others. 3Ul ARyENCE OF I'OLlslIKD IMPLEMENTS. Ou the contrary, to judge from the Hint implements, the station at Le Moustier would be the most ancient. Though it would perhaps be premature to attempt any such classifica- tion, there can be no doubt that Le Moustier presents some types not yet found in the other caves, and resembling in certain respects those of the drift. One of these peculiar forms has one side left unchipped, and apparently intended to be held in the hand, while the other has a cutting edge, produced by a number of small blows. Some of these instruments are of large size, and they are supposed by MM. Christy and Lartet to have been used for cutting wood, and perhaps also the large bones of mammalia. Another very interesting type is figured on Plate XXYIII. (figs. 189-191). This specimen is worked on both sides, but more frequently one of them is left fiat. MM. Christy and Lartet regard this type as identical with the '' lance- head " implements found in the drift. I cannot altogether agree with them in this comparison. Not only are the Le Moustier specimens smaller, but the workmanship is differ- ent, being much less bold. Moreover, the flat surface (fig. 189a) is no individual peculiarity. It is very frequently, not to say generally, present, and occurs also on the similar implement found by Mr, Boyd Dawkins in the Hycena-den at Wokey Hole, and figured by him in the Geological Journal, May, 1862, No. 70, p. 119. This very interesting type seems rather to be derived from the " cutters " above described, at the same time its resemblance to the drift forms is certainly great. MM. Christy and Lartet, indeed, call the implements of this type " lance-heads " ; but it may well be doubted whether they were intended for use in this manner, though there are other specimens at Le Moustier which have all the appearance of having been intended for this purpose. On the whole, then, although these Le Moustier types are of great interest, we must pause before BONE IMPLEMENTS. 311 we regard them as belonging to the drift forms. No polished implements have yet been found in any of these caverns. The station at Moustier has not as yet produced any im- plements made of bone, but a good many have been obtained from the other caves. " They consist of square chisel-shaped implements ; round, sharply-pointed, awl-like tools, some of which also may have served as the spike of a fish hook ; harpoon-shaped lance-heads ; plain or barbed arrow-heads with many and double barbs, cut with wonderful vigour; and lastly, eyed needles of compact bone finely pointed, polished, and drilled with round eyes, so small and regular that some of the most assured and acute believers in all the other findings might well doubt whether they could indeed have been drilled with stone, until their repetition by the hand of that practical and conscientious observer, Monsieur Fig. 192. Drawing of a Fish. Lartet, by the very stone implements found with them, has dispelled their honest doubts."* Moreover, we must re- member that the New Zealanders were able with their stone tools to drill holes even through glass.f No pottery has yet been found in these caves. So far, then (with the exception, perhaps, of the well-worked lance-heads of Laugerie and Badegoule), all the evidence we have yet obtained from these caves points to a very primitive period, earlier even than that of the first Swiss lake villages, or Danish shell-mounds. But there is one class of objects in these caves which, taken alone, might have led us to a very different conclusion. No * Christy, Trans. Etlui. Soc, N.S. vol. iii. t Cook's First Voyage, p. 464. •M'l RErEESENTATIONS OF ANIMALS. Fig. 193. u-prcsem;uion, however rude, of any animal has yet been found in any of the Panish shell-mounds, or the Stone Age lake villaiies. Even on objects of the Bronze Age they are so rare that it is doubtful whether a single well-authenticated instance could bo produced. Yet in these archaic bone-caves, many very fair sketches have been found, scratched on bone or stone with a sharp point, probably of a flint implement. In some cases there is even an attempt at shading. In the Annnles des Sciences Naturelles,* M. Lartet had already made known to us some rude drawings found in the cave of SaNagnejand in his last memoir he has described and fig- ured some more objects of a similar character. In the Dordogne caves also, several of ____ these remarkable draw- Drawing (.f an Ibex. jngs have been disco- vered, under circumstances which seem to guarantee their authenticity. Fig. 192 represents a cylindrical piece of rein- deer's horn, found at La Madelaine, and on which are carved two outlines of fishes, one on each side. Fig. 193 is the piece of the palm of a reindeer's horn, on which is represented the head and chest of an ibex. Fig. 194 represents a very curious group, consisting of a snake, or rather eel, a human figure, and two horses' heads. Fig. 195 is a spirited group of rein- deer, and fig. 197 is considered to represent a mammoth ; it was found at La Madelaine, and the engraving was for some time unnoticed, as it is rather faint and obscured by numerous scratches. It is on a piece of a mammoth's tusk, and indica- tions of long hair will readily be perceived. * Ann. des Sc. Nat. 1861, vol. xv. PLATE XXIX.] KNCIKAVING OF A MAiMMOTH. [/'. 312 197 SCULnURE. 313 In one case there is an unmistakable representation of a glove, or rather gauntlet. Another interesting specimen is a poniard, cut out of a reindeer's horn (fig. 196). The horns are thrown back on the neck, the fore-legs are doubled Fig. 194. Group of Figures. up under the belly, and the hindlegs are stretched out along the blade. Unfortunately, the poniard seems to have been thrown away before it was quite finished, but several of the Fig. 195. Group of lleiudeer. details indicate that the animal was intended for a reindeer. Messrs. Dawkins and Miall have also found an engraving aits, however, they are more advanced in this respect. Various kinds of pigments, feathers, shells, imple- ments, and especially flints, are the principal articles of barter. The Australians observed by Cook, Dampier and Flinders, were entirely destitute of clothing, and their principal orna- ment consisted of a bone, five or six inches long, and half an inch thick, thrust through the cartilage of the nose. They did not tattoo. On the north-west coast. King observed some of tlie natives with a very peculiar decoration. At every three inches between the upper part of the chest and the navel, the body was scarified in horizontal bands, the cicatrices of which were at least an inch in diameter, and raised half an inch from the body.* Some of them fastened to their hair by means of gum, teeth of kangaroos or of men, dogs' tails, fish-bones, bits of wood, and other objects which they regarded as ornamental. Sometimes they wore pieces of opossum or kangaroo skin — not for decency, but for warmth, and, while hunting, as a protection from thorns. According to D'Urville, however, the natives of New South Wales did not think it decent that young children should go quite naked.-j- M'Gil- livray also mentions a very similar idea at Moreton Bay. In many parts of Australia the natives also paint themselves, red and white being the favourite, or at least the commonest colours. The red is laid on in broad patches, the white gener- ally in stripes or spots, a circle often being drawn round each eye. Some tribes, but not all, tattoo themselves on the back and breast in rows, rings, and semicircles. Among the females on the Murray, the only ceremony of importance with which Eyre was acquainted was that of scarring the back. Eyre indeed calls it tattooing, but " crimping" would, I think, be a more correct expression. Tt takes place at the age of puberty, and is extremely painful. The young woman kneels * 1. c. p. 42. t Voyage de I'Astralabe, vol. L p. 471. INITIATION CEREMONIES. GAMES. SUPERSTITION, 427 down and places her head between the knees of a strong old woman, and the operator, who is always a man, cuts the bark with a piece of shell or flint in rows of long, deep gashes from left to right quite across the back, and completely up to the shoulders. The whole scene is most revolting : the blood gushes out in torrents, and saturates the ground, while the cries of the poor victim gradually rise into screams of agony. Still the girls submit voluntarily, as a well-carved back is much admired. The lads also generally have to undergo a ceremony of initiation before they are permitted to rank as men. This sometimes consists in circumcision,* sometimes in another almost incredible ceremonial ,-|- or frequently in punching out one of the front teeth. Other tribes have pecu- liar and distinctive incisions, such as scars running across the chest, circles on the shoulders, or various combinations of small dots. The severe sufferings they inflict on themselves are very remarkable. In the Adelaide district, according to Mr. Moorhouse, there are five distinct stages of initiation, before the native is admitted to all the privileges of a man. Their rules and ceremonies are very elaborate, and are conducted by the elder men, but they cannot be said to have any form of government, nor have any distinctions of rank, or recog- nized chiefs, ever been found amongst them. The children have a game with string something like our cat's-cradle, but their principal amusements consist in learn- ing to hunt, fish, etc. The elder people are fond of dances, which may be divided into war-dances, hunting-dances, and love-dances, — the two latter being most common. These generally take place when tribes meet, and are held at night. Their songs are rude, with simple and generally extempore words. * Eyre, vol. ii. p. 332. - t Finditur usf|ne ad urethram a parte infera penis. 428 MODES OF BURIAL. LANGUAGES. They Imve no systematized religion, nor any woisliip or prayer ; but most of them have an indistinct dread of evil beings, which, though mysterious, cannot, I think, be said to be regarded as supernatural. They all have a great fear of the dark, and of witchcraft. In fact, they believe that no one ever dies a natural death. Captain Wilkes* describes an Australian funeral as follows. Almost immediately after death the corpse was arranged in a sitting posture, the knees bent up close to the body, the head pressed forwards, and the whole body closely tied up in a blanket. An oval grave was then dug, about six feet long, three wide and five deep. At the bottom was a bed of leaves, covered w^ith an opossum-skin cloak, and with a stuffed bag of kangaroo-skin for a pillow ; on this the body was laid with its implements and weapons. Above the corpse were strewn leaves and branches, and the hole was then filled up with stones. Finally, the earth which iiad been removed was put over the whole, making a mound eight or nine feet high. According to D'Urville, the natives of New South Wales bury the young, and burn the old.-j- Other tribes dispose of their dead in other ways ; but none of them were addicted to can- nibalism as a matter of habit or choice, although they were not unfrequently driven to it by the scarcity of other food, and sometimes ate portions of enemies whom they had slain. No single fact, perhaps, gives us a more vivid idea of the low condition of these miserable savages, than the observation that they have no numerals enabling them to count their own fingers — not even those of one hand. Mr. Crawfurd| has examined the numerals of thirty Australian languages, " and in no instance do they appear to go beyond the number four." Mr. Scott Nind, indeed, has given an account of the * ]. c.vol.ii. p. 195 ; Fitzroy, I.e. J Transactions of Ellin. Soc, vol. ii. p. 628. Kew Series, vol. ii, p. 84. t Vol. i. p. 472. MARRIAGE. 429 Australians of King George's Sound, to which a vocabulary is annexed, containing the numerals, which are made to reach the number five. The term for this last unit, however, turns out to be only the word " many." In fact, the word " five " is used by them to express the idea of a great number, just as a " thousand " sometimes is by us. Their language, moreover, contains " no generic terms, as tree, fish, birds, etc., but only specific ones, as applied to each particular variety." * Though they are apparently fond of their children, even Eyre admits that there is little affection between husband and wife. " After a long absence," he says, " I have seen natives iipon their return, go to their camp, exhibiting the most stoical indifference, never take the least notice of their wives, but sit down, and act and look as if they had never been out of the encampment." f Women, in fact, are regarded as mere pro- perty. " No one," says E}Te, " ever attempts to take the part of a female." J Beauty only makes matters worse. " The early life," says Captain Grey, " of a young woman at all celebrated for beauty is generally one continued series of captivity to different masters, of ghastly wounds, rapid flights, and bad treatment from other females " § jealous of her superior attractions. Few women in Australia, it is said, live to thirty. Yet with all this lawlessness and tyranny, marriage is regulated by certain very curious prohibitions. Thus a man may steal another man's wife if he can, but, as already mentioned, he may not under any circumstances marry a woman of the same clan, even though not related in the remotest degree. There are certain great families, such as the Ballaroke, Tdondarup, Ngotak, Nagarnook, Nogonyuk, Mongalmy, and Narrangur, which occur over a gi'eat portion of the continent, and within which marriage is not per- * Eyre, vol. ii. p. 392. t 1. c. vol. ii. p. 387. t 1. c. pp. 2, 215. See also p. 320. § 1. c. vol. ii. p. 249. 430 THE TASMANIANS. luitted. * Every tribe is divided into clans, and that lio man may marry a woman belonging to his own clan. On the other hand, in one sense every man is regarded as a husband of every wonuui belonging to any clan into which he may let^ally marry. These " communal marriages," however, as I have elsewhere proposed to call them, are often more or less theoretical, and a man has also his own special wife or wives, but even as regards thera other men have certain cmiously regulated rights.f There are many other cases of prohibitions; "indeed," says Mr. Lang, J "instead of enjoying perfect per- sonal freedom, as it would at first appear, they are governed by a code of rules and a set of customs which form one of the most cruel tyrannies that has ever, perhaps, existed on the face of the earth, subjecting not only the will, but the property and life of the weak to the dominion of the strong. The whole tendency of the system is to give everything to the strong and old, to the prejudice of the weak and young, and more particularly to the detriment of the women. They have rules by which the best food, the best pieces, the best animals, etc., are prohibited to the women and young men, and reserved for the old. The women are generally appro- priated to the old and powerful, some of whom possess from four to seven wives; while wives are altogether denied to young men, unless they have sisters to give in exchange, and are strong and courageous enough to prevent their sisters from being taken without exchange." They have also very long and elaborate ceremonies. § The Tasvianians. The inhabitants of Van Dieman's Land belonged to quite a * Eyre, vol. ii. jx 329. For fur- % The Aborigines of Australia, ther particulars, see my " Origin of G. S. Lang, p. 7. Civilisation." § Silencer and Gillen, Xative t Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 272. Tribes of Central Australia, p. 62. THE TASMANIANS. 431 different race, but were just as wretched as those of Australia. According to Captain Cook's account, they had no houses, no clothes, no canoes, no instrument to catch large fish, no nets, no hooks ; they lived on mussels, cockles, and periwinkles, and their only weapon was a straight pole, sharpened at one end.* Mr, Dove informs us that they are entirely without any " mural views and impressions." Indeed, he scarcely appears to regard them as rational beings, j- Milligan states that they believed in the existence of a number of mischievous spirits who lived in caverns, or the dark recesses of the forest; and that after death their spirits went to England. Dr. Nixon, the first Bishop of Tasmania made careful en- quiries on the subject, and came to the conclusion that " No trace can be found of the existence of any religious usage, or even sentiment among them." I Like the Australians they have no means of expressing abstract ideas; they have not even a word for a "tree." Although fire was. well known to them, some tribes, at least, appear to have been ignorant whence it was originally obtained, or how, if extinguished, it could be re-lighted. "In all their wanderings," says Mr. Dove, " they were particularly careful to bear in their hands the materials for kindling a fire. Their memory supplies them with no instances of a period in which they were obliged to draw on their inventive powers for the means of resuscitating an element so essential to their health and comfort as flame. How it came originally into their possession is unknown. Whether it may be viewed as a gift of nature, or the product of art and sagacity, they cannot recollect a period when it was a desideratum. ... It was the part of the females especially to cany a firebrand in their hands, which was studiously re- * Third Voyage, vol. i. p. 100. of the Tasmanians, p. 166 ; H. t Tasmanian Jour, of Nat. Sci., Ling Roth, The Tasmanians, p. vol. i. p. 249. 66, J See also Bonwick, Daily i.ife 432 FIJI ISLANDERS. freshed from timo to time as it became dull and evanescent." * Fig. 224 re]nvsoiits a pair of Tasmauiau firesticks, presented to me by ^Ir. liobiiison. The Tasmaniaus did not use either the boomerang or the throwing stick, f Fiji Islanders. The islands of the Pacific contain two very distinct races of men — the Negrito and the Polynesian. My space does not permit me to enter into the interesting question of their relationships and affinities. The Fijiaus belong to the former category, though probably with some infusion of Polynesian blood, and in many respects resemble Negroes. They are darker than the Polynesians. The jaws are larger, and the hair, though not exactly woolly, is frizzled. They are a powerful race, but not so graceful as the Polynesians. Their language is, however, more Polynesian than Negrito. Their institutions, customs, and manners were partly Polynesian, partly Negrito. % It is remarkable that they did not use the consonants " b," " d," or " g," with- out placing " m " or " n " before them, as for instance, Mbau, Nduandua, Ngata. It is well known how frequent these sounds are in Negro names. The food of the Fiji Islanders consisted of fish, turtle, shell- fish, crabs, human flesh whenever it could be obtained, taro, yams, mandrai, bananas, and cocoa-nuts ; in addition to which, the higher classes occasionally indulged in pigs and fowls. They drank ava habitually, and at all their ceremonies. Their weapons consisted of spears, slings, clubs, bows and arrows. The s^sears were from ten to fifteen feet loug, and were generally made of cocoa-nut wood ; the end was pointed * Tasmanian Jonnial of Nat. J Latham, Varieties of Man, Sd., vol. i. p. 250. p. 226. t Bonwick, Daily Life of the Tasinanians, p. 43. • " FIJI ISLANDERS. 433 and charred ; sometimes, though not often, a sharp bone was used for the point. They had several kinds of chibs, all made of iron wood. That most esteemed was about three feet long, with a heavy knob at the end. Another kind was somewhat shovel-shaped, and might rather be called a short sword. The tda was a short heavy club, about eighteen inches long, with a large and heavy knob. It was used as a missile, and the natives threw it with great accuracy and force. These were their principal weapons, the bows and arrows being weak and light. They were, however, used in war, as well as in killing fish. The fortified towns of the Fijians had an earthen " ram- part, about six feet thick, faced with large stones, surmounted by a reed fence of cocoa-nut trunks, and surrounded by a muddy moat." * Their houses were oblong, from twenty to thirty feet long, and fifteen feet high. They were znade of cocoa-nut wood and tree fern, and were sometimes very well built. They had two doorways on opposite sides, from three to four feet high and four feet wide. The sides were made of posts about three feet apart, and filled in with wicker work. The roof had a steep pitch ; the rafters were generally of palm wood, thatched with wild sugar-cane, under which they placed fern leaves. A mat served as a door, and a few flat stones near the middle of the house served as the fire-place. The houses were seldom divided by partitions, but the two ends were raised about a foot, and were covered with layers of mats on which the natives slept. Their temples were pyramidal in form, and were often erected on terraced mounds, like those of Central America.f They also venerated certain upright stones,j resembling those wbich we call Druidical. " The Feegeeans," says Mr. Hazle- * Williams, Figi and the Figians, % Figi and the Figians, vol. i. p. vol i. p. 48. 220. t B. Seemann, in the Vacation Tourist for 1861, p. 269. 2e 434 CANOES. POTTERY. wood, " consider the gods as beings of like passions with tliem- selves. They love and hate ; they are proud and revengeful, and make war, and kill and eat each other ; and are, in fact, savages and cannibals like themselves." " Cruelty," says Captain Erskine,* " a craving for blood, and especially for human flesh as food, are characteristic of the gods." Yet the Fijians looked upon the Samoans with horror, regarding them as having no religion, because they had no belief in any such deities, nor any of the sanguinary rites which prevailed in other islands. The Fiji canoes were large and well constructed. They were generally double, of unequal size, the smaller one serving as an outrigger. The larger ones were sometimes more than a hundred feet in length. The two canoes were connected by a platform, generally about fifteen feet wide, and projecting two or tlu'ee feet beyond the sides. The bottom of each con- sisted of a single plank ; the sides were fitted by dovetailing, and closely united Ijv lashings passed through flanges left on each of the pieces. The joints were closed by the gum of the bread-fruit tree. The sails were large and made of mats. The mast was generally about half the length of the canoe, and the yard and boom usually twice as long as the mast. Their principal tool was an adze, formerly of stone, but now generally of ii'on. For boring holes they used the long spines of the echina, pointed bones, and, when they could get them, nails. Small teeth, such as those of rats and mice, were used for carving ; and their knives were made of the outside of a piece of bamboo, shaped into form while green. After being dried, it was charred, and thus became very hard and sharp, so that it might even be used in surgical operations. They differed from the Polynesians in using earthenware pots for cooking. These were graceful and well made, though the potter's-wheel was unknown. The ^Dottery was all made by * Journal of a Cruise in the "Western Pacific, p. 247. GAMES. AGRICULTURE. 435 women. Their tools were very simple, consisting of a small round flat stone to fashion the inside, and a flat mallet or spatula for the surface, which they made almost as round as if it had been turned in a lathe. Forks appear to have been long in vise among the Fijians ; a remarkable fact, if we remember tliat they were unknown in Northern Europe until the seventeenth century. The Fijians have several kinds of games. They are fond of swinging, and of throwing stones or fruits at a mark. They have also a game resembling skittles. Their dances, like those of so many other nations, are anything but decorous. Their musical instruments are the conch-shell, the nose-flute, pipes, a Jew's-harp made of a strip of bamboo, and several sorts of drums. They are also fond of poetry. Their agricultural implements have been described by Mr. Williams. The digging-sticks are made of a young mangrove- tree. They are about the size of an ordinary hay- fork, and the lower end "is tapered off on one side, after the shape of a quill toothpick. In digging, this flattened side is kept downwards. When preparing a piece of ground for yams, a number of men are employed, divided into groups of three or four. Each man being furnished with a digging-stick, they drive them into the ground so as to enclose a circle of about two feet in diameter. When, by repeated strokes, the sticks reach the depth of eighteen inches, they are used as levers, and the mass of soil between them is thus loosened and raised." * The clods are then broken up by boys with short sticks. Weeding " is accomplished by means of a tool used like a Dutch hoe, the workman squatting so as to bring the handle nearly level with the ground. The blade used formerly to be made of a bone from the back of a turtle, or a plate of tortoise-shell, or the valve of a large oyster, or large kind of pinna. In the Windward Islands they use a large dibble, * Figi and tlie Figians, vol. i. p. C3. 436 " WOMEN. DRESS. eiglit feet long, alidut eighteen inclies in circumference, and tapering to a ])uint. They had also pruning knives of" tortoise-shell lashed to the end of a rod ten feet long. They are skilful in basket-making, and have good strong nets made of creepers or of siuiiet. The women are kept in great sulijection. " The men fre- quently tie them up and Hog them. Like other property, wives might be sold at pleasure, and the usual price is a musket. Those who purchase them may do with them as they please, even to knocking them on the head." Erskiue, however, gives a more satisfactory account of the position held by the women ; and it appears that they are on the whole more chaste than is the case in some of the other Pacific Islands, which is saying something for them, but certainly not much. Although so lax in some things, they ^ere very strict in otliers, and it was thought improper in some of these islands for husband and wife to spend the night under the same roof. Although but scantily clothed, the Fijians were very par- ticular about their garments and their paint. They were specially proud of their hair, and if it was short they wore a wv^ as a substitute. Some of these wigs were most elaborate. The men wore " tapa," winch is a kind of cloth obtained from the inner bark of the paper-mulberry, and made into a sash, from three to one hundred yards in length. Six or ten yards is, however, the usual quantity, and it is passed between the legs and round the waist.* The women are not permitted to use " tapa," and their dress is more scanty than that of the men, consisting, indeed, only of the " liku," a kind of band, made of the bark of the hibiscus, and fastened round the waist. It ends in a fringe, which is w^orn short by the girls, but longer after marriage. Nevertheless, though almost naked, the Fijians are said to have been very modest, and if any one * Figi and the Figians, vol. i. p. 156. TATTOOING. BURIAL CUSTOMS. PARRICIDE. 4.37 were found entirely without clothes, Captain Wilkes thinks that the offender would be immediately put to death. Tattooing is confined to the women, wlio are ornamented in this manner on the fingers, the corners of the mouth, and, oddly enough, on those parts of the body which are covered by the " liku." The process is very painful, but submission to it is regarded as a religious duty,* any neglect of which will assuredly be punished after death.-j- The graves of the common people are only marked by a few stones, but over those of chiefs they build small houses, from two to six feet high, or in some cases erect large cairns of stone ; these also are sometimes " set up to mark the spot where a man has died." I The body is buried in a sitting posture. The usual sign of mourning is to crop the hair or beard, or both. Very often, also, they burn the skin into blisters, and cut off the end-joints of the small toe and little finger. Among the Fijians, parricide is not a crime but a custom. Tliey believe that " as they die, such will be their condition in the next world." Moreover, the road to Mbulu is long and difficult. Hence it would be cruel to allow a beloved relative to become old and infirm. We are assured that so deeply rooted was this conviction, that as a matter of fact parents were generally killed by their children. Sometimes the aged people make up their minds that it is time to die ; sometimes it is the children who give notice to their parents that they are a burden to them. In either case, the friends and relatives are summoned, a consultation takes place, and a day is fixed for the ceremony, which commences with a great feast. The missionaries have often witnessed these horrible tragedies. On one occasion, a young man invited Mr. Hunt * Figi and the Figians, vol. i. X Figi and the Figians, vol. i. p. 160; Wilkes, I. c. p. 355. p. 192. t A Mission to Viti, p. 112. 438 HORRIBLE RITES. lo atti'iul his mother's funeral, which was just going to take ])laco. Mr. Hunt accepted the invitation; but wlien the funeral procession started, he was surprised to see no corpse, and acct'rdingly made enquiries, when the young savage " pointed out his mother,* who was walking along with them as gay and lively as any of them present, and apparently as much pleased. ... He added that it was from love for his mother that he had done so ; that in consequence of the same love, they were now going to bury her, and that none but themselves could or ought to do so sacred an office. . . . She was their mother, and they were her children, and they ought to put her to death." In such cases, the grave is dug about four feet deep, the relatives and friends begin their lamenta- tions, take an affectionate parting, and bury the poor victim alive. It is surprising after this to hear that Mr. Hunt regarded the Fijians as being kind and affectionate to their parents ; but in fact " they consider this custom so gi'eat a proof of affection, that none but children could be found to perform it." So general in fact w"as this custom, so powerful the influence which it had upon them, that in one town, containing several hundred inhabitants, Capt. Wilkes did not see one man over forty years of age ; and, on asking for the old people, he was informed that they were all buried. Again, during the first year of Mr, Hunt's residence at Somo-somo, there was only one instance of natural death, all the aged and diseased ha^dng been strangled or buried alive. "V\Tien a chief died, it was usual to " send with him " some of his women and some slaves. At tlie death of Ngavindi, Mr. Calvert went to Mbau, hoping " to prevent the strangling of women, but was too late. Three had been murdered. Thakombau proposed to strangle his sister, the chief wife of the deceased, as was the usual custom ; but the Lasakau people begged that she might be spared, and that her child * Wilkes, 1. c. p. 95. HORRIBLE RITES. 439 might become their chief. Ngavindi's mother offered herself as a substitute, and was strangled. The dead chief lay in state, with a dead wife by his side, on a raised platform ; the corpse of his mother on a bier at his feet, and a murdered servant on a mat in the midst of the house. A large grave was dug in the foundation of a house near by, in which the servant was laid first, and upon her the other three corpses, wrapped and wound up together." * In these cases the wives generally die voluntarily, believing that thus only can they hope to go to heaven. Horrible as are these facts, they at least show how strong must be the belief felt in a future state of existence. Still, though we may allow the goodness of the motive to extenuate some of these atrocities, it must be allowed that human life was but little regarded in Fiji. Not only infan- ticide, but also human sacrifices, were very common, and, in fact, scarcely anything was undertaken without the latter. "When the king launched a canoe, ten or more men were slaughtered on the deck, in order that it might be washed with human blood. But there is even worse to be told. The Fijiaus were most inveterate cannibals, and so fond were they of human flesh, that " the greatest praise they can bestow on any delicacy is to say that it is as tender as a dead man." Nay, they were even so fastidious as to dislike the taste of white men,-|- to prefer the flesh of women to that of men, and to consider the arm above the elbow and the thigh as the best joints ; and so greedy, that human flesh was reserved for the men, being considered too good to be wasted upon the w"omen. When the king gave a feast, human flesh always formed one of the dishes, and though the bodies of enemies slain in battle were always eaten, they did not afford a *Figi and the Figians, vol. ii. t So also did tlie Australians, p. 301. the Tongans, and the New Zea- landers. 440 CANNIBALISM. suflicieut supply, but slaves were fattened up for the market. Sometimes they roasted them alive and ate them at once, while at others they kept bodies until tliey were far gone in decay, lia Undre-undre, Chief of Eakiraki, was said to have eaten nine hundi-ed persons himself, permitting no one to share them with him.* It was not from any want of food that the Fijians were cannibals. On one occasion they offered to the God of War " ten thousand yams (weighing from six to twelve pounds each), thirty turtles, forty roots of yaquona (some very large), many hundreds of native puddings (two tons), one hundred and fifty giant oysters, fifteen water-melons, cocoa-nuts, a large number of violet land-crabs, taro, and ripe bananas."-)- At a public feast Mr. Williams once saw " two huncbed men employed for nearly six hom's in collecting and piling cooked food. There were six mounds of yams, taro, vakalolo, pigs, and turtles : these contained about fifty tons of cooked yams and taro, fifteen tons of sweet pudding, seventy turtles, five cartloads of yaquona, and about two hundred tons of uncooked yams. One pudding, at a Lakemba feast, measm^ed twenty- one feet in circumference." Yet so habitual has cannibalism become, that they have no word for a corpse which does not include the idea of something edible. Human flesh is known as " puaka balava," or " long pig." | " On contemplating the character of this extraordinary people," says Erskine,§ " the mind is struck with wonder and awe at the mixture of a complicated and carefully-conducted political system, highly finished manners, and ceremonious politeness, with a ferocity * Figi and tlie Figians, vol. i. to this fheir principal qiiadruped : p. 213. tliiLs the horse was called the " man- + Ibid., vol. i. p. 44, carrying pig " in Tahiti ; the sheep J Erskine, 1. c. p. 260. Other was the " hog with teeth on its fore- mammalia, when introduced into head " (Forster, 1. c. p. 384). the South Sea Islands, received § Erskine, 1. c. p. 272. names indicative of their similarity CHARACTER OF THE FIJIANS, 441 and practice of savage vices which is prohably unparalleled in any other part of the world." " Murder," says Mr. Williams, " is not an occasional thing in Figi, but habitual, systematic, and classed among ordinary transactions."* Elsewhere he tells us that no Fijian ever feels safe with a stranger at his heels,-}- and that to be "an acknowledged murderer is the object of the Figian's restless ambition." I On the island of Vanua Levu, even among the women, there were " few who had not in some way been murderers." § To this they are trained up from infancy. " One of the first lessons taught the infant is to strike its mother." At Somo-somo, Mr. Williams saw mothers leading their children " to kick and tread upon the dead bodies of enemies." || No wonder that under these circumstances " a happy and united household is most rare." Indeed, it is nearly impossible, for by an arrangement, which seems almost incredible, " brothers and sisters, first cousins, fathers and sons-in-law, mothers and daughters-in-law, and brothers and sisters-in-law, are severally forbidden to speak to each other, or to eat from the same dish." U Yet amid so much that is horrible, there is still something in the Fijian which redeems his character from utter atrocity. If he hates deeply, he also loves truly ; if his revenge never dies, his fidelity and loyalty are strong and enduring. Thakombau was a thorough Fijian. Almost to the last he opposed the missionaries. He was not only heathen, but anti-Christian. At length being converted, he called his people together, and, says Mr. Calvert, " What a congregation he had ! — husbands whose wives he had dishonoured ! widows whose husbands he had slain ! sisters whose relatives had been strangled by his orders ! relatives whose friends he had eaten ! and children, the descendants of those he had murdered, and who had vowed * Figi and the Figi.ans, vol. i. § 1. c. p. 180. p. 134. 11 1. c. p. 177. t 1. c. p. 133. X 1. c. p. 112. IT 1. c. p. 136. 442 THE MAORIES. to avenge llu> wrongs inflicted on their fathers!"* Yet even this man — an adnlterer, a parricide, and a cannibal, whose hands were stained with a hundred murders — had still some- thing noble and lovable about him ; so much so, indeed, that, in spite of his crimes, he secured the affection, the friend- ship, even the respect, of a man so excellent as Mr. Calvert. The Maories. The New Zealauders are the southernmost representatives of the gi'eat Polynesian family. Their principal food consisted of fern roots, which they scorched over the fire, and then beat with a stick, till the bark and dry outside fell off; the re- mainder being a soft substance, rather clammy and sweet, not unpleasant to the taste, but mixed with numerous stringy fibres which are very disagreeable.^ In the northern districts were large plantations of yams and sweet potatoes. They also cultivated gourds, which were used for vessels, as they had no pottery. Their only instrument for tillage was " a long narrow stake sharpened to an edge at one end, with a short piece fastened transversely at a little distance above it, for the con- venience of pressing it down with the foot." Their animal food consisted principally of fish and shell-fish, and Captain Cook observed large shell-mounds near their houses. They sometimes also, though rarely, killed rails, penguins, shags, and other birds. They obtained fire from two pieces of wood in the usual manner.^ A New Zealand stone adze is repre- sented in figs. 117-119, Plate xx. The only quadrupeds in the islands were dogs and rats. They had no hogs, and the dogs were kept entirely for food. They were skilful in fishing, having excellent lines, hooks made of bon3 and shell, and very large nets, which were made * Figi and the Figians, vol. ii. t Dieffenbach's New Zealand, p. 357. vol. ii. p. 11. D'Urvil]ej vol. ii. p. 479. DRESS. 443 of the leaves of the so-called New Zealand flax, a plant allied to the Lilies, split into strips of the proper breadth and tied together. In making the lines the leaves are " scraped by a shell, which removes the npper or green part, and leaves the strong white fibres, that run longitudinally along the under side." * This kind of cordage has even been pre- ferred to that made of European hemp. Of these leaves also they made most of their clothes, for though acquainted with the manufacture of bark-cloth, it was very scarce, and worn only as an ornament. The leaves were split into three or four slips, which were interwoven into a kind of stuff, something between netting and cloth. Dog's wool was also used for the same purpose.f The dress was alike in both sexes, and consisted of two parts ; one piece of their rude cloth (if so it may be called) was tied over the shoulders and reached to the knees, being fastened in front by a piece of string or a bone bodkin ; the other piece was wrapped round the waist, and reached nearly to the ground. This garment, however, was worn by the men only on particular occasions. For ornament they wore combs of wood or bone, feathers, necklaces, bracelets, and anklets of bones and shells, and ear- rings of jade or albatross-down. Many of them had also small gi-otesque figures of jade, which were suspended from the neck, and were regarded as very precious. The New Zea- landers were also tattooed with great dexterity and elegance ; not only on the body, but even on the face, the general effect of which was in many cases far from unpleasant. The process, however, was extremely painful, so much so, indeed, that it could not be supported all at once, but was sometimes spread over several mouths, or even years. The lips and the corners of the eyes were the part that hurt most. To have shrunk from it would, however, have been a great disgrace. * Fitzroy's Voyage of the " Adventure" and " Beagle," vol. ii. p. 59!J. t D'Urville, vol. ii. p. 500. 444 OEXAMENTS. TATTOOING. HOUSES. Their houses were from eighteen to twenty feet long, eight or ten broad, and five or six high. The sides sloped quite down to the gi-ound, differing in this respect from those of Tahiti, which are left open at the sides. This was done, however, not for the sake of privacy, but to keep out the wind and rain. The sides were made of sticks, closely thatched with grass and hay, and the door was at one end, just high enough to admit a man on all fours. Another hole served both for window and chimney. The roof was often carved, and they frequently attached to the end of the ridge pole a monstrous representation of the proprietor.* The villages were all fortified. They chose the strongest natural situations, and surrounded the houses with a palisade about ten feet high. The w^eaker sides were also defended "by a double ditch, the innermost of which has a bank, and an additional palisade." The stakes were driven obliquely into the ground, so that they projected over the ditch, which " from the bottom to the top or crown of the bank is four-and- twenty feet. Close within the innermost palisade is a stage, twenty feet high, forty feet long, and six broad ; it is sup- ported by strong posts, and is intended as a station for those who defend the place, from which they may annoy the assail- ants by darts and stones, heaps of which lie ready for use. Another stage of the same kind commands the steep avenue from the back, and stands also within the palisade."! AVithin the palisades they had reduced the ground, " not to one level, but to several, rising in stages one above the other, like an amphitheatre, each of which is enclosed within its separate palisade." These different platforms communicated only by narrow passages, so that each one was capable of separate defence ; and they were provided with large stores of dried fish, fern-roots, etc. As the natives, when first discovered, had no bows and aiTows, nor even slings, in fact, no " missile * Diefifenbach, 1. c. p. 69. t Cook's First Voyage, p. 343,- FORTIFICATIONS. WEAPONS. CANOES. 445 Fig. 225. weapon except the lance, which was thrown by hand," such positions as these must have been almost impregnable. Their principal weapon was the patoo patoo (fig. 225), which was fastened to the wrist by a strong strap, lest it should be wrenched from them. They had no defensive armour, but besides their weapons the chiefs carried a " staff of distinc- tion." Their canoes were well built, and resembled those of the other islands. Many of them, however, were broad enough to sail without an out- rigger. The two ends were often inge- niously carved.* The dead were wrapped in native cloth, and either buried in a contracted posture, or exposed for awhile on small square platforms; when the flesh had decayed away, the bones were washed, and finally deposited in a small covered box, which was generally elevated on a column in or near the village.^ In some districts, how- ever, they were usually thrown into the sea, except indeed those that were killed in battle. These were generally eaten by their enemies. None of the objects used by the dead during his last illness were ever employed again ; I they were generally broken and buried with the deceased. In one case a moa's egg has been found iu the hands of a dead Maori, who was buried in the usual sitting posture. The egg was perfect, § and may have been intended to serve as food for the dead. Patoo Patoo. * Forster, 1. c. p. 326. + Dieffenbach, 1. c. p. 63 ; Fitz- roy, 1. c. p. 579. I D'Urville, vol. ii. p. 536. § Zoologist, February, 1865, p. 9451. 446 BURIAL. MUSIC. CHARACTER. Ill the Taranaki district, according to Taylor, the natives were buried in their houses, the door was tied up and painted with oclire to show that it was " taboo." In most of the Palis or fortified villages half the houses belonged to the dead, and these being never repaired gave the village a very neglected appearance.* Their principal musical instrument was the flute, of which they had tlu-ee or four varieties. D'Urville f also observed among them a kind of lyre, with tliree or four strings. They used large shells, too, as a kind of trumpet. They were very fond of singing, of poetry, and of dances. The latter were of two kinds, warlike and amorous. In character the New Zealanders were proud, jealous, irrit- able, cruel, and implacable ; but at the same time sensible, generous, sincere, hospitable, and affectionate. Like other Polynesians, the Maories were much given to iufanticide.| The girls before marriage were allowed great freedom. When once married, however, the women were faithful and affec- tionate to their husbands, by whom, on the other hand, they were generally treated with both kindness and respect. On the whole, it must be admitted that the position of the women among the New Zealanders was far from unsatisfactory. The Maories were perpetually at war during life, and hoped to continue so after death. Heaven they regarded as a place where there would be continual feasts of fish and sweet potatoes ; where they would be always fighting, and always victorious. Whether they can be said to have had a religion, or not, depends upon the meaning we attach to the word. They beheve in the survival of the soul, but not in the resurrection of the body, an article of faith which, as Air, ■ Marsden tells us, the missionaries could not induce them to accept. They had no idea of an Almighty Deity. Speaking * Taylor, New Zealand and its t 1. c vol. ii. p. 501. Inhabitants, p. 101. t Dieffenbacli, 1. c. p. 16. RELIGION. CANNIBALISM. 447 to Mr. Taylor, Te Heuhe^^, chief of Taupo, ridiculed the idea. " Is there," he asked, " one maker of all things amongst you Europeans ? Is not one a carpenter, another a blacksmith, another a ship-builder, and another a house-builder ? So it was in the beginning ; one God made this, another that : Tane made trees, Eu mountains, Tangaroa fish, and so forth. Your religion is of to-day, ours from remote antiquity. Do not think, then, to destroy our ancient faith with your fresh-born religion." * Their principal deity was known as the Atoua, wlio was a cruel cannibal like themselves. When any one was ill, Atoua was supposed to be devouring his inside, and they endeavoured to frighten him away by curses and threats. f This we may regard as a kind of negative worship ; but on other occasions they certainly offered human and other sacri- fices, in the vain hope of appeasing his wrath. They did not worship idols, but many of the priests seem to have really thought that they had been in actual communication with the Atoua ; and some of the early missionaries were inclined to believe that Satan might have been permitted to practise a deception upon them in order to strengthen his power ! However extraordinary this may appear, the same was the case in Tahiti. " In addition," says Mr. Ellis, " to the firm belief which many who were sorcerers, or agents of the infernal powers, and others who were the victims of incantation, still maintain, some of the early missionaries are disposed to think this was the fact." J Even Mr. Ellis himself was of the same opinion. With such low ideas of the Divinity, it is perhaps not surprising that some of the chiefs were looked upon as gods even during life. Watches and white men also were at first regarded as deities ; the latter not, perhaps, unnaturally, their fire-arms being regarded as thunder and lightning. * Dietfenbacli, 1. c. p. 13. + Polynesian Eesearclies, vul. ii. t Missionary Register, Nov. 1819. p. 226. 448 CANNIBALISM. The New Zealaiiders had but little regard for human life. Eavlo relates that a young chief named Atoi, who is described as having " a handsome open countenance," on one occasion recognized a pretty girl of about 16, who had liecu wovldng for Mr. Earle, and claiming her as a runaway slave, took her back with him to his village, where he killed and ate her. The next day he showed Mr. Earle " the post to which she had been tied, and laughed to think how he had cheated her." " For," said he, " I told her I only intended to give her a Hogging ; but I fircil, and shot her through the heart." " Yet," adds Mr. Earle, " I again affirm, that he w^as not only a hand- some young man, but mild and genteel in his demeanour, and a general favourite with us all." * Although the New Zealanders were addicted to cannibalism, it was with them a very different habit from that of the Fijian. Xo doubt the Maori enjoyed his meals of human flesh. But the cannibalism of a New Zealander, though often a mere meal, was also sometimes a ceremony ; in these cases the object w^as something very different from mere sensual gratification ; it must be regarded as a part of his religion, as a sort of unholy sacrament. This is proved by the fact that after a battle, the bodies which they preferred were not those of plump young men or tender damsels, but of the most cele- brated chiefs, however old and diy they might be.-f In fact, they believed that it was not only the material substance which they thus appropriated, but also the spirit, the ability, and the glory of him whom they devoured. The greater the number of corpses they had eaten, the higher they thought . would be their position in the world to come. The Fans of Central Africa are said to entertain a similar idea. Under such a creed, there is a certain dignity about the habit, which is, at any rate, far removed from the sensuality of ordinary * Residences in New Zealand, p. 117. t D'Urville, vol. ii. p. 547- TAHITI. 449 cannibalism. To be eaten was, on tbe otber band, tbe greatest misfortune that could happen to a New Zealander, since he beheved that the soul was thus destroyed as well as the body. The chief who could both kill and devour his enemy had nothing more to fear from him either in this world or the next; on the contrary, the strength, ability, and prestige against which he had had to contend, were not only con- quered, but, by this dreadful process, incorporated with and added to his own. In other cases, slaves were killed and eaten in honour of the gods. The New Zealanders declared that criminals alone were thus treated. The celebrated chief, E'hongui, main- tained that the whole analogy of nature was in favour of cannibalism. He was surprised at the horror of it felt by D'Urville. Big fish, he said, eat little fish ; insects devour insects ; large birds feed upon small ones ; it is in accordance with the whole analogy of nature that men should eat their enemies.* Tahiti. Tahiti, the queen of islands, has excited the wonder and admiration of almost all those by whom it has been visited. In some respects the Tahitians were surpassed by other South Sea Islanders ; the Fijians, for instance, being, as we have seen, acquainted with pottery ; but on the whole they may be taken as representing the highest stage in civilization to which man has in any country raised himself before the discovery or introduction of metallic implements. It is not, indeed, at all probable that any inhabitants of the great continents were so far advanced in civilization during their Stone Age. Doubtless, the Society Islanders would not have remained without metal, if the country had afforded them the means of obtaining it. On the other hand, the ancient * D'Urville, vol. ii. p. 5i8. 2 F 450 I^ri'LEMENTS. ^ Fig. 226. inhabitants of Europe were confined to tlie use of stone weapons only until they became acquainted with the superi- ority of, and acquired the art of working in, copper, bronze, or iron ; and it is evident that a nation would in all proba- bility discover the use of metal before attain- ing the highest pitch of civilization, which, with- out such aid, it would be possible for it to attain. The tools of the Tahi- tians wdien first dis- covered were made of stone, bone, shell, or wood. Of metal they had no idea. When they first obtained nails, they mistook them for the young shoots of some very hard wood, and, hoping that life might not be quite extinct, planted a number of them carefully in their gardens.* In a very short time, however, the earlier weapons were entirely replaced by those of iron ; and in his last voyage Captain Cook tells usf that " a stone hatchet is, at present, as rare a thing amongst them as an iron one was eight years Stone Axe with Wooden Handle. * Ellis p 298. Polynesian Researches, + Voyage to tlie Pacific Ocean, vol. ii. p. 137. IMPLEMENTS. 451 a. g ; and a chisel of bone or stone is not to be seen." The stone axes, or rather adzes, were of various sizes ; those in- tended for cut- ting down trees weighed six or seven pounds, the little ones, which were used for carv- ing, only a few ounces. All of them re- quired con- tinual sharpen- ing, and a stone was always kept in readi- ness for this purpose. The natives were very skilful in the use of their adzes (fig. 226); nevertheless, to fell a tree was a work of several days. Some of the South Sea axes have beauti- L " fh '^^i'yt'^'')'-' 77J7T-' I ^ /Vl''"'7J7j77777^-777T Li "'■'■7777777777777 Soutli Sea Axe of Cureinoiiy, in my Collection. 452 FISH-HOOKS, fully carved handles, as in fig. 227, representing a speci- men in my own collection. These were axes of state. The chisels, or gonges, were of bone, generally that of a man's arm between the wrist and elbow. Pieces of coral were used_as_rasps, and splinters of bamboo for knives. For cultivating the ground they had instruinents_of_JlMd_ wood, about five feet long, narrow, with_jha rp edges and pointeTT These they nsed as spades or hoes.* They had fish-hooks (fig. 228) made of mother-of-pearl, and every fisherman made them for himself. They generally served fur the double purpose of hook and bait. " The shell f is first cut into square pieces by the edge of another shell, and wrought into a form corresponding with the outline of the hook by pieces of coral, which are sufficiently rough to perform the office of a file ; a hole is then bored in the middle, the drill being a pointed stone; this they fix into the end of a piece of bamboo, and turn it between the hands like a chocolate mill ; wdien the shell is perforated and the hole sufficiently wide, a small file of coral is intro- duced, by the application of which the hook is in a short time completed, few costing the artificer more time than a quarter of an hour. From the bark of the Poerou, a species of Hibiscus, they made ropes and lines, from the thickness of an inch to the size of a small pack thread ; with these they make nets for fishing." They had also a kind of seine net, made " of a coarse broad grass, the blades of which are like flags : these they twist and tie together in a loose manner, till the net, which is about as wide as a laroje sack, is from sixty to eighty fathoms long ; this they haul in shoal-smooth water, and its own weight keeps it so close to the ground that scarcely a single fish can escape." They also use certain leaves and fruit which, when thrown into the water, inebri- * Wilson, Missionary Voyage to t Cook's Voyage round tlie the South Pacific, p. 245. World, vol. i. p. 483 ; vol. ii. p. 218. IMODES OF FISHING. BASKETS. MATS. 453 Fig. 228. ate the fish to such a degree that they might be caught by the hands.* Their fishing-lines were made of the bark of the Erovva, a kind of nettle which grows in the mountains, and were described as " the best fishing-lines in the world," better even than our strongest silk lines. They also used the fibres of the cocoa-nut for making threads, with which they fastened together the various parts of their canoes. They were very dexterous in making basket and wicker work, " of a thousand different patterns, many of them exceedingly neat " ; they also made many sorts of mats from rushes, grass, and bark, which were woven with great neatness and regularity, al- though entirely by hand and without any loom or machinery.-]- But their principal manufacture was a kind of cloth, made from bark, and of which there were three varieties, obtained either from the paper - mulberry, wiiich was the best, the bread-fruit tree, or a kind of fig. This last, though less ornamental, was more useful than either of the others, because it resisted water, which they did not. All three kinds of cloth were made in the same way, the difference South Sea Fish-hook, between them being only in the material. When the trees were of a proper size, that is to say, about six or eight feet high, and somewhat thicker than a man's thumb, they were pulled up and the roots and branches were cut off. The bark being slit up longitudinally, it peeled off readily, and was then * Forster, Observations made during a Voyage round the World, p. 463 ; Ellis, vol. ii. p. 288. t Ellis, vol. ii. pp. 179, 180, 454 BARK -CLOTH. soaked for some time in running water. After this, the green outside bark was carefully scraped off with a shell, and the strips were laid out in the evening to dry, being placed one by the side of another " till they are about a foot broad, and two or three layers are also laid one upon the other." By the morning a great part of the water had drained off or evaporated, and " the several fibres adhere together, so as that the whole may be raised from the ground in one piece." It was then placed on the smooth side of a long piece of wood, and beaten by the women-servants with a wooden instrument, shaped like a square razor-strap, and about a foot long. The four sides of this instrument were " marked lengthways with small grooves or furrows, of different degrees of fineness ; those on one side being of a width and depth sufficient to receive a small packthread, and the others finer in a regular gradation, so that the last are not more than equal to sewing silk." They beat the cloth first with the coarsest side, and afterwards with the others, ending with the finest : under this treatment it expanded greatly, and might be made almost as thin as a muslin. The different pieces of bark by this treatment were so closely fastened together, that the cloth might be washed and wrung out without any fear of tearing ; but even if it were accidentally broken, it was repaired without difficulty, by pasting on a patch with a gluten prepared from the root of the pea : this was done so nicely that it could not be discovered. This cloth was cool and agreeable to the touch, being even softer than our broadcloth. It is hardly necessary to say that the fineness was regulated according to the purpose for which it was intended. The first two kinds were easily bleached, and then dyed of various colours, generally red and yellow. Both of these were vegetable colours, and not very fast. They had various strange and complicated dresses for great DRESS. 455 occasions, but their ordinary clothes were very simple, and consisted of two parts. TTne^of tliem was a piece of cloth with a hole " in the middle to put the head through," and long enough to reach from the shoulder to the knee. The other was wrapped round the waist s o as tohang down like a petticoat as low as the knee,; this was called the Parou. Frequently also they wore a piece of cloth tied round the head like a turban. The dress of the Queen is thus described by Ellis * : " She was attired in a light, loose, and flowing dress of beautifully white native cloth, tastefully fastened on the left shoulder, and reaching to the ankle ; her hair was rather lighter than that of the natives in general ; and on her head she wore a light and elegant native bonnet, of green and yellow cocoa-nut leaves ; each ear was perforated, and in the perforation two or three flowers of the fragrant Cape jessamine were inserted." The dre ss of the men was v erx_aimilar, but instead of the petticoat, they brought^ the cloth between the legs ; this was called the Maro. In hot weather ,-|- and at noon, both sexes went almost naked, wearing only the cloth round the waist. Besides the turbans and head- dresses of leaves, they sometimes wore long plaits of human hair, which they wound about the head in such a manner as to produce a very pretty effect. They were very clean both in their persons and their clothes ; washing, as a rule, three times a day. Ornaments were worn by the men as much as by the women, and consisted of feathers, flowers, pieces of shells, and pearls. Tattooing also was almost universal ; and a person not pro- perly tattooed would " be as much reproached and shunned, as if with us he should go about the streets naked." J They anointed their beads frequently with perfumed cocoa-nut oil, but had no combs, which in so hot a country must have been * 1. c. p. 148. work, with handles of the same or t The Sandwich Islanders had of wood, small sc^uare fans of mat or wicker- + Wilson, 1. c. p. 355 456 CANOES. lunch wanted. Xotwitbstanding this, iho liair of the grown- up people was very neatly dressed. Their houses were used principally as dormitories. They were made of wood, and were generally about twenty-four ftet long, eleven wide, and nine feet high. They had no side walls, but the roof reached to within about three feet and a half of the ground. Palm leaves took the place of thatch, and the floor was generally covered with soft hay. The canoes resembled those of the Fijians, but are said to have been scarcely so well built. " To prepare the planks was no easy task, but the great difficulty was to fasten them together. This was effected by strong thongs of plaiting which are passed several times through holes that are bored with a gouge or auger of bone."* The length of the canoes varied from ten up to ninety feet, " but the breadth is by no means in proportion ; for those of ten feet are about a foot wide, and those of more than seventy are scarcely two.''^ These larger ones were not, however, used singly, but were fastened together side by side, in the manner already described. A canoe without an outrigger seemed to them an impossi- Ijility.;]: The labour of constructing these canoes must have been immense ; nevertheless, the South Sea Islanders pos- sessed large numbers of them. On one occasion Captain Cook saw more than three hundred in one place ; and, with- out counting the smaller vessels, he estimated the whole naval force of the Society Islands at one thousand seven hundred war canoes, manned by sixty-eight thousand men.§ Their principal musical instrument was the drum ; it was made from a piece of solid wood, hollowed out, and covered over with shark's skin. They had also a kind of trumpet made of a large shell, with a hole at the small end, into * Cook's First Voyage, p. 225 ; J Ellis, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 55. Forster, 1. c. p. 459. § Cook's Second Voyage, vol. i. t Cook's First Voyage, !>. 221. p. 349. GAMES. WEAPONS. 457 which they fastened a bamboo cane about three feet long. Their flutes were of bamboo, and were blown with the nose. They had various kinds of games, some of which appear to have resembled our hockey and football. They were also very fond of dancing. They were quite ignorant of pottery, but had large dishes made of polished wood. The shells of cocoa-nuts were used as water-bottles and cups. They were scraped thin, polished, often very ingeniously carved, and kept extremely clean. Generally the natives of Tahiti sat cross-legged on mats spread on the floor ; but the chiefs had often four-legged stools. Chairs and tables were unknown. They slept also on mats and used a wooden pillow, very much resembling a small stool. The upper side was carved like the seat of the stool, to admit the neck. Each house also contained a light post, planted in the floor, and with several projections, from which the various dishes, calabashes of water, baskets of food, etc., were hung.* Their weapons were formidable, though simple. They con- sisted of slings, pikes headed with stone, and long clubs made of hard, heavy wood. With the first they were very skilful. Their sling-stones were of two kinds, " either smooth, being polished by friction in the bed of a river, or sharp, angular, and rugged ; these were called ofai ara — faced or edged stones."-]- We have already mentioned (p. 92) that two sorts of sling-stones, closely corresponding to these, were used by the ancient inhabitants of Europe. It would be interesting to know the relative advantage of the two classes, which surely cannot have been used for exactly the same purposes. They had also bows and arrows, which, however, were not sufficiently strong to be used in warfare. The bow-strings were made of Eoava bark.:J: The Society Islanders are said * Ellis, 1. c. vol. ii p. 184. t Ibid. vol. ii. p. 40. J Wilson, 1. c. p. 3C8. 458 FOOD. FIEE. to luive boen cruel in war, Imt nccoiding to Captain Cook " they are seldom disturbed by either foreign or domestic troubles." Though not cowards, they regard it as " much less disgraceful to run away from an enemy with wliole bones, than to fight and be wounded." * " Of tame animals they had only hogs, dogs, and poultry if neither was there a wild animal in the island, except ducks, pigeons, parroquets, with a few other birds, and rats, there being no other quadruped, nor any serpent." + The dogs were kept entirely for food, and Captain Cook assures us that " a South Sea dog was little inferior to an English lamb ; their excellence is probably owing to their being kept up and fed wholly on vegetables." The natives prefer dog to pork. From the sea they obtained excellent fish and shell-fish. They had also bread-fruit, bananas, plantains, yams, cocoa-nuts, potatoes, the sugar-cane, a fruit not unlike an apple, and several other plants which served for fruit, and required very little culture. The bread-fruit tree supplied them with abundance of fresh fruit for eight months, and during the other four they used " mahie," W'hich is a kind of sour paste, prepared from the fermented ripe fruit. It is probable that nine-tenths of their diet consisted of vegetable food ; and the common people scarcely ever tasted either pork or dog, although the hogs appear to have been very abundant. They obtained fire by friction. When the wood was quite dry, the process did not take longer than two minutes, but in wet weather it was very tedious. Having no pottery, they did not boil their food. " It is impossible," says "Wallis, " to describe the astonishment they expressed when they saw the gunner, who, while he kept the market, used to dine on shore, * Wilson, p. 363. t Wallis's Voyage round the "World ; Hawkeswortli's Voj^ages, vol. i. p. 482. I Cook's Voyage round the World, p. 187. FIKE. LIQUOR. 459 dress his pork and poultry by boiling them in a pot ; having, as I have before observed, no vessel that would bear the fire, they had no idea of hot water." * Captain Cook also expressly states that " they had but two ways of applying fire to dress their food, broiling and baking."-]- Mr Tylor, however, has pointed out| that they were acquainted with the use of boiling stones, and that they could not therefore have been entirely ignorant of hot water. In order to bake a hog, they made a small pit in the ground, which they paved with large stones, over which they then lighted a fire. When the stones were hot enough, they took out the embers, raked away the ashes, and covered the stones with green cocoa-nut leaves. The animal which was to be dressed, having been cleaned and prepared, was wrapped up in plantain leaves, and covered with the hot embers, on which again they placed bread-fruit and yams, which also were wrapped up in plantain leaves. Over these they spread the rest of the embers, and some hot stones, finally covering the whole with earth. The meat thus cooked is described as being tender and full of gravy ; in fact, both Wallis and Cook considered that it was " better in every respect than when it is dressed in any other way." For sauce they used salt water, without which no meal was ever eaten, and a kind of thick paste made from the kernels of cocoa-nuts. At their meals they drank either water or cocoa-nut juice. The Sandwich Islanders were very fond of salt meat, and had regular salt pans on the sea-shore. § The only intoxicating liquor was the ava, an infusion made from the root, stalks, and leaves of a kind of pepper, which, however, fortunately for them, was entirely forbidden to the women, and seldom permitted to the lower classes. In some * 1. c. vol. 1. p. 484. t Early History of Mankind, p. t Second Voyage, vol. ii. j). 266. 197. § Cook's Third Voyage, vol. iii. p. 151. 4G0 LIQUOR. A chief's DINNER. of the other islauds this liquid is prepared in a disgusting manner. The roots were broken in pieces, cleaned, chewed, and then placed in a wooden bowl, mixed with a certain quantity of water, and stirred up with the hands. In Tahiti, however, the chewing was dispensed with. The wooden 1)0 wis out of which the chiefs drank their ava were often very fair specimens of carving. In the Sandwich Islands they are described as having been " usually al)out eight or ten inches in diameter, perfectly round, and beautifully polished. The}^ are supported by three, and sometimes four, small human figures, in various attitudes. Some of them rest on the hands of their supporters, extended over the head ; others on the head and hands ; and some on the shoulders." These figures are said to have been " accurately proportioned and neatly finished, and even the anatomy of the muscles, in sup- porting the weight, well expressed,"* Sir J. Banks f gives an interesting description of the manner in which the chiefs dined. They had no table, and each person ate alone and in silence. Some leaves were spread on the ground to serve as a table-cloth, and a basket was set by the chief containing his provision, which, if fish or flesh, was ready dressed and wrapped in leaves. Two cocoa-nut shells were put by the side, one containing salt water and the other fresh. He first washed his hands and mouth thoroughly with the fresh water, and this he repeated almost continually through the meal. He then took part of his provision out of the basket, which generally consisted of a small fish or two, two or three bread-fruits, fourteen or fifteen ripe bananas, or six or seven apples. He began by eating some bread-fruit, at the same time breaking one of the fishes into the salt water. He then took up the bits of fish in his fingers, in such a manner as to get with it as much * Third Voyage, vol. iii. p. 148. t Cook's First Voyage, vol. ii. p. 200. Journal, p. 139. A CHIEFS DINNER, SOLITARY MEALS. 461 salt water as possible, and very frequently he took a mouth- ful of the salt water, either out of the cocoa-nut or in his hand. Sometimes, also, he drank the juice of a cocoa-nut. When he had done his bread-fruit and fish, he began his plantains or apples, after which he ate some more bread-fruit, beaten into a sort of paste, and generally flavoured with banana or sume other fruit. For a knife he used either a shell or a piece of split bamboo, and in conclusion he again washed his hands and mouth. They were quite unacquainted with forks, and Captain Wallis * tells us that, durino- his visit, one of the natives who " tried to feed himself with that instrument, could not guide it, but by the mere force of habit his hand came to his mouth and the victuals at the end of the fork went away to his ear." Nor did they use plates. Poulaho, chief of the Friendly Islands, dining one day on board the ship, was so much struck by the pewter plates that Captain Cook gave him one. He did not, how- ever, intend to employ it in the usual manner, but said that " whenever he should have occasion to visit any of the other islands, he would leave this plate behind him at Tongataboo, as a sort of representative in his absence." f Captain Cook was much surprised to find that a people who were so sociable, and who enjoyed so much the society of women, never made their meals together. Even brothers and sisters had each their own basket, and when they washed to eat would go out, " sit down upon the ground, at two or three yards' distance from each other, and, turning their faces different ways, take their repast without interchanging a single word." They ate alone, they said, " because it was right," but why it was right they were unable to explain. We must, however, remember that these islanders were together much more than we are. We enjoy a sociable meal, because the nature of our occupations keeps us apart so much at other * Voyage round tlie World, p. 482. t Tliird Voyage, vol. i. p. 326. 4G2 SURGEKY. times ; but among a people whose wants were supplied with so little exertion on their part, who were all day long together, and had no rooms into which they could retire and be alone, it must have been a great thing to have some way of escaping from their friends and being quiet without giving offence. As there were no stated times for meals, a man who wished to be alone need only to take out his basket of provisions, and he might he sure that he would not be disturbed. This custom, therefore, seems to have been both ingenious and convenient.* Although they usually went to bed soon after dark, still the natives of Tahiti were not entirely without candles, for which they used the " kernels of a kind of oily nut, which they stick one over another upon a skewer that is thrust through the middle of them." These candles burn a con- siderable time, and are said to have given a pretty good light. The Society Islanders had no knowledge of medicine as dis- tinct from witchcraft ; but some wonderful stories are told of their skill in surgery. The nostrils of the female infants were often pressed or spread out during infancy, because they looked on a flat nose as a mark of beauty. In the same way the boys sometimes had their forehead and the back of their head pressed upwards, so that the upper part of the sktill appeared in the shape of a wedge. This was supposed to make them look more formi- dable in war.-j- The dead were not buried at once, but were placed on a platform raised several feet above the ground, and neatly * Since the above was written, ways retired tlie moment my dinner I have met with the following pas- or breakfast was brought to me. sao-e in Burchell : " I had sufficient This gave me a few moments' relief reason for admiring one of the ens- from the fatigue of incessant con- toms of the Bachapins ; that, not- versation." — Travels in Southern withstanding they never at any Africa, vol. ii. p. 408. other tune left me alone, they al- t 1. c. vol. i. p. 343. MODES OF BURIAL. 463 riiiled in with bamboo. The body was covered with a cloth, and sheltered by a roof. By the side were deposited the weapons of the deceased, and a supply of food and water. When the body had entirely decayed, the bones were collected, carefully cleaned and buried, according to the rank of the deceased, either within or without a "moral."* The largest moral seen by Captain Cook was the one prepared for Oamo and Oberea, who were the then reigning sovereigns. This was indeed the principal piece of architecture in the island, and is remarkable as showing what considerable works may be undertaken by a people ignorant of the use of metal. "It was a pile of stonework, raised pyramidically, upon an oblong base, or square, two hundred and sixty-seven feet lone, and eighty -seven wide. It was built like the small pyramidal mounts upon which we sometimes fix the pillar of a sun-dial, where each side is a flight of steps ; the steps, however, at the sides, were broader than those at the ends, so that it terminated not in a square of the same figure with the base, but in a ridge, like the roof of a house : there were eleven of these steps, each of which was four feet high, so that the height of the pile was forty-four feet ; each step was formed of one course of white coral stone, which was neatly squared and polished ; the rest of the mass, for there was no hollow within, consisted of round pebbles, which, from the regularity of their figure, seemed to have been wrought."-]- A very similar account of this structure has been more recently given by Wilson,:[: who makes the size and height a little greater ; and when it is * In some cases the head is not Friendly Islands, D'Urville saw buried with the other bones, bnt is a similar mausoleum built with deposited in a kind of box. blocks of stone, some of which were t Cook's Voyage round the World, twenty feet long, six or eight broad, vol. ii. p. 166. Similar but some- and two in height. They were what smaller morais were observed neatly sqiiared. 1, c. vol. iv. p. 106. in the Sandwich Islands (Third J I.e. p. 207. Voyage, vol. iii. p. 6). In the 4iU oberea's moral eeligiox. consitlered that tliis was raised witliout the assistance of iron tools to shape the stones, or of mortar to fasten them together, it is impossihle not to be struck with admiration at the mag- nitude of the enterprise, and the skill with wliich it appears to have been carried out. It is, perhaps, the most important monument which is positively known to have been constructed with stone tools only, and renders it the less unlikely that some of the large tumuli and other ancient monuments of Europe may belong to the Stone Age. When a chief died, his relations and attendants cut and mangled themselves in a dreadful manner. They ran spears through their thighs, arms, and cheeks, and beat themselves about the head with clubs "till the blood ran down in streams." They also frequently cut off the little finger on these occasions ; a curious custom, w^hich is common also in the Friendly Islands. In Tiarrabou, Captain Cook saw a rude figure of a man, made of basket-work and about seven feet high. Tiiis was intended as a representation of one of the inferior gods, but was said to be the only one on the island ; for the natives, when first discovered, though they worshipped numerous deities, to whom also human sacrifices were sometimes offered, yet were not idolaters. At a later period, however, Ellis saw among them many rude idols.* Captain Cook found tlieir relicrion, " like that of most other countries, involved in mystery, and perplexed with apparent inconsistencies." f They believed in the survival of the soul, and in " two situations of different degrees of happiness, somewhat ana- logous to our heaven and hell ; " but, far from regarding them as places of reward and punishment, thought that the happiest lot was of course intended for the chiefs and superior classes, the other for the people of inferior rank.;]: Indeed, they did * Ellis, I.e. vol. i. p. 526 ; Wil- J Cook's First Voyage, vol. ii. son, l.c. p. 242. p. 239 ; Ellis, vol. i. p. 518. t See also Foster, l.c. p. 539. EELIGION. GOVERNMENTS. 465 not suppose that their actions here in the least influenced their future state ; so that their religion did not act upon them by promises or threats, and their " expressions of adoration and reverence, whether by words or actions, arise only from a humble sense of their own inferiority, and the ineffable excellence of divine perfection." However mistaken they may have been on many points, however wrong many of their customs doubtless appear to us, surely under such a creed as this, good actions become doubly virtuous, and virtue itself shines the brighter. They had no laws, nor courts of justice. Personal security and the rights of private property were but little regarded among them. The chiefs and priests exercised an authority founded on fear and superstition. They were, in fact, governed by custom rather than by law, for which, indeed, they had no word in the language.* It is only fair to the chiefs to add that they were above being idle, and thought it a disgrace if they did not excel in all departments of labour.-]- In character the inhabitants of Tahiti, according to Captain Cook, " were liberal, brave, open, and candid, without either suspicion or treachery, cruelty or revenge."| They were very anxious for education. The women were affectionate, tender, and obedient ; the men mild, generous, slow to take offence, and easily satis- fied. Both sexes were very healthy. " I never saw any one," says Forster,§ "of a morose, peevish, discontented disposition in the whole nation ; they all join to their cheerful temper a politeness and elegance which is happily blended with the most innocent simplicity of manners." Murders were very rare among them ; and though much license was permitted to the young women before marriage, the married women, according to Captain Cook,|| were as well behaved " as in any * Ellis, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 437. § 1. c. p. 582. t Ibid. vol. ii. p. 178. I| Voyage to the South Pole, X First Voyage, vol. ii. p. 188. vol. i. p. 187. 2 G 4G6 IDEALS OF EIGITT AND WRONG. Other country whatever." They were very thievish ; but we must consider the immense temptations to which they were suhjecteil, and the, to them, inestimable vah^e of the articles which they stole. Like other savages, they resembled children in many respects : their sorrows were transient, their passions suddenly and strongly expressed. On one occasion, Oberea, the queen, who was then about forty years old, took a particular fancy to a large doll, which was accordingly presented to her. Shortly afterwards they met Tootahah, one of the principal chiefs, who became so jealous of Oberea's doll, that they were obliged to give him one also. There are scarcely any nations, whether barbarous or civi- lized, in which the relations of the two sexes are on the whole ^satisfactory. Savages, almost without exception, treat their women as slaves, and civilized nations too often avoid this error only to fall into others. The inhabitants of Tahiti are said to have been absolutely without any ideas of decency, or rather, as Captain Cook puts it, perhaps more correctly, " of indecency," that is, at least, in our sense of the term. This no doubt arose in part from their large open houses, which were not divided into separate rooms. However this may be, where there was no sin, they saw no shame, and it must be confessed that in many points their idea of sin was very different from ours. Before, however, we con- demn them, let us remember that a dinner-party would have seemed as wrong to them as many of their customs do to us. If the freedom, both in language and in action, which they per- mitted to themselves, seems to us in many respects objection- able, we must not forget that our ideas of delicacy shut out from general conversation numerous subjects of great interest and importance, and throw round many matters of the utmost importance an air of mystery which is not without serious disadvantages. THE AEREOY SOCIETY. 467 A considerable number of the principal people of both sexes in Tahiti were formed into an association called the " Arreoy," all the members of which were regarded as being married to one another. If any of the women of the society had a child, it was almost invariably killed : but if it was allowed to live, the father and mother were regarded as having definitely engaged themselves to one another, and were ejected from the association ; the woman being known from that time as a "bearer of children," which was among this extraordinary people a term of reproach. The existence of such a society shows how fundamentally the idea of virtue may differ in different countries. Yet the married women were faithful to their husbands, and beautifully modest. It is impossible, indeed, to acquit even them of the charge of infanticide, for which we may find a cause, though not an excuse. I do not allude to the curious custom, that a child, as soon as it was born, inherited the titles, rank, and property of its father, so that a man who was yesterday a chief might be thus at once reduced to the condition of a private person ; nor to the fact that any Arreoy who spared her infant was at once excluded from that society. We cannot suppose that such customs were without their effect ; but a more powerfvil reason may perhaps be found in the fact, that their numbers were already large, the means of subsistence limited, and that, as but few were carried off either by disease or in war, the population would soon have outgrown their supplies, if some means were not taken to check the natural increase of numbers.* However this may be, infanticide appears to have been dreadfully prevalent amongst them. It has been estimated that two-thirds of the children were destroyed by their own parents, f and both Nott and Ellis agree that, during the whole of their residence in the island, until the adoption of Christianity, they did not * See, for instance, Kotzebue's New Voyage, vol. i. p. 308. t Ellis, vol. i. pp. 334, 336, 468 GENERAL CHARACTERS. know a single case of a niotlier who had not been guilty of this crime. According to Wilson,* their language contained no word for " thanks," and even Cook admits that they had no respect for old age. Fitzroy goes still farther, and assures us that " they scrupled not to destroy their aged or sick — yes, even their parents, if disabled by age or sickness."-|- No such accusation is, however, brought against them by earlier writers, so that such actions are probably very rare, and the result, perhaps, as among the Fijians, of misdirected affection rather than of deliberate cruelty. They had no money ; and though it was easy to obtain the necessaries of life, to accumulate property was almost impos- sible. Again, the absence of spirituous liquors, and the rela- tions between the sexes (however unsatisfactory in some respects), took away from them some of the principal incen- tives to crime. On the whole, then, if we judge them by a South Sea standard, the natives of the Society Islands appear to have been very free from crime. In spite of the differences which sometimes arose in conse- quence of their thievish disposition, and also perhaps in great measure from their not being able perfectly to understand each other. Captain Cook and his officers lived with the natives " in the most cordial friendship," and took leave of them with great regret. Mr. Ellis, on the contrary, assures us that " no portion of the human race was ever perhaps sunk lower in brutal licentiousness and moral degradation than this isolated people.''^ Such a statement is surely quite inconsistent with the account he gives of their anxiety to possess copies of the Bible when it was translated into their language. " They were," he says, " deemed by them more precious than gold — yea, than much fine gold," and " became * 1. c. p. 365. X Ellis, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 25. t 1. c. vol. ii. p. 551. _, THE TONGANS. 469 at once the constant companion of their possessors, and the source of their highest enjoyment."* The inhabitants of the Friendly, or Tonga, and of the Sandwich Islands, are also very well described by Captain Cook, but they belonged to the same race as those of Tahiti and jSTew Zealand, and resembled them in religion, language, canoes, houses, weapons, food, habits, etc. It is somewhat remarkable that the Sandwich Islanders, in many respects, as for instance in their dances, houses, tattooing, etc., resembled the New Zealanders even more than their nearer neighbours in the Society and Friendly Islands. In the Friendly Islands Captain Cook observed a very singular luxury in which the chiefs indulged themselves. When one of them wished to go to sleep, two women came and sat by him " beating briskly on his body and legs with both fists, as on a drum, till he fell asleep, and continuing it the whole night, with some short intervals." When the chief is sound asleep they sometimes rest themselves a little, " but resume it if they observe any appearance of his waking." f A similar statement is made by Wilson in his Missionary Voyage. I In all the islands the chiefs appear to have been treated with respect, none the less profound because shown in ways which seem to us peculiar. One of them was to uncover the body from the waist, and it seems to have been a matter of indifference, or rather of con- venience, whether this was done upwards or downwards. § In the Friendly Islands it was accounted a striking mark of rudeness to speak to the king while standing up. There was also a certain amount of commerce between the different islands. Bora-bora and Otahaw produced abundance of cocoa-nut oil, which was exchanged at Tahiti for cloth. The Low Islands, again, could not successfully grow the paper- mulberry ; but they had a breed of dogs with long silky hair, which was much prized in the other islands. * Ellis, vol. i. pp. 393-408. J 1. c. p, 237, t Third Voyage, vol. i. p. 323. § Cook's First Voyage, vol. ii. p. 125. ( 470 ) CHAPTER XIV. MODERN SAVAGES — continued. Esquimaux. THE Esquimaux, and the Esquimaux alone among savage races, occupy both the Old and the New World. They inhabit the shores of the Arctic Ocean from Siberia to Green- land ; and throughout this great extent of country the language, appearance, habits, occupations, and weapons of the natives are very similar, and it must be added that the latter are most ingenious. The language of the Innuit, or Esquimaux, is akin to that of the North American Indians in structure, while their appearance has a decided likeness, particularly about the eyes, to the Chinese and Tartars. Their dwellings are of two kinds. (See fig. 14R, p. 125.) The summer they pass in tents or wigwams, with the entrance to the south or south-east. In those observed by Captain Parry, the tent-poles were, in the absence of wood, formed of stags' horns, or bones lashed together. The lower borders of the skins were held down by large stones. These were sometimes built up into regular circles, eight or nine feet in diameter, and four or five feet high.* These circles were at first supposed to be the remains of winter-houses ; but it was subsequently ascertained that they were ex- clusively used for extending the skins of the sumraer-tents. * Parry's Voyage, 1821-23, pp. 17, 51. TENTS. HOUSES. 471 Near these " hut circles," long rows of standing stones were several times observed.* The winter-houses in the southern districts are constructed of earth or drift-timber, which is very abundant in some places. In the north, however, wood becomes extremely rare. The Esquimaux at the northern end of Baffin's Bay,-|- who had no wood, excepting twigs of a dwarfish heath, were so little acquainted with the nature of timber that several of them successively seized on the spare top-mast of the " Isabella," evidently with the intention of stealing it, and quite unconscious of its weight. In the absence of wood, their houses were built of ice and snow ; those of ice are beautiful, and almost transparent, so that even at some little distance it is possible to see everything that takes place in them. They are, however, much colder than those of snow, which therefore are generally preferred. West of the Eocky Mountains the winter-houses were usually under-ground. They much resemble the tumuli of Northern Europe (see ante, p. 125). A Kamskatchadale " yourt " is thus described by Captain Cook : I " An oblong square, of dimensions proportionate to the number of persons for whom it is intended (for it is proper to observe that several families live together in the same jourt), is dug into the earth to the depth of about six feet. Within this space strong posts, or wooden pillars, are fastened in the ground, at proper distances from each other, on which are extended the beams for the support of the roof, which is formed by joists resting on the ground with one end, and on the beams with the other. The interstices between the joists are filled up with a strong wicker-work, and the whole covered with turf ; so that a jourt has externally the appearance of a low round hillock. A hole is left in the centre, which serves for * I.e. pp. 02, 285, 363. vol. iii. p. 374. See also vol. iii, t Ross, Baffin's Bay, p. 122. p. 450. X Voyages to the Pacific Ocean, 472 INTERIOR OF AN ESQUIMAUX HOUSE. chimney, window, and entrance, and the inhabitants pass in and out by means of a strong pole (instead of a hidder) notched deep enough to afford a little holding for the toe," as in fig. 148 (p. 125). More of ten, however, the entrance consisted of tt sunken passage, as also shown in fig. 148 or fig. 149 (p. 127). As a general rule we may say that the western yourts are subterranean, while those of the tribes who live east of the Rocky Mountains are generally above-ground. The manner iu which the Esquimaux construct their snow igloos has been well described by Captain Parry. They choose * a drift of hard and compact snow, and from this they cut oblong slabs six or seven inches thick and about two feet in length. With these they build a circular wall, inclining inwards so as to form a dome, which is sometimes as much as nine or ten feet high, and from eight to fifteen feet in diameter, A small door is then cut on the south side. It is about three feet high, two and a half wide at the bottom, and leads into a passage about ten feet long, and with a step in the middle, the half next the hut being lower than either the floor of the hut or the outer passage. For the admission of light, a round hole is cut on one side of the roof, and a circular plate of ice, three or four inches thick and two feet in diameter, is let into it. If several families intend to live together, other chambers are constructed which open into the first, and then, after a quantity of snow has been shovelled up on the outside, the shell of the building is regarded as finished. The next thing is to raise a bank of snow two and a half feet high all round the interior of the building, except on the side next the door. This bank forms the bed. Over it is laid some gravel, upon that again paddles, tent-poles, pieces of whalebone, twigs of birch and of andro- meda, etc., and finally a number of deer-skins, which form a soft and luxurious couch. They have no fireplace, properly so called, that is to say, no hearth, but each family has a * Parry, 1. c. p. 500. ABSENCE OF CLEANLINESS, 473 separate lamp or shallow vessel generally made of lapis ollaris in which they burn seal's oil, with a wiek made of dry moss. Although they had no knowledge of pottery, Captain Cook saw at Oonalashka vessels " of a flat stone, with sides of clay, not unlike a standing pie." * We here obtain an idea of the manner in which the knowledge of pottery may have been developed. After using clay to raise the sides of their stone vessels, it would naturally occur to them that the same sub- stance would serve for the bottom also, and thus the use of stone might be replaced by a more convenient material. The natives of the Lower Murray cook their food in a hollow in the ground, which they line with clay, and in other cases gourds and wooden vessels are coated with clay in order to enable them to stand heat. Thus we see three ways in which pottery may have been invented. The snow-houses melt away every spring; but in some places the Esquimaux construct their dwellings on a similar plan, but with the bones of whales and wakuses on a founda- tion of stones, and with a covering of earth. The snow-houses are of course pretty clean at first, but they gradually become very filthy. The bone huts are even dirtier, because more durable. " In every direction round the huts," says Captain Parry, " were lying innumerable bones of walruses and seals, together with skulls of dogs, bears, and foxes, on many of which a part of the putrid flesh still remaining sent forth the most offensive effluvia." f He even observed a number of human bones lying about among the rest.J The inside of the huts, " from their extreme closeness and accumulated filth, emitted an almost insupportable stench, to which an abundant supply of raw and half-putrid walrus flesh in no small degree contributed." § * Voyage to tlie Pacific Ocean, | See also Lyon's .Journal, p. 236. vol. ii. p. 510. § Parry, 1. c. p. 358. t Parry, 1. c. p. 280. 474 STORES OF FOOD. On llio iiy__blows, but by pressure, for which pur- pose they use the point of a reindeer's horn, set in bone ; bone itself would not be tough enough. Other^arroW-heads are of horn ; these often bear " owners' marks," as may be seen by fig. 2 (p. 12). The shafts of the arrows are^ short, stra^htened by_steain, and provided with feathers at the butt end. These are fastened on by deer sinews. The_bows_are generally of wood, either" made of one piece steamed into the right form, or of three parts most ingeniously fastened together, and strengtiifiliad-by; pieces of bone or sinew. When wood can- not be obtained, they use bone or horn. They do nQt_appear to be par ticularly _good ,shjQts : but Captain Parry* thinks that they w ould generally hit a deer from forty to forty -five yards, if the ani mal sto od still, f Moreover, against large game they are, after all, not very effective. Sir J. C, Eoss gives an interesting account of a musk-sheep hunt which he witnessed. At length becoming impatient, as the Esquimaux " continued to shoot without apparent effect, finding his opportunities for an aim with much difficulty, and losing- much time afterwards in recovering his arrows. Sir James fired, and broke the animal's shoulder-blade, to the immense astonishment of his companion." | The spears (fig. 232) are made like the arrows, but are larger; the heads also are fi-equently barbed, and in many cases fit loosely into the shaft, but are securely fastened to a long leatliern thong, which is tied to the butt end of the spear. For throwing the harpoon they use a short handle or throwing-stick, about two feet long, naiTOW below, four inches wide above, and with a notch on each side for the thumb and * 1. c. p. 511. also their ancient habits have been t The Esqnimaux of Greenland modified, and their conditiongreatly have long abandoned the bow and improved, by this 'intercourse. arrow, Tising guns obtained from t Sir J. Ross' Arctic Expedition, the Danes. In many other respects 1829-33, p. 350. 480 HUNTING AND FISHING. forefinger. With tliese weapons tliey attack not only seals and walruses, but even whales. They strike the whale, if possible at the same time, with many harpoons, " to which bladders are hung, made of great sealskins, several of which so encumber and stop the whale, that it cannot sink deep. When he is tired out, they despatch him quite with their little lances." Kane gives the figure of a lance, the blade of which closely resembles one of the longer " axes " from the Danish shell-mounds.* The Esquimaux have three principal ways of killing seals. The commonest is with the harpoon and bladder. When an Esquimaux in his kayak " spies a seal, he tries to surprise it unawares, with the wind and sun in his back, that he may Fig. 234. Bone Harpoon. not be heard or seen by it. He tries to conceal himself behind a wave, and makes hastily but softly up to it till he comes within four, five, or six fathoms of it ; meanwhile he takes the utmost care that the harpoon, line, and bladder lie in proper order." f As soon as the seal is struck, the point of the spear detaches itself from the shaft, and at the same moment the Esquimaux throws the large air-bladder on to the water. This is often dragged under water a little v»-ay, but it is so great an impediment, that the seal is soon obliged to come up. " The G-reenlander hastens to the spot where he sees the bladder rise up, and smites the seal as soon as it appears " with the great lance or " angovigak." This is not barbed, and does not therefore remain in the seal's body, but can be used again and again until the animal is exhausted. * Arctic Explorations, vol. ii. p. 129. + Crantz, p. 154. MODES OF HUNTING AND FISHING. 481 The second way is the " clapper-hunt." If the Esquimaux find, or can drive any seals into the creeks or inlets, they frighten them by shouting, clapping, and throwing stones every time they come up to Ijreathe, until at last they are exhausted and easily killed. In winter, when the sea is frozen, the seals, which are obliged to come up from time to time for the sake of air, keep open certain breathing-holes for this purpose, and the Esquimaux, when he has found one of these, waits patiently till the seal makes its appearance, when he kills it instantly with his harpoon. Fig. 233 represents a modern chert Esquimaux harpoon head found in the body of a whale. " While the Dundee whaling steamship Udijrse, commanded by Captain Milne, was fishing in Coutt's Inlet, Davis Straits, a large whale was harpooned and killed. While the animal was in process of dissection, one of the knives came in contact with some hard substance, betokening the presence of some foreign body, which proved to be the lance-head of chert, embedded in the bluljber at a depth of about three inches from the surface. It measures 3|| inches long, 2^- inches greatest breadth of blade, Ij^. inches greatest width of haft, and in thickness about half an inch." The form of the implement is that of the " tobang " or harpoon formerly used by the Esquimaux of North-East America. At the present day, however, the harpoons are tipped with bone, and the use of chert has been abandoned. As the Esquimaux, however, only attack whales when young, this weapon may have been in the animal for many years.* The Esquimaux are excellent deer-stalkers, and are much assisted by the skill with which they can imitate the cry of the reindeer. Fish are caught sometimes with the hook and line, sometimes by means of small nets when they come to the shore in shoals to spawn, or finally with the spear. The * Proceedings of the Soc. Autiq. of Scot., vol. xxxi., 1896-7, p. 279. 2x1 482 MODES OF HUNTING AND FISHING. nets are made of " small hoops or rings of whalebone, firmly liished together with rings of the same material." * The fisliing- lines are also made of whalebone.f Salmon are sometimes so abundant, that in Boothia Felix, Captain Eoss bought a ton weight for a single knife. For killing birds they use an instrument in some respects like the " bolas " of South America : a number of stones or walrus teeth being fastened to short pieces of string, and all the strings then tied together at the other eud.;J: The spears, which are intended to be tlu'own at birds or other small animals, have a double fork at the extremity, and tliree other barbed points near the middle. These diverge in different directions, so that if the end pair should miss, one of the central trio might strike the victim. Aquatic birds are also caught in whalebone nooses ; but the " moulting season is the great bird-harvest, as a few persons wading into the shallow lakes can soon tu'e out the birds and catch them by hand." § The so-called " Arctic Highlanders," however, are said to have no means of killing the reindeer, though it abounds in their country ; nor have they the art of fishing, although, cmiously enough, they catch large numbers of birds in small hand-nets. Seals, bears, walrus, and buxls constitute almost the whole of their diet. || Neither the American nor Green- land Esquimaux have succeeded in taming the reindeer. Dogs are their only domestic animals, and are sometimes used in hunting, but principally to draw the sledges. The sledges vary much both in materials and form : accord- ing to Captain Lyon, the best are made of the jaw-bones of the whale, sawn to about two inches in thickness, and from six inches to a foot in depth. These are the runners, and are * Parry, 1. c. p. 100. vol. ii. pp. 208, 210. See also t Egede, 1. c. p. 107. Ricliardson's Arctic Expedition, J Simpson, 1. c. p. 156. vol. ii. p. 25 ; Simpson's Dis- § Lyon's Journal, p. 338. _^ coveries in Xortli America, p. 347 ; II Kane, Arctic Explorations, Ross, 1. c. p. 585. SLEDGES. BOATS. 483 shod witli a thin plauk of the same material. The sides are couuected by pieces of bone, horn, or wood, firmly lashed together. In Boothia, Captain Eoss saw sledges in which the runners were made of salmon, packed into a cylinder, rolled up in skins, and frozen together. In spring the skins are made into bags, and the fish are eaten.* Altogether these sledges are well constructed, when it is considered with what simple tools they are made. The dogs by which these sledges are drawn are by no means easy to manage. Each has a separate trace attached to the front of the sledge, passing between the legs, and fastened in front to a collar. The dogs therefore are nearly abreast, and the traces are very liable to become entangled. The team is guided by throwing the lash of the whip on one side or the other, and repeating certain words. " Wooa," as among our carters, means " Stop." f Their boats are also very ingeniously built, and are of two kinds, the kajak or men's boat, and the umiak or women's boat. The kajak is from eighteen to twenty feet long, eighteen inches broad in the middle, tapering to both ends, and scarcely a foot deep. It has no outriggers, and is therefore very diffi- cult to sit. It is quite covered over at the top, with the exception of a hole in the middle, into which the Esquimaux puts his legs. The boat therefore cannot fill with water, and even if it upsets, they can right it again by a sudden jerk of the oar, or rather paddle. Indeed, a skilful Esquimaux will even turn somersaults in the water in his boat. In spite of this, they are frequently drowned : and, indeed, so dangerous is the navigation, that they generally go in pairs, so as to assist one another on an emergency, for the skin sides of the kajak are very thin, and if they come in contact with any of the floating ice or drift-timber which abound in the Green- * 1. c. Appendix, p. 24. Discovery of a N.W. Passag.;, + Parry's Three Voyages for the vol. iv. p. 310. 484 BOATS. SCEArERS. land seas, are liable to be torn open, in wliich case the nnfor- lunate Esqnimaux has little chance of saving himself. The nmiak is much larger, and has a fiat bottom. It is made of slender laths, fastened together with whalebone, and covered over with sealskins. The Esquimaux observed by Eoss, at the northern end of Bafhn's Bay, were entirely without canoes, and W' ere " ignorant, even traditionally, of the existence of a boat." * It is, as he justly observes, an extraordinary thing to find " a maritime and a fishing tribe unacquainted with any means of floating on the water " ; but we must remember that they had no wood, and that there were only a few weeks in the year when the sea was unfrozen, No wonder that Eoss's ships were mistaken for living creatures,f and that his boats excited the most unbounded astonishment and admira- tion. Kane also ^ confirms the absence of boats, but he adds " that the kayak laas know^n to them traditionally." In the preparation of skins the Esquimaux use certain stone instruments (figs. 111-113), which have fi'equently been overlooked on account of their simplicity, but which yet are interesting because they are exactly similar to certain ancient implements which are very common in various parts of Europe, and have been already described in page 89. The collection bequeathed by my lamented friend, Mr. Christy, to the nation, and which is now in the British Museum, contains four of these skin-scrapers, three of which were obtained from the Esquimaux north of Behring Straits. These are set in fossil ivory. The fourth was found in a Greenland grave, probably not older than the fifteenth century, and belonging to the Stone period which supervened when the intercom-se with Norway was suspended. Some archfeologists had considered that the " scrapers " were " probaljly knives, the prolonged thick ends of which were intended for handles, to be held * Ross, Baffin's Bay, p. 170. + Arctic Exploration?, vol. ii. + I.e. p. 118. ^ pp. 13.5, 210. CLOTHES. ORNAMENTS. CHEEK-STUDS. 480 between the finger and thumb, or possibly for attachment to a short wooden shaft." * The true nature and use of the ancient skin-scrapers has, however, been entirely explained by these modern specimens, with which they are absolutely iden- tical. The method of preparing skins is curious and ingenious, but very disgusting. The clothes of the Esquimaux are made from the skins of reindeer, seals, and birds, sewn together with sinews. For needles they use bones either of birds or fishes ; yet with these simple instruments they sew very strongly and well. The outer dress of the men resembles a short great-coat, with a hood that can be pulled over the head if necessary, and which serves as a substitute for a hat or cap. Their under- garments or shirts are made of bird-skins with the feathers inwards ; or of skins with the hair inside ; sometimes, how- ever, they wear in addition another shirt made of seal's entrails. Their breeches, " of which in winter they also wear two pair, and similarly disposed as to the fur," f are either of seal-skin or reindeer-skin, and their stockings of skins from very young animals. The boots are of Fig. 235. smooth black dressed seal's leather, and sometimes when at sea they wear a great overcoat of the same material. Their clothes are generally very greasy and dirty, and swarm with Hce. The Esquimaux Cheek-stud. dress of the women does not differ much from that of the men. Among the western tribes the principal ornaments are cheek-studs (fig. 235) or pieces of polished stone or bone, which are worn in the lower lip or cheeks. The hole is made in early infancy, and gradually enlarged by a series of "guides." I * See Archteologia, vol. xxxviii. J Vancouver's Voj'age, vol. ii. p. 415. p. 280 ; see also p. 408 ; Belcher, t Parry, 1. c. p. 495. 1. c. p. 141. 48G GAMES. BONE IMPLEMENTS. These " labrets," however, are not worn by the Eastern tril3es. According to Eichanlson, they are in use from Behring Straits to the ]\Iackt'nzie river.* Tliey are worn exeUisively by the men. The women paint their eyebrows ; and tattoo the face, and especially the chin, in blue lines.f The other orna- ments consist of strips of variously coloured fur, and fringes of pierced teeth, generally those of the fox or wolf. Among the Esquimaux A-isited by Captain Lyon, the ornaments were all appropriated by the men.;]: Some of the families are in the habit of tattooing themselves. The men hunt and fish. They make the weapons and implements, and prepare the woodwork of the boats. The women I are the cooks, prepare the skins, and make the clothes. They also repair the houses, tents, and boats, the men doing only carpenter's work. Though they do not appear to-be harshly treated, still the women have certainly " a hard and almost slavish hfe of it," although perhaps, after all, not more so than the men. The Esquimaux are not altogether without music. They have a kind of drum, and sing both alone and in chorus. They are acquainted with several kinds of games,|| both of strength and skill, and are fond of dances, which are often very indecent. One of their games resembled our cat's- cradle,1[ and Kane saw the children in Smith's Sound play- ing hockey on the ice. The Esquimaux have also a great natural aliility for drawing. In many cases they have made rude maps for our officers, which have turned out to be substantially con-ect. Many of their bone implements are covered wdth sketches. Figs. 236-238 represent three bone drill-bows presented to the Ashmolean Museum by Captain * Arctic Expedition, vol. i. p. % Lyon's Journal, p. 314. 355. § Crantz, p. 164. t BeecheVs Voyage, vol. i. p. || Egede, 1. c. p. 162. 280. IT Hall, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 316. PLATE XL.] DRAWINGS ON ESQUIMAUX B()NE IMPLEMENTS. [p. 486. 236 •23/ 238 RELIGION. MODES OP BURIAL. 487 Beecliey, and which I presume to be some of those which he obtaiued in Hotliam Inlet, Kotzebue Sound, and described in his Voyage to the Pacific. In fig. 238 we see yourts, or winter- ho uses, in two cases, with dogs standing on them ; men armed with bows and arrows, and others dragging seals home over the ice, and one man about to spear a reindeer with a movable-headed harpoon. In fig. 237 are reindeer, geese, a baidar, or flat-bottomed boat, a tent, round which various articles of clothing are hung up to dry, a woman, apparently engaged in the preparation of food, and a hunting scene. A decoy, roughly representing the head and antlers of a reindeer, has been put up ; and a real reindeer, while unsuspiciously browsing close by, is about to be shot l)y an Esquimaux hunter. In fig. 236 are represented two animals, apparently intended for crocodiles ; the draughtsman must, I think, have seen drawings of this animal in some European vessel. According to Crantz, the Greenland Esquimaux " have neither a religious nor idolatrous worship, nor so much as any ceremonies to be perceived tending towards it." * This statement has been confirmed by many other observers.-]- Their burial ceremonies have, however, been supposed by some to indicate a belief in the resurrection. They generally bend the body into a sitting posture, bringing the knees up under the chin, and then wrap the corpse in one of their best skins. For the grave they choose some high place, and over the corpse they make a heap of stones. Near the body some of them place the implements of the deceased, and even sometimes, if he was a man, his kajak ; believing, as it has been said, that they will be of use to him in the new world. Egede,J however, expressly denies that it is done with any * ]. c. p. 197. 128 ; Parry, 1. c. p. 551 ; Eichard- t Graah's Voyage to Greenland, son's Arctic Expedition, vol. ii. p. p. 123 ; Ross, Baffin's Bay, vol. i. 44 ; Egede, 1. c. p. 183. p. 175 ; Voyage of Discovery, p. X 1- c. p. 151. 488 THINGS BURIED AVITII THE PEAT>. such idea. This view is also confirmed by Hall, according to whom the Esquimaux have a superstitious objection to use, or even touch, anything which has been in a house containing a dead body.* It is, perhaps, the same idea wliich induces them to remove a corpse, not through the ordinary entrance, but by w"ay of the window.! In other cases, when a person is evidently dying, they place by him everything which can soothe and comfort his last moments, and then leave the igloo, or house, which they close up, thus converting it into a tomb.;J Crantz tells us that they " lay a dog's head by the grave of a child, for the soul of a dog can find its way every- where, and will show the ignorant babe the way to the land of souls," and this is admitted by Egede. Moreover, the custom of occasionally burying models of implements, instead of the implements themselves, tends to the same conclusion. Captain Cook saw burial mounds of earth or stone at Oonalashka. One of the latter was near the village, and he observed that, in accordance with a custom which seems to prevail all over the world, every one who passed threw a stone on it.§ Infants, if unfortunate enough to lose their mothers, are always bmied with them ; and sickly aged people are sometimes buried alive, as it is considered a kindness to spare them the pain of a lingering death. The Esquimaux observed by Captain Parry had a superstitious idea that any weight pressing upon the corpse would give pain to the deceased.|| Such a belief w^ould naturally give rise, in a more favom-ed country, to vaulted tumuli ; but in the extreme north, the only result is that the dead bodies are but slightly covered up, in consequence of which the foxes and dogs frequently dig them up and eat them. This the natives regard with the * 1. c. vol. i. p. 201, vol. ii. p. J Graah, 1. c. p. 126. 221. § Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, t Graah,]. c. p. 128 ; Ross, Arctic vol. ii. p. 519. Expedition, 1829-33, p. 290. || 1. c. pp. 395, 417, 550. CHARACTEE. 489 utmost indifference ; they leave the human bones lying about near the huts, among those of animals which have served for food ; another reason for doubting whether their burial customs can be regarded as satisfactory evidence of any very definite and general belief in a resurrection, or whether the oljjects which they bury with their friends are really supposed to be of actual use to them. On the whole, the burial customs of the Esquimaux are very like those of which we find evidence in the ancient tumuli of northern and western Europe. In character the Esquimaux are a quiet, peaceable people. Those observed by Eoss, in Baffin's Bay, " could not be made to understand what was meant by war, nor had they any war- like weapons." * Like other savages, they resemble children in a great many respects. They are such bad arithmeticians tliat the " enumeration of ten is a labour, and of fifteen an impossibility with many of them."-|- Dr. Eae, who was mucli attached to the Esquimaux, assures us that if a man is asked the number of his children, he is generally much puzzled. After counting some time on his fingers, he will probably consult his wife, and the two often differ, even though they may not have more than four or fivcij: Amongst the Esquimaux both polygamy and polyandry appear to occur. A strong or skilful man has often more than one wife, a beautiful or clever woman in some cases more than one husband. § Again, the temporary loan of a wife is considered a mark of peculiar friendship ; in which, however, the advantage is not all on one side, as a large family, far from being any incumbrance, is among the Esquimaux a great advantage.il Apart, moreover, from these recognized customs, * 1. c. p. 186. § Ross, 1. c. p. 273. t Parry, 1. c. p. 251. || lb. 1. c. p. 515. I See, for a curious instance of tliiSj Graah, 1. c. p. 131. 490 CHARACTER. it does not appear that tlie Esquimaux set any very high vahie on the virtue oi chastity. They are excessively dirty. Considering the difficulty in obtaining enough water even to drink during the greater part of the year, we cannot, perhaps, wonder that they never dream of washing. Their word for dirt, eberk, conveys no idea of anything disagreeable or offensive ; * but, in justice to them, we must remember that the extreme cold, by preventing putrefaction, removes one of our principal inducements to cleanliness, and at the same time induces so great a scarcity of liquid water, as to render washing almost an impossibility. Indeed, they often have difficulty in procuring enough even for drinking purposes. As a general rule, it is impossible to put any dependence on their promises, not so much that they are intentionally deceitful, as on account of the wavering and inconstant dis- position which they possess in common with so many other savages. Among themselves a successful huntsman or fisher- man is always ready to share his seal or walrus with his less fortunate neighbours ; but he expects, as a matter of course, that sufficient return will be made to him when an oppor- tunity occurs. They give away nothing themselves without expecting to receive as much again, and, being unable to imagine any other line of conduct, are naturally very deficient in gratitude. Captain Eoss, however, and Dr. Eae consider that the Esquimaux encountered by them were neither un- grateful nor particularly selfish. In other respects also these appear to have been very favourable specimens of the race. Though not cruel, the Esquimaux seem to be a somewhat heartless people. They do not, indeed, feel any actual pleasure in the infliction of pain, but they will take little trouble to remove or relieve suffering. They are also great thieves ; but, as Captain Parry truly observes,-]- we must " make due * Kane, Arctic Explorations, vol. ii. p. 116. t 1. c. j). 522. CHARACTER. 491 allow aiice for the degree of temptation to which' they were daily exposed, amidst the boundless stores of wealth which our ships appear to them to furnish." According to Hall,* moreover, they are strictly honest among themselves, kind, generous, and trustworthy. Parry thus describes them : " In the few opportunities we had of putting their hospitality to the test, we had every reason to be pleased with them. Both as to food and ac- commodation, the best they had were always at our service ; and their attention, both in kind and degree, was everything that hospitality and even good breeding could dictate. The kindly otfices of drying and mending our clothes, cooking our provisions, and thawing snow for our drink, were performed by the women with an obliging cheerfulness which we shall not easily forget, and which commanded its due share of our admiration and esteem. While thus their guest, I have passed an evening not only with comfort, but with extreme gratifica- tion ; for, with the women working and singing, their husbands quietly mending their lines, the children playing before the door, and the pot boiling over the blaze of a cheerful lamp, one might well forget for the time that an Esquimaux hut was the scene of this domestic comfort and tranquillity ; and I can safely affirm with Cartwright that, while thus lodged beneath their roof, I know no people whom I would more confidently trust, as respects either my person or my property, than the Esquimaux." f Dr. Eae has also a very high opinion of them, and they seem from all accounts to present the remarkable pheno- menon of a really high state of morality, without anything which can be called religion. The North American Indians. The aboriginal, or at least the pre-Columbian inhaljitants * 1. c. vol. ii. p. 312. Discovery of a North-west Passage, t Parry's Three Voyages for the vol. v. p. 13. 492 XOETII AMERICAN INDIANS. cif Xcirtli America, fall naturally into three divisions : the Esquimaux in the extreme north, the Indian trihes in the centre, and the comparatively civilized j\Iexicans in the south. The central tribes, which occupied by far the greater extent of the continent, were again divided by the Eocky Mountains into two great groups ; that on the western side being in much the most abject condition. Though no doubt there was and is an immense difference between different tribes — and parti- cularly between the semi-agricultural nations of the west, and the filthy barbarians of Northern California — still, as Mr. Schoolcraft, to whom we are indebted for an excellent work on the " History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes,"* truly says, " their manners and customs, their opinions and mental habits, had, wherever they were inquired into, at the earliest dates, much in common. Their m(jdes of war and worship, hunting and amusements, were very similar. In the sacrifice of prisoners taken in war ; in the laws of reta- liation ; in the sacred character attached to public transactions solemnized by smoking the pipe ; in the adoption of persons taken in war, in families ; in the exhibition of dances on almost every occasion that can enlist human sympathy ; in the meagre and inartificial style of music ; in the totemic tie that binds relationships together, and in the system of symbols and figures cut and marked on their grave-posts, on trees, and sometimes on rocks, there is a perfect identity of principles, arts, and opinions. The mere act of wandering and petty warfare kept them in a savage state, though they had the element of civilization with them in the Maize." f As regards dress, many of the Indian chiefs had magnificent dresses of skins and feathers. Some of the tribes, indeed, wore no clothes ; but this was rarely the case with the women, * PuLlislied by authority of Con- also Bancroft, The Native Races of gress, Philadelphia, 1853 ; see the Pacific States. t 1. c. vol. ii. p. 47. DRESS. ORNAMENTS. 493 and even the men had generally at least a loin-cloth. The amount of clothing, however, depended very much on the temperature. In the plains and forests of the tropical and southern latitudes, " the Indian wears little or no clothing during a large part of the year " ; hut it is very different on the mountains and in the north, where the common dress was the breech-cloth and moccasins, with a buffalo-skin thrown over the shoulders. The inhabitants of Vancouver's Island had mats, made either of dog's-wool alone, or of dog's-wool and goose-down together, or of threads obtained from cedar-bark. They often wore " necklaces of shells, claws, or wampum ; feathers on the head and armlets, as well as ear and nose jewels."* Many of the Indian tribes are clean in their person, and frequently use both the sweat-house and cold bath ; others are described as repulsive in countenance and filthy both in person and habit. Among the western tribes tattooing is very general with the women, though not carried to any great extent. The eastern tribes do not generally disfigure themselves artificially, except indeed by the use of paint ; but it is very different in the west. The Sachet Indians of De Fuca's Straits wear pieces of bone or wood passed through the carti- lage of the nose ; the Classet Indians cut their noses when they capture a whale ; among the Babines, who live north of Columbia Kiver, the size of the under-lip is the standard of female beauty.f A hole is made in the under-lip of the infant, in which a small bone is inserted ; from time to time the bone is replaced by a larger one, until at last a piece of wood three inches long and an inch and a half wide is inserted in the orifice, which makes the lip protrude to a frightful extent. The process appears to be very painful. Owing to the almost universal custom of fastening babies * Schoolcraft, vol. iii. p. 65. ica, ix 242 ; Vancoiivor, 1. c. vol. t Kean's Indians of North Amer- ii. pp. 280, 408. 494 THE PRACTICE OF HEAD-MOULDING. to a cradle-board, the American skulls are characterized hy a flattened occiput. This peculiarity does not now occur in European heads, but it is found in many ancient skulls from various parts of the old continents, and indicates, as pointed o\it by Vesalius, Gosse, and AVilson, that the cradle-board, though long abandoned, was at one time used in "Western Europe, as it is even now among the Indians of North Amer- ica. The extraordinary practice of moulding the form of the head was common to several of the Indian tribes. It pre- vailed in Mexico and Peru, in the Carib Islands, and among the savage tribes of Oregon. Among the Natchez the deform- ity is described by the historian of De Soto's expedition as consisting of an upward elongation of the cranium, until it terminated in a point or edge. The Choctaws, though enemies of the Natchez, " improved " their heads in the same way. Their children were placed upon a board, and a bag of sand was laid upon the forehead, " which, by continual gentle com- pressure, gives the forehead somewhat the form of a brick from the temples upwards, and by these means they have high and lofty foreheads sloping off backwards." * The Waxsaws, Muscogees or Creehs, Catawbas, and Altacapas, are described as having had a similar custom. It was, however, only the male infants which were treated in this manner. Among the Nootka-Columbians the practice of flattening the head was universal. The child was placed in a box or cradle lined with moss. The Newatees, a tribe residing on the north end of Vancouver's Island, forced the head into a conical shape by means of a cord of deer-skin padded with the inner l.iark of the cedar-tree. This cord, which is about as thick as a man's thumb, is wound rovmd the infant's head, and gradually forces it to take the shape of a tapering cone.f Among the Pervuians the forehead was pressed downwards and back- * Sclioolcraft, 1. c. vol. 11. p. 324. + Wilson on Physical Ethnology, Smithsonian Eeport, 1862, p. 288. RELIGION. SOCIAL POSITION OF WOMEN. 495 wards by tight bandages, of which there seem to have been generally two, leaving a space between them, and thus pro- ducing a well-marked ridge running transversely across the skull. Thus, while the forehead was prevented from rising and the sides of the head from expanding, the occipital region was allowed full freedom of growth, and the development of the brain was forced to take an unnatural direction. It is very remarkable that tliis unnatural process does not appear to have any prejudicial effect on the minds of the sufferers.* Hearne states that the Northern Indians had no religion ; even the celebrated " five nations " of Canada, according to Golden, had no religion, nor any word for God. Burnet -f never found any semblance of worship among the Gomanches. In the central parts of North America, however, the Indian tribes generally believed in the existence of a Great Spirit, and the survival of the soul ; but they seem to have had scarcely any religious observances, still less any edifices for sacred purposes. The Dacotahs never pray to the Greater ; if they wish for fine weather, they pray to the weather itself. They are said to have believed that the Great Spirit made all things except thunder and rice, but we are not told the reason for these two curious exceptions. The social position of the women seems to have been very degraded among the aboriginal tribes of North America. " Their wives, or dogs, as some of the Indians term them," were indeed well treated as long as they did all the work, and there was plenty to eat ; but throughout the Gontinent, as indeed among all savages, the domestic drudgery falls to their lot, while the men hunt and make war ; though in justice to them we must remember that the former at least of these two occupations was of the greatest possible import- * Beecher's Voyage round the t Schoolcraft, vol. i. p. 237. See World, vol. i. \). 308 ; Wilson, also Richardson's Arctic E.\pedi- Smithsonian Report, 1862, p. 287. tion, vol. ii. p. 21. 496 CHARACTER. aiice, and lliat u]ion it depended their principal means of snltsistence. Pulygamy generally prevailed ; the husljand had absolute power over his wives, and the marriage lasted only as long as he pleased. Among some of the North Californian Indians it is not thought right to beat the wives, but the men " allow themselves the privilege of shooting such as they tired of."* Among the Dogribs and other northern tribes, the women are the property of the strongest. Every one is considered to have both a legal and ii^oral right to take the wife of any man weaker than he is. In fact, the men fight for the possession of the women, just like stags and the males of other wild beasts. j- Lending wives is a frequent custom. :|: " Imperturbability,! in all situations, is one of the most striking and general traits of the Indian character. To still his muscles to resist the expression of all emotion, seems to be his great ambition; and this is particularly observed on public occasions. Neither fear nor joy are permitted to break this trained equanimity." Even among relations "it is not customary to indulge in warm greetings. The pride and stoicism of the hunter and warrior forbid it. The pride (jf the wife, who has been made the creature of rough endur- ance, also forbids it." But perhaps the most remarkable evidence of this is the fact that some of the American languages, and even the Algonquin, although one of the richest, contained no word f(jr " to love " ; and when Elliott translated the Bible for them in 1061, he was obliged to coin one. He introduced the word " womon " to supply the want. Again, tlie Tinne language II contains no word to express "dear" or "beloved." * Col. M'Kee in Sclioolcraft's Travels,}). 131; James'Expedition to Indian Tribes, vol. ill. p. 127. tlie Kocky Mountains,- vol. i. p. 212. t See Hearne's Journey to tlie § Schoolcraft, vol. iii. p. 58. Copper-Mine River, p. 104. || Richardson's Arctic Expedi- X Hearne, 1. c. p. 128 ; Carv'er's tion, vol. ii. p. 24. CRUELTY. INFANTICIDE. 497 It is only fair to add that Kane found the Cree Indians swearing in French, having no oaths in their own language.* Mr Schoolcraft records, as an indication that they are in reality of afifectionate disposition, that he " once saw a Fox Indian on the banks of the Mississippi, near whose wigwam I had, unnoticed to him, wandered, take up his male infant in his arms, and several times kiss it."-j- The special mention of this fact conveys a different impression from that which was intended. Nevertheless, among the better tribes many no doubt are capable of feeling strong affection, and there are even cases on record in which the father has redeemed his son from the stake, and actually been burnt in his stead. Partly no doubt from the hatred produced by almost in- cessant wars, partly perhaps encouraged by the stoical dis- regard of pain which it was their pride to affect, the North American Indians were very cruel to captives taken in war. Scalping seems to have been an universal practice, and it is even said that the Sioux sometimes ate the hearts of their enemies, every one of the war-party getting a mouthful, if possible. Infanticide was common in the north, but does not seem to have prevailed among the southern tribes to any great extent ; and until the advent of Europeans they do not appear to have had any fermented liquors. The Sioiix, Assiniboines and other tribes on the Missouri are said to have habitually abandoned those who from age or infirmities were unable to follow the hunting-camps. The same was frequently the case among the northern tribes. Copper is found native in the northern districts, and even before the advent of the Europeans was used for hatchets bracelets, etc. Nevertheless, it was used rather as a stone. than as a metal ; that is to say, the Indians did not heat it and run it into moulds, or work it when hot, but simply took * 1. c. p. 339. t L c. vol. iii. p. 04. 2 J 498 IMPLEMENTS. -WEAPONS. atlvautago of its nialleal)ility and hammered it into form, without ihe assistance of heat. MetaUic vessels were quite nnknown to ihe aln)rigines of North America. Tiie implements of the Shoshonees, or Snake Indians, are described by AVyeth. Their possessions were confined to " the pot, bow and arrow, knives, graining tools, awls, root- digger, fish-spears, nets, a kind of boat or raft, the pipe, mats for shelter, and implements to produce fire." * The pot w^as made of " long tough roots, wound in plies around a centre, shortening the circumference of the outer plies so as to form a vessel in the shape of an inverted bee- hive." They were so well made as to be quite water-tight, and though, of course, they could not be put on the fire, still they were used for boiling, in the manner already described as practised by other savages. The Dacotahs are said to have sometimes boiled animals in their own skins, taking the skin off whole, suspending it at the four corners, and making use of boiling stones as usual. They had also stone vessels, but these were rare, and probably used only as mortars. Their bow^s are skilfully made of the horns of the moun- tain sheep and elk, or sometimes of wood. " The string is of twisted sinew, and is used loose, and those using this bow require a guard to protect the hand which holds it." The arrow is driven with such force that it will pass right through the body of a horse or buffalo. -j- Although on the whole far inferior to the rifle, still, in hunting, the bow has the one great advantage of silence. Among several of the tribes, arrow-making was a distinct profession. The arrow-heads are of obsidian, about tliree-fom'ths of an inch long and half an inch wide, and quite thin. The base is expanded and is inserted into the split end of the shaft, being * Schoolcraft, vol. i. p. 212. p. 141 ; Catlin, 1. c. vol. i. p. 31, + Ibid. 1. c. vol. hi. pp. 35, 46 ; vol. ii. p. 212 ; McKean and Halls Kaue's North American Indians, Indian Tribes, vol. ii. p. 4. KNIVES. SPEAES. BOATS. 499 kept ill its place by sinews. The shaft is about two feet and a half long ; when intended fur hunting it is expanded at the end, so that when it is drawn out of the wound the arrow- head is extracted also ; but the shafts of war-arrow^s taper to the end, so that when they are drawn out the head remains behind. The sling does not appear to have been much used. The knives are rudely made of obsidian, and are sometimes fastened in handles of wood or horn. The graining tools for preparing skins are sometimes of bone, sometimes of obsidian. Mr. Wyeth does not describe their form. Awls were made of bone, large thorns also being sometimes used for the purpose. Koot-diggers are either made of horns, or of crooked sticks pointed and hardened by fire. " The fish- spear is a very simple and ingenious implement. The head is of bone, to which a small strong line is attached near the middle, connecting it with the shaft about two feet from the point. Near the forward end of this head there is a small hole, which enters it, ranging acutely towards the point of the head ; it is quite shallow. In this hole the front end of the shaft is placed." The shaft is of light willow, and about ten feet long. When the fish is struck, the shaft is withdraw^n, and the string at once pulls the bone end into a transverse position. The fish-nets are made of bark, which gives a very strong line, and are of two kinds, the scoop and the seine. They are, however, unknown among the northern tribes w^est of the Mackenzie.* The boats of the Shoshonees hardly deserve the name, and seem to be used only for crossing rivers. They are about eight feet long, and made of reeds, but there is no attempt to make them water-tight. Other tribes, however, have much better canoes, made either of bark or of a log hollowed out. The pipes are large, and the bowl is generally of fuller's-earth, or of soap-stone. 'J'he mats are * Richardson's Arctic Expedition, vol. ii. p. 25. 500 FIRES. about four feet loiiff, are made of ruvshes, and are used eitlier as beds, or in the construction of wigwams. They obtain fire by rul)liinn- a piece of wood in a liole. Tlie Chippeways and Natchez tribes had an institution for keepino- up a perpetual fire, certain persons lieing set aside and devoted to this occupation. The Dacotahs used a drill bow (fig. 239) for the purpose of obtaining fire. This instrument, as shown in the accompany- ing figure, is a small stiff bow, the string of which forms a loop round the upright stick, and thus, when the bow is Fig. 239. Fig. 240. Dacotali Fire Drill Bow Iror^uois Fire Pump Drill. moved backwards and forwards, gives it a rotatory movement. The Iroquois had effected a still further improvement, and worked with an instrument (fig. 240) closely resembling that used in Western Europe, in Samoa,* and Ceylon,-f- to drill holes in earthenware and metal. The use of the bow drill is very ancient. Ulysses used one to put out the eye of the unfortunate Cyclops. I myself, he says, twirled it round, while my companions pulled the "thong," * Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia, -p. 274. t Da\7's Ceylon, p. 263. DWELLINGS. 501 and it requires no great stretch of the imagination to see the strap drill working until " the very roots of the eye hissed in the fire." The bow drill was used still earher by the Egyptians — even in the fourth dynasty. The huts or wigwams of the North American Indians are of two kinds, one for summer and the other for winter. The winter wigwam of the Dacotahs is thus described by School- craft : " To erect one of them it is only necessary to cut a few saplings about fifteen feet in length, place the large ends on the ground in a circle, letting the tops meet, thus forming a cone. The buffalo skins, sewed together in the form of a cap, are then thrown over them and fastened together with a few splints. The fire is made on the ground in the centre of the wigwam, and the smoke escapes through an aperture at the top. These wigwams are warm and comfortable. The other kind of hut is made of bark, usually that of the elm."* The huts of the Mandans,-]- Minatarees, etc., were circular in form, and from forty to sixty feet in diameter. The earth was removed to a depth of about two feet. The framework was of timber, covered with willow boughs, but leaving a space in the middle to serve both as chimney and window. Over the woodwork was placed a thick layer of earth, and at the top of all some tough clay, which was impervious to water, and in time became quite hard, as in fine weather the tops of the huts were the common lounging-place for the whole tribe. Though these dwellings were sometimes kept very clean and tidy,| this was not always the case. Speaking of the Nootka Sound Indians, Captain Cook§ says: "The nastiness and stench of their houses are, however, at least equal to the con- fusion. For, as they dry their fish within doors, they also gut * 1. c. vol. ii. p. 191. t Catlin'fi American Indian?, t This tribe, one of the most vol. i. p. 82. interesting, has been entirely swept § Third Voyage, vol. ii. \>. 31G. away by the small -pox. 502 DWELLINGS. AGRICULTURE. them tlievo, which, \\i\]\ liu'lv hones and fragments thrown down at meals, and the addition of other sorts of filth, lie everywhere in heaps, and are, I believe, never carried away till it becomes troublesome, from their size, to walk over them. In a word, their houses are as filthy as hog-sties : everything in and about them stinking of fish, train-oil, and smoke." The Wallawalla Indians * of Columbia dig a circular hole in the ground about ten or twelve feet deep, and from forty to fifty feet in circumference, and cover it over with drift- wood and mud. A hole is left on one side for a door, and a notched pole serves as a ladder (see fig. 148, p. 125). Here twelve or fifteen persons bm-row through the winter, requiring very little fire, as they generally eat their salmon raw, and the place is warm from the numbers collected together and the absence of ventilation. In summer they use lodges made of rushes or mats spread on poles. This tribe lives principally on salmon, preferring it putrid. South of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and west of the Eocky Mountains almost all the tribes seem to have grown more or less maize. In the Carolinas and Virginia the Indians raised large quantities, and " all relied on it as one of their fixed means of subsistence."! The Delawares had extensive maize fields at the time of the discovery of America. In 1527, De Vaca saw it in small quantities in Florida, and De Soto, twelve years later, found it abundant among the Muscogees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokees. On one occasion his army marched through fields of it for a distance of two leagues. It is known to have been cultivated by the Iroquois in 1610, and, though only in small quantities, " by the hunter communities of the Ohio, the Wabagh, the Miami, and the Illinois," as well as by the natives along both banks of the * Kane's North American In- t Schoolcraft, 1. c. vol. i. p. 6. dians, p. 272 ; United States Ex- See also Richardson's Arctic Expe- ploring Expedition, vol. iv. p. 452. dition, vol. ii. j). 51. MAIZE. RICE. ANIMAL FOOD. 503 Mississippi. The evidences of ancient agriculture have been already alluded to in the chapter on North American Archse- ology ; the maize appears to have been the only plant actually under cultivation ; but some of the tribes depended for their subsistence very much on roots, etc. The principal imple- ment of agriculture seems to have been the hoe, for which they often used the shoulder-blade of the bison fixed into a handle of wood. Wild rice also grew abundantly in the shallow lakes and streams of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, as well as in the upper valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri. It was gathered by the women, and formed one of their principal articles of food. They went into the rice- fields in canoes, and bending the stalks in handfuls over the sides of the canoe, beat out the grain with paddles. The North American Indians, however, depended mainly on the animal kingdom for their subsistence. They were essentially hunters and fishermen ; the buffalo, the deer, and the salmon supplying them with their principal articles of food. The buffaloes were sometimes driven into pounds, sometimes shot on the open prairie with bows and arrows. Fish were speared, caught in weirs, etc., or shot with the bow. The Macaws and Clallums on the Pacific coast sometimes even killed whales. For this purpose they use large barbed harpoons of bone, with a string, and a strong sealskin bag filled with air. This apparatus was used in the same manner as among the Esquimaux (ante, p. 482). Like all carnivorous animals, the Indians alternate between seasons of great plenty and extreme want. Usually game is abundant, and Noka, one of their most celebrated hunters, is said to have killed in one day sixteen elks, four buffaloes, five deer, three bears, a porcupine, and a lynx. This of course was a very excep- tional case. Still there is generally some season of the year when they kill more game than is required for immediate consumption. In this case the surplus is dried and made into 504 BUIUAL. ART. pemiuican. In winter, however, they are often very short of provisions. Back gives a terrible picture of their suCferings in famine times ; * and Wyeth tells us that the Shoshonees " nearly starve to death annually, and in winter and spring are emaciated to the last degree ; the trappers used to think they all eventually died from starvation, as they became old and feeble."-]- As might naturally be expected, the mode of burial varies much in different parts of North America. In Columbia, and among many of the Prairie tribes, the dead are generally sewn up in a skiu or blanket, and placed either on the boughs of a tree or on a scaffold ; the personal property of each deceased individual being placed near the body.;|: In some cases the bodies were placed in canoes, and deposited among the branches of trees. Many of the Eastern races, as already mentioned (ante, p. 123), buried their dead under tumuli. Among the Clear Lake Indians, the Carriers, etc., it w"as usual to burn them, while in Florida they were interred in a sitting posture. Among other tribes the bones of the dead were collected every eight or ten years, and laid in one common burial-place. Here therefore we see that even among nearly allied races the burial customs differed con- siderably. The Redskins are not altogether deficient in art, being able to make rude carvings, and to trace equally rude drawings on their wigw^ams, robes, etc. ; but about portraits they have some curious ideas. They think that an artist acquires some mysterious power over any one wd;iose likeness he may have taken ; and on one occasion, when annoyed by some Indians, Mr. Kane got rid of them at once by threatening to draw any one who remained. Not one ventured to do so. If the like- * Arctic Land Expedition, pp. t Schoolcraft, vol. i. p. 216. 194-226. See also Eichardson's J United States' Exploring Ex- Arctic Expedition, vol. ii. p. 96. pedition, vol. iv. p. 389. ART. 505 ness is good, so mnch the worse ; it is, they fancy, half alive — at the expense of the sitter. So much life, they argue, could only be put in the picture by taking it away from the original. Again, they fancy that if the picture were injured, by some mysterious coiniection the original would suffer also. But perhaps the oddest notion of all is recorded by Catlin. He excited great commotion among the Sioux by drawing one of their great chiefs in profile. •' Why was half his face left out ? " they asked ; " Mahtocheega was never ashamed to look a white man in the face." Mahtocheega himself does not seem to have taken any offence, but Shonka, The Dog, took advan- tage of the idea to taunt him. " The Englishman knows," he said, " that you are but half a man ; he has painted Ijut one- half of your face, and knows that the rest is good for nothing." This view of the case led to a fight, in which poor Mahtocheega was shot ; and as ill-luck would have it, the bullet by which he wns killed tore away just that part of the face which had been omitted in the drawing. This was very unfortunate for Mr. Catlin, who had great difficulty in making his escape, and lived some months after in fear for his life; nor was the matter settled until both Shonka and his brother had been killed in revenge for the death of Mahtocheega. Like so many other savage races, the North Americans are rapidly disappearing. Left to themselves they would perhaps have developed an indigenous civilization, but for ours they are unfit. Unable to compete with Europeans as equals, and too proud to work as inferiors, they have profited by inter- course with the superior race only where the paternal govern- ment of the Hudson's Bay Company has protected them both from the settlers and from themselves, has encouraged liunt- ing, put an end to war, prevented the sale of spirits, and, in times of scarcity, provided food. Ere long almost the only remains of the Indian blood will, perhaps, be found in the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company. 506 THE TAIUGUAY INDIANS. The Paraguay Tndians. The Indians of Paraguay have been described by Dobritz- hoft'er * and by Don Felix de Azara,j- who lived a long time among tliem. He found them divided into several different nations or tribes, with at least forty distinct languages, and with different customs. Some of them lived by fishing, but the greater number depended for their subsistence on the wild horses and cattle, and must therefore have had different liabits before the discovery of America l)y the Europeans. Their principal arms were long spears, clubs, and bows and arrows. Some tribes, however, as, for instance, those of the Pampas, do not use bows and arrows, but prefer the bolas. In war, the Indians of Paraguay gave no quarter to men, but spared only the women and children. Their houses, if we can call them so, were of the simplest character ; they cut three or four boughs, stuck the two ends into the ground, and threw over them a cow-skin. Their bed consisted of another skin ; they had no chairs or tables, or any kind of furniture. The men seldom wore any clothes ; the dress of the women consisted usually of a poncho, although among some of the tribes, as the Nalicuegas, even this was dispensed with. The art of washing seems to have been entirely unknown, though Azara admits that in very hot weather they used sometimes to bathe, rather, however, as it would appear, for coolness than for cleanliness. It is un- necessary, therefore, to say that they were excessively filthy. They had no domestic animals, nor any idea of agriculture. Their doctors had but one remedy, which they applied in all cases, and which had at least the great merit of beincr harm- less — since it consisted in applying their lips to the seat of any pain, and sucking with all their force, in order to extract the evil. * Dobritzhoffer, History of the + Voyages daiis I'Amerique Me- Abipones. . ridionale, 1809. THE PATAGONIANS. 507 Many of the tribes painted their bodies in various ways, and it was usual to pierce the under-lip and insert a piece of wood, about four or five inches long, which they never removed. They had no regular form of government, nor, accord- ing to Azara, any ideas of religion. He makes this latter statement generally for all the Indians, and repeats it parti- cularly for the following tribes — namely, the Charruas, Min- uanas, Aucas, Guaranys, Guayanas, Nalicuegas, Guasarapos, Guatos, Ninaquiguilas, Guanas, Lenguas, Aguilots, Mocobys, Abipones, and Paraguas ; yet it appears from other passages that some at least of these tribes were believers in witchcraft and in mysterious evil beings. Azara describes the language of the Guaranys as being the most copious, and yet it was in many respects very deficient ; for instance, they could only count up to four, and had no words for the higher numbers, not even for five or six. The marriage tie was little regarded among them ; th.ey married when they liked, and separated again when they pleased. Infanticide was, in several of the tribes, the rule, rather than the exception ; the women brought up but one child each, and as they spared only the one which they thought likely to be the last, it often happened that they were left without any at all. TJiG Patagonians. The inhabitants of the southern parts of South America, although they are divided into numerous different tribes, may be considered as falling into two great groups: the Patagonians, or Horse Indians, on the East, who have* horses but no canoes ; and the Chonos and Fuegians, or Canoe Indians, who have canoes but no horses, and who inhabit the tempestuous islands on the south and west. The Yacana-kunny, who inhabit the north-eastern part of 508 STATURE. HUTS. Tierra del Fuogo, are, properly speaking, not Fiiegians, but Patagonians, and resemble them in colour, stature, and cloth- ing, except the peculiar boots. They live now pretty much as the mainlanders probably did before the introduction of horses, and feed principally on guanacoes, ostriches, birds, and seals, which they kill with dogs, bows and arrows, bolas, slings, lances, and clubs.* The habits of the Patagonians must have been much altered by the introduction of the horse, but we can only deal with them as they now are. The Horse and Canoe Indians offer a great contrast in point of size ; while the latter are short, ill-looking, and badly-pro- portioned, the former are considerably above the average height, and are described by early travellers as being truly gigantic. They were first visited in 1519 by Magellan, who assures us that many of them were above seven feet (French) in height. In 1525 they were seen by Garcia de Loaisa, who mentions their great stature, but does not seem to have mea- sured them. Similar statements were made by Cavendish, Knevett, Sibald de Veert, Van Noort, Spilbergen,and Lemaire ; in fact, out of the fifteen first voyagers who passed through the Magellanic Straits, not fewer than nine attest the fact of the gigantic size of the Patagonians; in which they are con- firmed by the testimony of several subsequent travellers, and especially of Falkner, who assures us that he saw many men who were over seven feet in height. It is difficult altogether to reject these statements, and as they are certainly not applicable to the present race, it is possible that there may have been a change of size owing to the introduction and general use of the horse. The huts, or " toldos," of the Patagonians, are " rectangular in form, about ten or twelve feet long, ten deep, seven feet high in front, and six feet in the rear. The frame of the building is formed by poles stuck in the ground, having forke(J * Fitzroy, 1. c, vol. ii. p. 137. HUTS. DEESS. 509 tops to hold cross pieces, on which are laid poles for rafters, to support the covering, which is made of skins of animals sewn together, so as to be almost impervious to rain or wind. The posts and rafters, which are not easily procured, are carried from place to place in all their travelling excursions. Having reached tlieir bivouac, and marked out a place with due regard to shelter from the wind, they dig holes with a piece of pointed hard wood, to receive the posts : and all the frame and cover being ready, it takes but a short time to erect a dwelling." * They have no pottery, and for carrying water the only vessels they use are bladders. Their dress consists princi- pally of skins, sewn together with ostrich sinews, and often curiously painted on one side ; but, according to Falkner,-]- some of the tribes " make or weave fine mantles of woollen yarn, beautifully dyed with many colours. They have also a small triangular apron, two corners of which are tied round the waist, while the third passes between the legs and is fastened behind. When on horseback they use a kind of poncho or mantle, with a slit in the middle, through which they put their head. For boots they wear the " skin of the thighs and legs of mares and colts " ; they clean the skins, and then, after drying, soften with grease, and so put them on without either shaping or sewing. | They make brushes of grass, twigs, and rushes, and use the jaw of a porpoise for a comb.§ The women wear a mantle, fastened across the breast by a wooden skewer, or pin, and tied round the waist. They have also a kind of apron which reaches down to their knees, but which only covers them in front. Tlieir boots are made in the same way as those of the men. Like other * Fitzroy, 1. c. vol. i. p. 93. purpose, and it was on account of t Falkner's Patagonia, p. 128. these shoes that Magellan called X When first visited they used them " Patagonians." the skin of the guanaco for this § Fitzroy, vol. i. p. 75. 510 AVEAPONS. FOOD. savages, they are fond of beads, feathers, and other ornaments. They also paint themselves with red, black, and white, which, however, to European eyes is anything but an improvement. Their defensive armour consists of a helmet and a shield, both made of thick hide, and strong enough to resist either arrows or lances. Bows ;tnd arrows have been abandoned by most of the Tatagoniau tribes. Where used, the bows are small, and the arrows, which are pointed with stone or bone, are said to be sometimes poisoned. They have also clubs and long cane lances, most of which are now tipped with iron. But the weapons which are most characteristic of the Patagonians, and which are indeed almost peculiar to them, are the bolas,* of which there are two or three sorts. That used in war is a single rounded stone or ball of hardened clay, weighing about a pound, and fastened to a short rope or sinew of skin. This they sometimes throw at their adversary, rope and all, but generally they prefer to strike at his head with it. For hunting they use two similar stones fastened together by a rope, which is generally three or four yards long. One of the stones they take in their hand, and then whirling the other round their head, throw both at the object they wish to entangle. Sometimes several balls are used, but two appear to be the usual number. They do not try to strike their victim with the balls themselves, but with the rope, "and then of course the balls swing round in different directions, and the thongs become so ' laid up,' or twisted, that struggling only makes the captive more secure."f It is said that a man on horseback can use the " bolas" effectually at a distance of eighty yards.:J: They also use the lasso. On the coast their food consists principally of fish, which they kill either by diving or striking them with their darts. * Falkner, 1. c. p. 130. t Darwiu's Journal, p. 129. t Fitzroy, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 148. BUEIAL. RELIGION. 511 Guanacoes and ostriches they catch with the Lolas, and they also eat the horse, as well as various sorts of small game, and at least two kinds of wild roots. They have no fermented liquor, and the only prepared drink which they use is a de- coction of chalas and the juice of berberries mixed with water. The death of a native is attended with peculiar ceremonies. The bones having been as much as possible freed from the flesh, are hung " on high, upon canes or twigs woven together, to dry and whiten with the sun and rain." One of the most distinguished women is chosen to perform the disgusting office of making the skeleton, and, during the process, " the Indians, covered with long mantles of skins, and their faces blackened with soot, walk round the tent with long poles or lances in their hands, singing in a mournful tone of voice and striking the ground, to frighten away the Valichus or evil beings. . . . The horses of the dead are killed, that he may have wherewithal to ride upon in the Alhue Mapu, or Country of the Dead." In about a year the bones are "packed together in a hide, and placed upon one of tlie deceased's favourite horses, kept alive for that purpose," and in this manner the natives bear the relics, sometimes to a very great distance, until they arrive at the proper burial- place, where the ancestors of the dead man are lying. The bones are arranged in their proper positions, and fastened by string. The skeleton is then placed, with others, in a square pit, clothed in the best robes, and adorned with beads, feathers, etc. The arms of the deceased are buried with him, and round the grave are ranged several dead horses, raised on their feet, and supported with sticks.* Sometimes a cairn of stones is raised over the grave.f Falkner regarded the Patagonians as Polytheists, but we do not know much about their religion. According to the * Falkner's Patagonia, pp. 118, 119. t Fitzroy, vul. ii. p. 158. 512 THE FUEGIAXS. missionaries, neither the Patagonians nor the Araucanians had any ideas of prayer, or " any vestige of religious worship." * The Fuegians. The inhabitants of Tierra Del Fnego are even more de- graded than those of the mainland : in fact, they have been regarded by many travellers as being the lowest of mankind.! Adolph Decker, who visited Polynesia and Australasia under Jaques le Hermite in 1624, describes them as "rather beasts than men ; for they tear human bodies to pieces, and eat the flesh raw and bloody as it is. There is not the least spark of religion or policy to be observed among them : on the contrary, they are in every respect brutal " — of which he proceeds to give evidence so convincing, that I refrain from quoting it.:|: "The men go altogether naked, and the women have only a bit of skin about their middles. . . . Their huts are made of trees, in the shape of tents, with a hole at the top to let out the smoke. Within they are sunk two or three feet under the earth ; and the mould is thrown upon the outside. Their fishing-tackle is very curious, and their stone hooks very nearly the same shape as ours. They are differently armed, some having bows, and arrows headed with stone ; others have long javelins, pointed with bone ; some, again, have great wooden clubs ; and some have slings, with stone- knives, which are very sharp." Their arrows are of hard wood, straight and well polished. They are about two feet long, and are tipped with a piece of agate, obsidian, or glass. The bows are from three to four feet long, and quite plain. The string is made of twisted sinews. Porster § found them " remarkably stupid, being incapable * The Voice of Pity, vol. ii. pp. Voyage to tlie South Pole, vol. ii. 37, 95. p. 187 ; Darwin's Journal, p. 235. t Byron's Voyage roimd the \ Callander's Voyages, vol. ii. World, p. 80 ; Wallis's Voyage p. 307. round the World, p. 392 ; Cook's § 1. c p. 251. FOOD. STATURE. 513 of understanding any of our signs, which, however, were very intelligible to the nations of the South Sea." Wallis, in his " Voyage round the World," * describes them as follows : "They were covered with seal-skins, which stunk abominably, and some of them were eating the rotten flesh and blubber raw, with a keen appetite and great seeming satisfaction." And again he says : " Some of our people, who were fishing with a hook and line, gave one of them a fish, somewhat bigger than a herring, alive, just as it came out of the water. The Indian took it hastily, as a dog would take a bone, and in- stantly killed it, by giving it a bite near the gills : he then proceeded to eat it, beginning with the head, and going on to the tail, without rejecting either the bones, fins, scales, or entrails." -f- Their cookery is, if possible, still more disgusting. Fitzroy tells us that it was " too offensive" for description ; and the account given by Byron J entirely confirms this statement. The men, says Fitzroy, § " are low in stature, ill-looking, and badly proportioned. Their colour is that of very old mahogany — or rather between dark copper and bronze. The trunk of the body is large, in proportion to their cramped or rather crooked limbs. Their rough, coarse, and extremely dirty black hair half hides, yet heightens, a villainous expres- sion of the worst description of savage features. The hair of the women is longer, less coarse, and certainly cleaner than that of the men. It is combed with the jaw of a porpoise, but neither plaited nor tied ; and none is cut away, excepting from over their eyes. They are short, with bodies largely out of proportion to their height; their features, especially those of the old, are scarcely less disagreeable than the repulsive * Hawkesworth's Voyages, 1. c. | Byron's Loss of the " Wager," p. 403. p. 132. t 1. c. p. 403. § Voyages of the " Adventure" and "Beagle," vol. ii. p. 137. 2k 0l4 HABITS. ones of the men. About four feet and some inches is the stature of these she-Fuegians — by courtesy called women. They never walk upright ; a stooping posture and awkward movement is their natural gait. They may be fit mates for such uncouth men, but to civilized people their appearance is disgusting. . . . The smoke of wood fires confined in small wigwams hurts their eyes so much that they are red and watery : the effects of their oiling or greasing themselves, and then rubbing ochre, clay, or charcoal over their bodies ; of their often feeding upon the most offensive substances, sometimes in a state of putridity ; and of other vile habits, may readily be imagined,"* Their incisors are worn flatjf like those of the Esquimaux and of many ancient^races. "The men procure food of the larger kind, such as seal, otter, porpoise, etc. ; they break or cut wood and bark for fuel, as well as for building the wigwams or canoes. They go out at night to get birds ; they train the dogs, and of course undertake all hunting or warlike excursions. The women nurse their children, attend the fire (feeding it with dead wood rather than green, on account of the smoke), make baskets and water-buckets, fishing-lines and necklaces, go out to catch small fish in their canoes, gather shell-fish, dive for sea-eggs, take care of their canoes, upon ordinary occasions paddle their masters about while they sit idle, and do any other drudgery." :j: " When there is time, the natives roast their shell-fish, and half -roast any other food that is of a solid nature ; but when in haste, they eat fish, as well as meat, in a raw state. . . . Both seals and porpoises are speared by them from their canoes. When struck, the fish usually run into the kelp, with the spear floating on the water, being attached by a short line to a movable barb : and then the men follow with their canoe, * 1. c. p. 139. ■: Ibid. 1. c. p. 185. t Fitzroy, Appeudix, p. 144. MODE OF FISHING. 515 seize the spear, and tow by it till the fish is dead. To them the taking of a seal or a porpoise is a matter of as much consequence as the capture of a whale is to our countrymen. On moonlight nights birds are caught when roosting, not only by the men, but by their dogs, which are sent out to seize them while asleep upon the rocks or beach ; and so well are these dogs trained, that they bring all they catch safely to their masters, without making any noise, and then return for another mouthful. Birds are also frequently killed with arrows or by stones slung at them with unerring aim. Eo-o-s are largely sought for by the natives ; indeed, I may say that they eat anything and everything that is eatable, without being particular as to its state of freshness, or as to its havin^T been near the fire." * According to Byron, the dogs of the Chonos Indians assist in killing fish as well as birds. They are, he says, "cur-like looking animals, but very sagacious, and easily trained to this business. . . . The net is held by two Indians, who get into the water ; then the dogs, taking a large compass, dive after the fish, and drive them into the net ; but it is only in par- ticular places that the fish are taken in this manner." He adds, that the dogs " enjoy it much, and express their eager- ness by barking every time they raise their heads above tiie water to breathe.""!- " In the winter, when the snow lies deep, the Tekeenica hunt the guanaco, which then comes down from the high lands to seek for pasture near the sea. The long legs of tlie animal stick deeply into the snow and soft boggy ground, disabling him from escape, while the Fuegians and their dogs hem him in on every side, and quickly make him their prey. ... At other times of the year they sometimes get them by lying in wait, and shooting them with arrows, or * Fitzroy, 1. c. p. 184. in Kerr's Voyages and Travels, vol. t Byron's Loss of the " Wager," xvii. pp. 339, 368, 4G3. 516 FOOD. CANNIBALISM. by getting into a tree near their track, and spearing thein „ , as they pass beneath the branches. Fig. 241 repre- sents the head of a Fuegian harpoon, which closely resembles the ancient Danish specimen figured in Plate XXII. Of vegetable food they have very little : a few berries, cranberries, those which grow on the arbutus, and a kind of fungus which is found on the beech, being the only sorts used. The unfortunate Fuegians , Jli .often sufter greatly from famine. Their principal food consists of limpets, mussels, and other shell- fish. Admiral Fitzroy entertained no doubt that the Fuegians are cannibals. " Almost * always at war with adjoining tribes, they seldom meet but a hostile encounter is the result ; and then those who are vanquished and taken, if not already dead, are killed and eaten by the conquerors. Again, in severe winters, when they can obtain no other food, they take " the oldest woman of their party, hold her head over a thick smoke, made by burning green wood, and, pinching her throat, choke her. They then devour every particle of the flesh. "When asked why they did not rather kill their dogs, they said, " Dog catch iappo," i.e. otters. Like Decker, Admiral Fitzroy "never witnessed or heard of any act of a decidedly religious nature." -f- Still, ?t is said that some of the natives suppose that there is a powerful and mysterious being who resides Bone in the woods. When a person dies, they carry the arpoon. -j^^^^ ^^^ -^^^^ ^^^^ woods,| " place it upon some * 1. c. p. 183. Soutli Pole, p. 179 ; Tlie Voice of + See also Weddell, Yoyage to Pity, voL vi. p. 92, etc. t 1. c. p. 181. ABSENCE OF RELIGION. olY broken boughs, or pieces of solid wood, and then pile a great quantity of branches over the corpse." Their canoes are large pieces of bark sewn together. In the bottom they make a fireplace of clay, for they always keep fires alight, though with the help of iron pyrites they soon obtain sparks if any accident happens. The Chonos Indians, who in most respects resemble the Fuegians, have much better canoes. These are formed of planks, which are generally five in number, two on each side and one at the bottom. Along the edges of each are small holes about an inch apart. The planks are sewn together with woodbine, the holes being filled with a kind of bark beaten up until it resembles oakum. Byron truly observes that in the absence of metal, " the labour must be great of hacking a single plank out of a large tree with shells and flints, even though with the help of fire." The Fuegians have no pottery, but, like the North American Indians, use vessels made of birch, or rather of beech-bark. On the east coast many of the natives possess guanaco-skius, and on the west some of them wear seal-skins. " Amongst the central tribes the men generally possess an otter-skin, or some small scrap about as large as a pocket-handkerchief, which is barely sufficient to cover their backs as low down as their loins. It is laced across the breast by strings, and according as the wind blows, it is shifted from side to side."* Many, however, even of the women, go absolutely without clothes. Yet, as Captain Cook quaintly expresses it, " al- though they are content to be naked, they are very ambitious to be fine,'" for which purpose they adorn themselves with streaks of red, black, and white ; and the men as well as the women wear bracelets and anklets of shell and bone. Sir J. D. Hooker informs us that at the extreme south of Tierra del Fuego, and in mid-winter, he has often seen the men lying * Darwin's Researches in Geology and Natural History, p. 234. 518 DRESS. FIRE. asleep iu their wigwams, without a scrap of clothing, and the women standing naked, and some with children at their breasts, in the water up to their middles, gathering limpets and other shell-fish, while the snow fell thickly on them and on their equally naked babies. It is remarkable that the Fuegians, like the Esquimaux, make so little use of fire ; they do not employ it to warm the air of their huts as we do, though sometimes as a luxury they take advantage of it to toast their hands or feet. Doubtless, however, if deprived of this source of warmth, "they would die of starva- tion rather oftener than is now the case. If not the lowest, the Fuegians certainly appear to be among the most miserable specimens of the human race. The conditions of their existence are very unfavourable, and their habits are of special interest from their similarity to those of the ancient Danish shell-mound builders, who, how- ever, were in some respects rather more advanced, being acquainted with the art of making pottery. ( 519 ) CHAPTER XV. MODERN SAVAGES — concluded. IX reading almost any account of savages, it is impos- sible not to admire the skill with which they use their weapons and implements, their ingenuity in hunting and fishing, and their close and accurate powers of observation. Some savages even recognize individuals by their footsteps. Thus Mr. Laing mentions * that one day while travelling near Moreton Bay, in Australia, he pointed to a footstep, and asked whose it was. The guide " glanced at it, without stopping his horse, and at once answered, ' White fellow call him Tiger.' " This turned out to be correct, which was the more remarkable as the two men belonged to different tribes, and had not met for two years. Among the Arabs, Burckhardt asserts f that some men know every individual in the tribe by his footstep. " Besides this, every Arab knows the printed footsteps of his own camels, and of those belonging to his immediate neigh- bours. He knows by the depth or slightness of the impression whether a camel was pasturing, and therefore not carrying any load, or mounted by one person only, or heavily loaded." Skyring \ saw a Fuegian who " threw stones from each hand with astonishing force and precision. His first stone struck the master with much force, broke a powder-horn which hung round his neck, and nearly knocked him l)ack- * Aborigines of Australia, p. 24. X Bedouiiisand Waliabys,p. 374. t Fitzroy, 1. c. vol. i. p. 398. 520 SKILFULNESS OF SAVAGES. wards." In his description of the Hottentots, Kolhen says * that their dexterity in throwing the " hassagaye and rackuni- stick strikes every witness of it with the highest admiration. ... If a Hottentot, in the chase of a hare, deer, or wild goat, comes but within thirty or forty yards of the creature, away flies the rackum-stick and down falls the creature, generally pierced quite through tlie body." The death of Goliath is a well-known instance of skill in the use of the sling; and we are told also that in the tribe of Benjamin there was a corps of " seven hundred chosen men left-handed ; every one could sling stones at an hair-breadth, and not miss."f Having few weapons, and those in constant use, savages acquire a skill which seems almost marvellous. I have seen the boomerang thrown with a force and skill which I should have thought quite impossible. The North American Indian will send an arrow right through a horse or even a buffalo. The African savage will kill the elephant, and the Chinook fears not to attack even the whale. Captain Grey tells us that he has often seen the Australians kill a pigeon with a spear, at a distance of thirty paces.;]: Speaking of the Cham- isso Island Esquimaux, Beechey says that one day a Diver was swimmuig at a distance of thirty yards from the beach, and a native was offered a reward if he could shoot it. He immediately frightened it so that it dived, and directly it reappeared, he transfixed both eyes with an arrow. § Speaking of the Australians, Mr, Stanbridge asserts that " it is a favourite feat on the Mmray to dive into the river, spear in hand, and come up with a fish upon it."|| Woodes Eogers says that the Calif ornian Indians used to dive, and strike the fish under water with wooden spears,"f and Falkner ** tells * Kolben, 1. c. vol. i. p. 243. || On tlie Aborigines of Victoria, t Judges X. 16. Ethn. Trans.jNew Ser., vol. i.p.293. ;|: Grey, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 285. 1" Callander's Voyages, vol. iii. § Beechey's Narrative, vol. ii. p. 331. p. 574. **. Patagonia, p. 111. SKILFULNESS OF SAVAGES. 521 IIS that some of the Patagonian tribes live chiefly on fish, " winch they catch either by diving, or striking them with their darts." Tertre again says the same of the Caribs,* and Wallace of the Brazilian Indians.f The South Sea Islanders are particularly active in the water. They dive after fish, which " takes refuge under the coral rock ; thither the diver pursues him, and brings him up with a finger in each eye." % They are even more than a match for the shark, which they attack fearlessly with a knife. If they are unarmed, " they all surround him and force him ashore, if they can but once get him into the surf ; but even if he escapes they continue their bathing without the least fear.§ Ellis more cautiously says only, that "when armed they have sometimes been known to attack a shark in the water." || The Andaman Islanders also are said to dive and catch fish under water ; T[ and Rutherford makes a similar statement as regards the New Zealanders. Dobritzhoffer tells us that the Payajuas and Vilelas live principally on fish, using a small net with which they dive, " and if they spy any fish at the bottom, swim after it, catch It in the net," and so bring it to shore.** The Esquimaux in his kayak can actually turn somersaults in the water. The Brazilian Indians kill turtles with bows and arrows ; but if they aimed direct at the animal, the arrow would glance otf the smooth, hard shell ; therefore they shoot up into the air, so that the arrow falls nearly vertically on the shell, which it is thus enabled to penetrate.-]"]- What an amount of practice must be required to obtain such skill as this ! How true also must the weapons be ! Indeed, it is * Hist, of the Carriby Is., p. 305. IT Monat, 1. c. pp. 310, 333. t Travels on the Amazon, p. 48 8. ** History of the Abipones, vol . i . X Wilson, 1. c. p. 385. p. 343. § 1. c. p. 368. tt Wallace's Amazon, p. 4G6. II Polynesian Eesearches, vol. i. p. 178. o22 YAKTETIES OF IMPLEMENTS. very evident that each distinct type of Hint implement must have been designed for some distinct purpose. Thus the different forms of arrow-head, of harpoon, or of stone axe, cannot have been intended to be used in the same manner. Among the North American Indians the arrows used in hunting were so made that when the shaft was drawn out of the wound the head came out also ; while in the war-arrow^s the shaft tapered to the end, so that even when it was with- drawn the head of the arrow remained in the wound. Again, the different forms of harpoons are illustrated by the barbed and unbarbed lances of the Esquimaux (ante, figs. 233, 241). Unfortunately, however, we have but few details of this kind ; travellers have generally thought it unnecessary to observe or record these app-irently unimportant details ; and that our knowledge of iiint implements is most rudimentary, is well shown by the discussion between Professors Steenstrup and Worsaae, w^hether the so-called " axes " of the shell-mounds were really axes, or wiiether they were not rather used in fishing. We may hope, however, that in future those who have the opportunity of observing stone implements among modern savages will give us more detailed information both as to the exact manner in which they are used, and also about the way in which they are made ; that they will collect not only the well-made weapons, but, also, and even more carefully, the ruder implements of every-day life. Some archaeologists have argued that the shell-mound builders of Denmark must have possessed more formidable weapons than any that have yet been found, because it was considered impossible that they could have killed large game, as, for instance, the bull and seal, with the simple weapons of bone and stone which alone have hitherto been discovered. Professor Worsaae* even went so far as to say: "Against * Page 18. ART OF DRILLING, 523 l)irds and other small creatures these stone arrows might prove effectual, but against larger animals, such as the aurochs, the elk, the reindeer, the stag, and the wild boar, they were evidently insufficient ; particularly since these animals often become furious as soon as they are struck." I can, however, by no means agree with Professor Worsaae in this supposi- tion ; we know, on the contrary, that modern savages are able to kill even the largest game with arrows and spears tipped with stone. Knives, again, of stone, are much more effective than might at first be expected, and many savage tribes readily cut flesh with pieces of shell or of hard wood. The neatness with which the Hottentots, Esquimaux, North American Indians, etc., are able to sew, is very remarkable, although awls and sinews would in our hands be but poor substitutes for needles and thread. As already mentioned in p. 311, some cautious archaeologists hesitated to refer the rein- deer caves of the Dordogne to the Stone Age, on account of the bone needles and the works of art which are found in them. The eyes of the needles especially, they thought, could only be made with metallic implements. Professor Lartet ingeniously removed these doubts by making a similar needle for himself with the help of a flint ; but he might have referred to the fact stated by Cook * in his first voyage, that the New Zealanders succeeded in drilling a hole through a piece of glass which he had given them, using for this purpose, as he supposed, a piece of jasper. The Brazilians also use ornaments of imperfectly crystal- lized quartz, from four to eight inches long and about an inch in diameter. Hard as it is, they contrive to drill a hole at each end, using for that purpose the pointed leaf-shoot of the large wild plantain, with sand and water. The hole is gene- rally transverse, but the ornaments of the chiefs are actually * Vol, iii. p, 4C4, 524 IMPORTANT WORKS ERECTED BY SAVAGES. pierced lengtliways. This, ^Mr. Wallace thinks, must be a work of years.* The works of art found in the Dordogne caves are little ruder than those of the Esquimaux or the Xorth American Indians. In fact, the appreciation of art is to be regarded rather as an ethnological characteristic than as an indication of any particular stage in civilization. We see, again, that in many cases a certain knowledge of agiiculture has preceded the use of metals ; and the fortifications of New Zealand, as well as the large morals of the South Sea Islands, are argu- ments in favour of the theory which ascribes some of our camps, our great tumuli, and other Druidical remains, to the later part of the Stone Age. The great moral of Oberea, in Tahiti, has been abeady described (p. 463). Again, the cele- brated statues of Easter Island are really colossal. One of them, which has fallen down, measm-es twenty-seven feet long, and others appear to be even larger. The houses of the Ladrone Islanders, also, are remarkable. The larger ones were supported on strong pyramids of stone. They were found in large numbers; in one case they formed a stone row four hundred yards long. They were first described by Anson, who saw many which were thirteen feet in height ; while one of those seen by Freycinet measured as much as twenty feet. They were square at the base, and rested on the ground. On each pillar was a hemisphere, with the flat side upwards. Tlie South Sea Islanders afford, indeed, wonderful instances of what can be accomplished with stone implements. Their Iiouses are large and often well built, and their canoes have excited the wonder of all who have seen them. Although, then, the use of stone as the principal material of implements and weapons may be regarded as characterizing an early stage in the development of civilization, still it is €\ideut that this ^ stage is itself susceptible of much subdi\'i- * Travels on the Amazon, p. 278, DIFFERENCES IN THE STONE AGE. 525 siou. The Miucopie, or the Australian, for instance, is not to be compared for an instant with the semi-civihzed native of the Society Islands. So also in the ancient Stone Age of Europe we find evidences of great difference. The savao-e inhabitants of the South French caves had, according to MM. Christy and Lartet, no domestic animals, and no knowledo-e of pottery or agriculture. The shell-mound builders of Denmark had the dog; the Swiss Lake-dwellers also possessed this animal, together with the ox, sheep, and pig, perhaps even the horse ; they had a certain knowledge of agriculture, and were acquainted with the art of weaving. Thus, then, even when we have satisfied ourselves that any given remains belong to the Stone Age, we are still but on the threshold of our inquiry. Travellers and naturalists have differed a good deal in opinion as to the race of savages which is entitled to the unenviable reputation of being the lowest in the scale of civilization. Cook, Darwin, Fitzroy, and Wallis, were decid- edly in favour, if I may so say, of the Fuegian ; Burchell maintained that the Bushmen are the lowest; D'Urville voted for the Australians and Tasmanians ; Dampier thought the Australians " the miserablest people in the world " ; Forster said that the people of Mallicollo " bordered the nearest upon the tribe of monkeys " ; Owen inclined to the Audamaners ; others have supported the North American Koot-diggers ; and one French writer even insinuates that monkeys are more human thaX Laplanders. The civilization, moreover, of the Stone Age differs, not only in degree, but also in kind, varying according to the climate, vegetation, food, etc., from which it becomes evident — at least to all those who believe in the unity of the human race — that the present habits of savage races, while throwing, no doubt, much light on those of our earliest ancestors, are not to be regarded as representing them exactly, because they have 526 PIFFEKENT LINES OF CIVIUZATIOX. been to some extent modified by external conditions, in- Uuenced by national character, which, however, is after all but the result of the external conditions which have acted on previous generations. If we take a few of tlie things whicli are most generally useful in savage life, and at the same time most easily obtain- able, such, for instance, as slings, spear-casters, pottery, bows and arrows, boomerangs, bolas-nets, domestic animals, or a knowledge of agriculture, we might, perhaps, have expected a 'priori that the acquisition of them would have followed some regular succession. That this, however, was not the case is shown by the annexed table, which will, I think, be found interesting. It gives some idea of the progress made by various savage tribes at the time when they were first \asited by Europeans. Some, no doubt, of the differences exhibited in this table may be easily accounted for. The frozen soil and arctic climate of the Esquimaux would not encourage, would not even permit, any agriculture. So, again, the absence of hogs in New Zealand, of dogs in the Friendly Isles, and of all mammalia in Easter Island, is probably due to the fact that the original colonists did not possess these animals, and that their isolated position prevented them afterwards from obtain- ing any. Moreover, we must remember that as a general rule the lowest savage can only use one or two weapons. He is limited to those which he can carry about with him, and naturally prefers those which are of most general utility.* We cannot, however, in this manner account for all the facts. In Columbia, Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, and else- where, agricultm'e was unknown before the advent of Europeans. Easter Island, on the contrary, contained large plantations of sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, sugar-canes, * Weapons of war depending are probably more liable to change very muchi on the caj)rice of chiefs, than those used in hunting. DIFFERENCES OF WEAPONS, 527 etc. Yet the Chiiiooks of Ct)luiiibia had bows and arrows, fish-hooks, and nets; the AustraUaus had throwing-sticks, boomerangs, fish-hooks, and nets; the Hottentots had bows and arrows, nets, fish-hooks, pottery, and at last even a certain knowledge of iron ; all of which seem to have been unknown to the Easter Islanders, though they would have been very useful, and, excepting the iron, might have been invented and used by them. If the case of Easter Island stood alone, the absence of bows and arrows might, perhaps, be plausibly accounted for by the absence of game, the scarcity of birds, and the isolation of the little island, which rendered war almost impossible. But such an argument cannot be applied to other cases which are indi- cated in the table. Let us compare, for instance, the Atlantic tribes of North American Indians, the Australians, Bushmen, Kaffirs, New Zealanders, and Society Islanders. All tliese were constantly at war, and the three first lived very much on the produce of the chase. They at least had therefore similar wants. Yet spears, and perhaps clubs, were the only weapons w-hich they had in common ; the North Americans had good bows and arrows, the Society Islanders and Bushmen had bad ones — in fact, those of the former were so weak as to be use- less in war ; the Australians, Kaffirs, and New Zealanders had none. On the other hand, the Australians had the throw- ing stick and the boomerang ; the Society Islanders used slings ; and the New Zealanders, besides very effective clubs, had numerous and extensive fortifications. It is certainly most remarkable that tribes so warlike, and in many respects so advanced, as the New Zealanders and Kaffirs, should have been ignorant of bows and arrows, which were used by many very low races, such as the Fuegians, the Cliinooks, t]ie Andamaners, and Bushmen ; particularly as it is impossible to doubt that the New Zealanders at least would liave found bows of great use, and that any of their tribes, having invented 528 DIFFERENCES OF WEAPONS, ETC. ^ •SHaasvisi =8 c- ai 3J >< • ^^ ^^ >>'5 • la X tx (-3 = s -.S a 1 AV3.S. > a >" s p;-^ ^ S IS ^ K tc ^ to < •^ [ 5 "^ N w Q S •!)SBa; >^ '^ S >* >^ t^S f^ •* ^ M W z -3 ^^ 03 O •!)S8AV o o o « "i^ ^ f^^ '3 "P. « t/v X •UJjmJOK 0- O" V S ^i -< g 3 & pi ;;& -r •ojamnos ■3 o o o >- rz o 1 ^2 "— tt •?S8AV K" >< p: z ^ !^§ < .a til a •asBa a) CD -u'j-ion: >• >H ■^ a — •z •saaNVKvaNV o 6 o a ts .« g. ^ •sioiKaiiOH • > 2 to •saKHsna tc •SNVioanj 9 M S CO • fc a a J3 •saaanvisi "H Kuaisva ■" & ^ .M o < it 3 ) ; p ^3 .i a s i 1 1 o o > 1 1 S 1 D O a 5 O o m zn H P3 p e. < E^ :z Q •^ ISOLATION OF SAVAGES. 529 them, would have had an immense advantage in the " struggle for existence." Other similar contrasts will strike any one who examines the table ; but perhaps it may be said that some of these cases may be explained by the influence of more civilized neighbours ; that the comparison above made, for instance, might be regarded as unfair, because the New Zealanders were an isolated race, while the Chinooks mio-ht have derived their knowledge of bows and arrows from the eastern tribes, and these again might have acquired the art of making pottery from the semi-civilized nations of the south. No one can deny that this may be true in some instances, because we know that at the present day most savages possess hatchets, knives, beads, etc., which they have received from traders, and which they cannot yet manufacture for them- selves. It is certainly possible that the Chinooks may have derived their knowledge of the bow from their northern neighbours ; but we can hardly suppose that they did so from the Eed Indian tribes to the east, because in that case it is difficult to understand why they should not also have learnt from tliese the much simpler, and almost equally useful, art of making pottery. Moreover, there are some cases in which any such idea is absolutely out of the question ; thus, the spear-caster is used by the Esquimaux, the Australians, the New Cale- donians, and some Brazilian tribes ; the bolas by the Esqui- maux and the Patagonians ; the boomerang is peculiar to the Australians.* The " sumpitan," or blow-pipe of the Malays, occurs again in the valley of the Amazon. Again, different races of savages have but little peaceful intercourse with one another. They are almost always at war. If their habits are similar, they are deadly rivals, fighting for the best hunting- * The ancient Egyptians had , and which are thrown in war. But these the Negroes of Niam Niam have, iron do not appear to possess the peculiar crescents resembling boomerangs, properties of the boomerang. 2 L 530 ISOLATION OF SAVAGES. grounds or fisheries ; if their wants are different, they fight for slaves, for women, for ornaments ; or if they do not care about an)' of these, for the mere love of fighting, for scalps, heads, or some other recognized emblems of glory. In this condition of society, each tribe lives in a state either of isola- tion from, or enmity with, its neighbours. Dclcnda est Car- thago is the universal motto, and savages can only live in peace when they have a little world of their own. Sometimes a broad sea or a high range of mountains, at others a wide "march" or neutral territory, supplies the necessary conditions and keeps them apart. They meet only to fight, and are there- fore not likely to learn much from one another. Moreover, there are cases in which some tribes have weapons which are quite unknown to their neighbours. Thus, among the Brazilian tribes we find the bow and arrow, the blow-pipe, the lasso, and the tliro wing-stick. The first is the most general ; but the Barbados use only the blow-pipe, the Moxos have abandoned the bow and arrow for the lasso, and the Purupurus are dis- tinguished from all their neighbom-s by using, not bows and arrows, but the " palheta," or throwiug-stick. Again, the Kaffirs have not generally adopted the bows and arrows of the Bushmen ; the Esquimaux have not acquired the art of making pottery from the North American Indians, nor the southern Columbian tribes from the northern Mexicans. Many, again, of the ruder arts, as, for instance, the manu- factiu-e of pottery and of bows, are so useful, and at the same time, however ingenious in idea, so simple in execution, as to render it highly improbable that they would ever be lost when they had once been acquired. Yet we have seen that the New Zealanders and Kaffirs had no bows, and that none of the Polynesians had any knowledge of pottery ; though it is evident from their skill in other manufactures, and their general state of civilization, that they would have found no difficulty in the matter if the manner had once occurred to DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SAVAGES. 531 them. Again, '' Lulas " are a most effectual weapon, and there is certainly no ditficulty in making them, yet the knowledge of them appears to be confined to the Patagonians and tlie Esquimaux. The art of pottery, on the contrary, sometimes has been, I believe, communicated by one race to another. Nevertheless, there are cases, even among existing races,* in which we seem to find indications of an independent discovery; at any rate, in which the art is in a rudimentary stage. On the whole, then, from a review of these and other similar facts wliich might liave been mentioned, it seems to me most probable that many of the simpler weapons, implements, etc., have been invented independently by various savage tribes, althougli there are no doubt also cases in which they liave been borrowed by one tribe from another. The contrary opinion has been adopted by many writers on account of the undeniable similarity existing between the weapons used by savages in very different parts of the world. But however paradoxical it may sound, though the imple- ments and weapons of savages are remarkably similar, they are at the same time curiously different. No doubt the neces- saries of life are simple and similar all over the world. The materials also with which man has to deal are very much alike ; wood, bone, and to a certaiji extent stone, have every- where the same properties. The obsidian flakes of the Aztecs resemble the flint flakes of our ancestors, not so much because the ancient Briton resembled the Aztec, as because the frac- ture of flint is like that of obsidian. So also the pointed bones used as awls are necessarily similar all over the world. Similarity exists, in fact, rather in the raw material than in the manufactured article, and some even of the simplest im- plements of stone are very different among different races. The adze-like hatchets of the South Sea Islanders are unhko those of the Austrahaus or ancient Britons ; the latter again * See, for instance, p. 473. 532 riFFEKEXT USES FOE THE TOG. ditTor very innch from the type which is characteristic of the Drift or Takeolithic period. Again, the habits and customs of savages, while presenting many remarkahle similarities, which, as it seems to me, go far to prove the unity of the human race, still differ greatly, and thus give strong evidence of independent development. Many, indeed, of those differences wdnch must have struck any one in reading the preceding part of the chapter, follow e^ddently and directly fi'om the external conditions in which different races are placed. The habits of an Esquimaux and a Hot- tentot could not possibly be similar. But let us take some act which is common to many races, and is susceptible of being accomplished in several ways. For instance, most savages live in part on the flesh of birds; how is this ob- tained ? Generally with bow's and arrows ; but while the Australians catch birds with the hand, or kill them with the simple spear or the boomerang, the Fuegians have both the sling and the bow, while the Esquimaux use a complex spear with several points, or a projectile which consists of a number of w^alrus-teeth fastened together by short pieces of string, and thus forming a kind of bolas. The northern tribes visited by Kane practised a different method. They caught large numbers of birds, especially little auks, in small nets, resem- bling landing-nets, with long ivory handles. Yet this very people were entirely ignorant of fishing.* Take, again, the use made of the dog. At first, probably, the dog and the man hunted together,-j- the cunning of the one supplemented the speed of the other, and they shared the produce of theh' joint exertions. Gradually mind asserted its pre-eminence over matter, and the man became master. Then the dog was employed in other ways, less congenial to his * Kane, Arctic Explorations, + The low American Wood In- vol. ii. pp. 203, 243. dians, however, used the dog rather as a watch-dog than as a hoimd. MODES OF OBTAINING FIKE. 533 nature. The Esquimaux forced him to draw the sledge ; the Chinook kept him for the sake of his wool; the South Sea Islanders, having no game, bred the dog for food ; the Chonos Indians taught him to fish ; where tribes became shepherds, their dogs became shepherds also; finally, it is recorded by- Pliny that in ancient times troops of dogs were trained to serve in war. Even the ox, though less versatile than the dog, has been used for the first and the last two of these purposes. Again, in obtaining fire, two principal methods are followed; some savages, as for instance the Aleutians and Fuegians, using percussion, while others, as the South Sea Islanders, rub one piece of wood against another. The Aleutians rub two pieces of quartz with sulphur, and then strike them together, catching the sparks on dry grass.* Opinions are divided whether we have any trustworthy record of a people without the means of obtaining fire. It has been already mentioned (pp. 425, 431) that some of the Australians and Tasmanians, though acquainted with fire, did not know how to obtain it. In his history of the Ladrone Islands, Father Gobien asserts that fire, " an element of such universal use, was utterly un- known to them, till Magellan, provoked by their repeated thefts, burned one of their villages. When they saw their wooden houses blazing, they first thought the fire a beast which fed upon wood, and some of them who came too near, being burnt, the rest stood afar off, lest they should be de- voured, or poisoned, by the violent breathings of this terrible animal." This fact is not mentioned in the original account of Magellan's Voyage. Freycinet believes that the assertion of Father Gobien is entirely without foundation. The lan- guage, he says, of the inhabitants contains words for fire, burning charcoal, oven, grilling, boiling, etc. ; and even before the advent of the Europeans, pottery f was well known. It * Bancroft, Nat. Races of Llie Pacific States, vol. i. p. 91. t 1. c. vol. ii. IX 166. 534 MODES OF OBTAIXIXG FIRE. is difficult, however, to get over the distinct assertion made by Gohien, which moreover derives some support from similar statements made by other travellers. Thus Alvaro de Saavedra states that the inhabitants of certain small islands in the Pacific, which he called " Los Jardines," but which cannot now be satisfactorily determined, stood in terror of fire, be- cause they had never seen it.* Again, Wilkes tells usf that on the island of Fakaafo, which he calls " Bowditch," " there was no sign of places for cooking, nor any appearance of fire." The natives also were very much alarmed when they saw sparks struck from flint and steel. Here, at least, we might have thought was a case beyond question or suspicion ; the presence of fire could hardly have escaped observation ; the marks it leaves are very conspicuous. If we cannot depend on such a statement as this, made by an officer in the United States' Navy, in the official report of an expedition sent out especially for scientific purposes, we may well be disheartened, and lose confidence in ethnological investigations. Yet the assertions of Wilkes m^e questioned, and with much appearance of justice, by Mr. Tylor.^ In the " Ethnography of the United States' Exploring Expedition," Hale gives a list of Fakaafo words, in which we find aji for " fire." This is evidently the same word as the New Zealand alii ; but as it denotes light and heat, as well as fire, we might suppose that it thus found its way into the Fakaafo vocabulary. I should not, therefore, attribute to this argument quite so much force as does Mr. Tylor. It is, however, evident that Captain Wilkes did not perceive the importance of the observation, or he would cer- tainly have taken steps to determine the question; and as Hale, in his special work on the Ethnology of the Expedition, does not say a word on the subject, it is clear he had no idea * Hakluyt Soc. 1862, p. 178. X Eaily History of Mankind, t United States' Expl. Exped., p. 230. vol. V. p. 18. DIFFERENT MODES OF BURIAL. 535 that the inhabitants of Fakaafo exhibited such an interestinc^ CD pecnharity. The fact, if estabUshed, would be most import- ant ; but it cannot be said to be satisfactorily proved that there is at present, or has been within historical times, any race of men entirely ignorant of fire. It is at least certain that as far back as the earliest Swiss lake villages and Danish shell-mounds the use of fire was well known in Europe. On the other hand, as already mentioned, some of the Tas- manian and Australian tribes, and of the Andaman Islanders, though well acquainted with the use of fire, know no way of kindling it. Consequently, tliey take great pains to keep it always burning ; and if by any mischance it should be extin- guished, are obliged to get a fresh light fi'om some neighbour- ing tribe. There is, again, scarcely any conceivable way in which the dead could be disposed of which has not been adopted in some part of the world. Among some races the corpse is simply buried ; by others it is burned. Some of the North American Indians expose, their dead on scaffolds in the branches of trees. Some tribes deposit them in sacred rivers ; others in the sea. Among the Sea Dyaks, the dead chief is placed in his war canoe, with his favourite weapons and principal property, and is thus turned adrift. Other tribes gave their dead to be food for wild beasts ; and others preferred to eat them themselves. Some Brazilian tribes drinh the dead.* The Tarianas and Tucanos, and some other tribes, about a month after the funeral, disinter the corpse, which is then much decomposed, and put it in a great pan or oven over the fire, till all the volatile parts are driven off with a most horrible odour, leaving only a black carbonaceous mass, which is pounded into a fine powder, and mixed in several large conches of caxiri; this is drunk by the assembled company, under the full belief that the virtues of the deceased will thus be transmitted to the * Wallace, Travels on the Amazon, p. 498. 536 DESCENT OF rROrERTY. drinkers. The Cobeus also drink Ihe aslies of the dead in the same manner. Indeed, if there are two possible ways of doing a thing, we we may be sure that some tribes will prefer one, and some the other. It seems natural to ns that descent should go in the male line ; but there are very many races in which it is traced from the mother, not the father. The husband or father seems to us to be the natural head of the family ; in Tahiti the re- verse is the case, and the son enters at once into the property and titles of his father, who then holds them only as a guardian or trustee; so that among this extraordinary people, not the father, but the son, is in reality the head of the family. So also in Australia, the father is called after the son, not the son after the father. At Cape York and in the neighbouring islands the youngest son has a double share.* Among the New Zealanders, and various other races, including some dis- tricts in our own country, the youngest son succeeds to the property of the father.! Among the Wanyameuzi, property descends not to the legitimate, but to the illegitimate chil- dren.; There are many races in which those holding certain relationships are forbidden to talk to one another, an extra- ordinary superstition which, as we have seen (p. 441), reaches its climax among the Fijians. It seems natural to us that after child-birth the woman should keep her bed ; and that as far as possible the husband should relieve her for a time fi'om the labours and cares of life. In this, at least, one might have thought that all nations would be alike. Yet it is not so. Among the Caribs the father, on the birth of a child, took to his hammock, and placed himself in the hands of the doctor, the mother mean- * McGi]livray,YoTageof H.M.S. % Burton's Lake Regions of " Rattlesnake," vol. ii. p. 28. AMca, p. 198. t New Zealand and its Abori- gines, p. 26. DIFFERENCES IN PREVALENT SOUNDS. 537 while going about her work as usual. A similar custom has been observed on the mainland of South America, among the Abipones, Mundrucus, Fuegians, etc. ; among the Arawaks of Surinam ; in the Chinese province of West Yunnan ; among the Dyaks of Borneo, and the Esquimaux of Greenland. It is mentioned by Xenophon as occurring in Asia Minor, and by Strabo among the Iberians ; is found even in the present day among the Basques, among whom we are told that in some of the valleys the " women rise immediately after child-birth, and attend to the duties of the household, while the husband goes to bed, taking the baby with him, and thus receives the neighbours' compliments." The same habit has been noticed also in the South of France ; according to Diodorus Siculus, it prevailed at his time in Corsica ; and, finally, it " is said still to exist in some cantons of Beam, where it is called faire la coiivade." Again, the love of life — the dread of death — are among the strongest of our feelings. " Everything that a man hath he will give in exchange for his life." This is true, but by no means universally so. According to Azara, the Indians of Paraguay have a great indifference to death ; and we have already seen that this is the case with the Fijians; while Burton makes a similar statement as regards the Negroes of Dahomey. Among the Chinese it is said that a man con- demned to death, if permitted to do so, may always secure a substitute on payment of a moderate sum of money ; and a coffin is regarded as a most appropriate present for an aged relative. Again, the sounds of which language is constituted differ extremely in different parts of the world. The cliks of the Hottentots are a striking illustration of this. The Ilurons did not use the labials; the Indians of Port au Fran^ais in Columbia, according to M. de Lamanon,* make no use of * Voyage de la Perouse, vol. ii. p. 211. 538 DIFFERENCES IN SIGNS. the consonants h, f, x, j, d, 2^, or v. The Peruvian language wanted the letters Z>, f?, /, (7, s, and x* The Australians did not use the sound conveyed by our letter s.j Many of the Negroes have no r. The Fijians do not use the letter c, the Somo-Somo dialect has no k, that of Eakiraki and other parts, no t.+ The Society Islanders and Australians exclude both s and c.§ In representing the New Zealand language, the missionaries found themselves able to discard no less than thirteen letters, namely, b, c, d,f, g,j, I, q, s, v, x, y, and 2.11 Schaaffhausen observes that the labials are especially difficult to prognathous races. Shortland asserts that whistling was unknown in New Zealand.^ Even the symbols by which the feelings are ex- pressed are very different in different races. Kissing appears to us the natural expression of affection. " 'Tis certain," says Steele, " nature was its author, and it l:)egan with the first coiu'tship." On the contrary, it was entirely unknown to the Tahitians, the New Zealanders,** the Papouans,-|"|- and the aborigines of Australia, nor was it in use among the Somals,;J:;J: or the Esquimaux. §§ The Hill Tribes of Chittagong do not say "Kiss me," but " Smell me."|i|| The Malays,1il[ Fijians,*** Tongans, and many other Polynesians, always sit down when speaking to a superior; the inhabitants of Mallicollo testify * Garcilasso de la Vega. Mark- ** D'Urville, vol. ii. p. 561 ; liam's Translation, Autlior's Pre- Voyage of the Xovara, vol. iii. p. face, p. X. 106. t Freycinet, vol. ii. p. 757 ; ft Freycinet, vol. ii. p. 56. D'Urville, vol. i. pp. 188, 199, 481. Xt Burton's First Footstei^s in X Williams, Figi and the Figians, Africa, p. 123. vol. i. p. V. 257. §§ Lyon's Journal, p. 353. § Ellis, Polynesian Researches, |{|| Lewin, Hill Tribes of Chitta- vol. i. p. 77. gong, p. 46. II Bro'rni, New Zealand and its ^IF Marsden, Memoirs of a Ma- Aborigines, p. 100. layan Family, p. 37. IT Traditions of the Xew Zea- *** Williams, Figi and the Figi- landers, p. 134. ans, vol. i. p. 38. IDEAS OF DECENCY. 539 " admiration by hissing like a goose," * the sound being per- haps like our " hush," a call for silence, and hence a mark of interest ; the mode of showing respect among the Todas of the Neilgherry hills is by raising the open right hand to the face, resting the thumb- on the bridge of the nose ; at Vatavulu f it is respectful to turn one's back on a superior, especially in addressing him. The same custom occurs I in Congo ; Denham found it § in Central Africa; and Speke|| among the Wahuma in the East. The people of Iddah shake their clenched fist,1[ while on the White Nile and in Ashantee they spit on you as a compliment. According to Freycinet, tears were regarded in the Sandwich Islands as a sign of happiness ; ** and some of the Esquimaux pull noses as a token of respect.-j-j- Spix and Martins assure us that l)lushing was unknown among the Brazilian Indians; and that only after long intercourse with Europeans does a change of colour become in them any indi- cation of mental emotion. ;]:J Again, we find the most striking differences of feeling in the matter of clothing. The Turk thinks it highly improper for a woman to show her face. The sculptures on early Indian temples show that a race may attain to a considerable degree of civilization without perceiving any necessity what- ever for clothing. This is the case with the women listening to Buddha while preaching, and even Buddha's wife and Maya his mother §§ are habitually so represented; indeed, Mr. Eergusson does not hesitate to say that " before the * Cook's Second Voyage, vol. ii. IT Allan and Thompson, Exped, p. 36. to the Niger, vol. i. p. 290. t Figi and the Figians, vol. i. ** 1. c. vol. ii. pp. 542, 589. p. 154. +t Ross, Baffin's Bay, p. 118. J Astley's Voyage and Travels, %l Vol. i. p. 376. vol. iii. p. 72. §§ See, for instance, Fergusson's § Travels and Discoveries in Tree and Serpent Worship. PI. Africa, vol. ii. p. 27, vol. iii. i>. 15. Ixxiv. and passim. II Discovery of the Source of the Kile, p 206. 540 IDEAS OF VIRTUE. Mabomcdan conquest nudity in India conveyed no sense of indecency." The i. 35. Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. i. pp. 123, 242. IDEAS OF VIRTUE. 541 the Ladrones, and by the Audamaners. According to Ulloa,* the Brazilians do not approve of chastity in an unmarried woman, regarding it as a proof that she can have nothing attractive about her. The inhabitants of the Ladrones.-f and of the Andaman Islands, J come to the same conclusion ; in the latter case, however, for a different reason, regarding it as a proof of selfishness and pride. On the other hand, many races absolutely prohibit a man from marrying a woman of his own family name ; the Abipones thought it a sin for a man to pronounce his own name ; the Tahitians thought it very wrong to eat in company, and were horrified at an English sailor, who carried some food in a basket on his head. This prejudice was also shared by the New Zealanders,| while the Fijians, who were habitual cannibals, who regarded merc}^ as a weakness, and cruelty as a virtue, fully believed that a woman who was not tattooed in an orthodox manner during life, could not possibly hope for happiness after death. This curious idea is also found among the Esquimaux. Hall tells us that they tattoo " from principle, the theory being that the lines thus made will be regarded in the next world as a sign of goodness." i| It seems to the Veddahs the most natu- ral thing in the world that a man should marry his younger sister, but marriage with an elder one is as repugnant to them as to us. Among the Friendly Islanders the chief priest was considered too holy to be married ; but he had the right to take as many concubines as he pleased ; and even the chiefs dared not refuse their daughters to him. In Western Africa the women of the reigning families might have as many lovers as they wished, but were forbidden to degrade themselves by marriage. Among the natives of New South Wales, though * Pinkerton, vol. xiv. p. 521, § D'Urville, vol. ii. p. 533. + Freycinet, vol. ii. p. 370. || Life with the Esquimaux, vol. X Trans. Ethn. Soc, New Scr., ii. p. 315. vol. ii. p. 35. 542 IDEAS OF VIKTUE. the women wore no clothes, it was thouglit indecent for young girls to go naked.* Many savage races think it wrong for a woman to have twins ; among the Ibos of Eastern Africa, for instance, in such a case the children were exposed to wild beasts, and the mother was driven out of society .f There also it is thought unlucky to cut the upper teeth before the lower oneSjJ ^^^d '■ You cut your top teeth first " is the 1)itterest of insult?, I cannot indeed but think that the differences observahle in savage tribes are even more remarkable than the similarities. In entleavouring to estimate the moral character of savages, we must remember not only that their standard of right and wrong was, and is, in many cases, very different from ours, but also that, according to the statements of travellers, some of them can hardly be regarded as responsible beings, and have not attained to any notions, however faulty and unde- fined, of moral rectitude. | But where such notions do exist, they differ widely, as we have seen, from our own ; and it would open up too large a question to inquire whether, in all cases, our standard is the correct one. In considering the character of women belonging to savage or semi-savage races, we must also remember that savages often regard the white men as beings of a superior order. Thus M. du Chaillu tells us that some of the African savages looked upon him as a superior being ; and the South Sea Islanders worshipped Captain Cook as a deity. Even when they had killed him, and cut him into small pieces, the inhabitants of Owhyhee fully expected him to reappear, and * D'Urville, vol. 1. p. 471 ; Yoy- J Tliis idea is, I find to my siir- age of the " Rattlesnake," vol. i. p. 49. prise, also prevalent among our ovnx t Burton's Lake Regions of nurses. Africa, p. 90. See, for other in- § See, for instance, Burchell, stances of this, my Origin of Civil- vol. i. p. 461. ization, 2nd ed. p. 25. DEIFICATION OF WHITE MEN. 543 frequently asked "what he would do to them on his return."* However absurd and extravagant such a belief may at first sight appear, it must be admitted that it is in many respects very natural. Savages can only raise their minds to the con- ception of a being a few degrees superior to themselves, and Captain Cook was more powerful, wiser, and, we may add, more virtuous than most of their so-called " Deities." Under these circumstances, although it must be admitted that the chastity of the women is not, as a general rule, much re- garded among savages, we must not too severely condemn them on this account. It is not surprising that any connec- tion with white men is regarded rather as an honour than as a disgrace : the Europeans hold, in fact, almost the same position in public estimation as did the amorous deities of ancient mythology. Again, with savages, as with children, time appears longer than it does to us, and a temporary marriage as natural and honourable as one that is permanent. Hospitality, again, is frequently carried so far that it is thought wrong to withhold from a guest anything that might contribute to his comfort, and unless therefore he was provided with a temporary wife, hospitality would be regarded as incomplete. This custom is found throughout North America and the South Sea Islands, among the Abyssinians, Bedouins, Kaffirs, Patagonians, and other races. Among the Esquimaux it is considered a great mark of friendship for two men to exchange wives for a day or two. It has been already mentioned that a Kandyan chief, described by Mr. Bayley, was quite scandalized at the idea of having only one wife. It was, he said, "just like monkeys." When Captain Cook was in New Zealand, his companions contracted many temporary marriages with the Maori women; these were arranged in a formal and decent manner, and were * Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, by Capt. King, F.R.S., vol. ill. p. 69. 544 CURIOUS CUSTOMS. regarded, by the New Zealanders at any rate, as perfectly regular and iimoceut.* Kegiiard f assures us that the Lapps preferred to marry a girl that had had a child by a white man, thinking " that because a man whom they believe to be possessed of a better taste than themselves has been anxious to give marks of his love for a girl of their country, she must therefore be possessed of some secret merit." Even in recent years, Lady Duff Gordon told us, in her paper on the Cape,j that " there are no so-called ' morals ' among the coloured people, and how or why should there ? It is an honour to one of these girls to have a child by a white man." Taking all these facts into consideration, the intercourse which has taken place between Europeans and women of lower tribes must not, I think, be too severely condemned, or rather the blame ought to fall on us and not on them. But, even among savages themselves, we must admit that female virtue is, in many cases, but slightly regarded; as indeed, is but natural when women themselves are looked upon as little better than domestic anim.als. Among many tribes, for in- stance the South Sea Islanders and the Esquimaux, indecent dances are not only common, but are countenanced by women of the highest rank, to whom it does not appear to occur that there is any harm or impropriety in them. Judged by our standards, these facts are very dreadful ; but we must remem- ber they did not entail on savages the same fatal consequences as with us ; and before we condemn them too severely, let us remember our own literature and our own morality, even in the last century. The harsh, not to say cruel treatment of women, which is almost universal among savages, is one of the deepest stains upon their character. They regard the weaker sex as beings * Cook's First Voyage, vol. iii. t Piukerton, Journey to Laplaud, p. 450. vol. i. p. 166. X Vacation Tourists, 1863, p. 178. SOCIAL POSITION OF WOJIEN. 545 of an inferior order, as mere domestic drudges. Nor are the labours and sufferings of the women sweetened by any great affection on the part of those for whom they toih We have ah-eady seen that the Algonquins had no word for '-love" in their language, and that the Tinne Indians had no equivalent for " dear " or " beloved." Captain Lefroy * says : " I endeav- oured to put this intelligibly to Nannette, by supposing such an expression as ' ma chore femme ; ma chere fille.' When at length she understood it, her reply was (with great emphasis), ' I' disent jamais 9a ; i' diseut ma femme, ma fille.' " Spix and Martins f tell us that among the Brazilian tribes the father has scarcely any, the mother only an instinctive, affection for the child. There can be no doubt that, as an almost universal rule, savages are cruel ; but we must re- member that they are less sensitive to pain than those who spend much of their time in-doors, and that in many cases they inflict upon themselves also the most horrible tortures. Savages may be likened to children, and the compari- son is not only correct, but also highly instructive. Many naturalists consider that the early condition of the individual indicates that of the race, — that the best test of the affinities of a species are the stages through which it passes. So also it is in the case of man ; the life of each individual is an epitome of the history of the race, and the gradual develop- ment of the child illustrates that of the species. Hence the importance of the similarity between savages and children. Savages, like children, have no steadiness of purpose. Speak- ing of the Dogrib Indians, we found, says Eichardson,J "by experience, that however high the reward they expected to receive on reaching their destination, they could not be de- pended on to carry letters. A slight difficulty, the prospect of a banquet on venison, or a sudden impulse to visit some * Eichardsou's Arctic Expedi- t Reise, vol. i. p. 381. tion, vol. ii. p. 24. J Arctic Expedition, vol. ii. p. 23. 2 M 54G SAVAGES AND CIIILDKEN. friend, were sufficient to turn tliem aside for an indefinite length of time." Even among the comparatively civilized South Sea Islanders this childishness was very apparent. " Their tears indeed,* like those of children, were always ready to express any passion that was strongly excited, and like those of children they also appear to be forgotten as soon as shed." D'Urville also mentions that Tai-wanga, a New Zealand chief, cried like a child because the sailors spoilt his favourite cloak by powdering it with flour.-j- It is not, says Cook," indeed strange that the sorrows of these artless people should be transient, any more than that their passions should be suddenly and strongly expressed ; what they feel they have never been taught either to disguise or suppress ; and having no habits of thinking which perpetually recall the past and anticipate the future, they are affected by all the changes of the passing hour, and reflect the colour of the time, how- ever frequently it may vary ; they have no project which is to be pursued from day to day, the subject of unremitted anxiety and solicitude, that first rushes into the mind wdien they awake in the morning, and is last dismissed when they sleep at night. Yet if we admit that they are upon the whole happier than we, we must admit that the child is happier than the man, and that we are losers by the perfection of our nature, the increase of our knowledge, and the enlargement of our views." We all know the difficulty which children find in pro- nouncing certain sounds : r and /, for instance, they constantly confound. This is the case also among the Sandwich Islanders and in the Ladrones, according to Freycinet;J in Vanikoro,§ among the Dammaras ;ii and in the Tonga Islands.^ * Cook's First Voyage, p. 103. § Vol. v. p. 218. t D'Urville, vol. ii. p. 398. See II Galton, Tropical Soutli Africa, also Burton's Lake Regions of Cen- p. 181. tral Africa, p. 332. IT Mariner's Tonga Islands, vol. i. I Vol. ii. pp. 260, 519. p. 30. SAVAGES AND CHILDREN. 54? Mr. Darwin observed that the Fuegians had great diffi- culty in comprehending an alternative. Savages, again, have a great tendency to form words by re-duplication, which also is characteristic of childhood among civilized races. Again, some of the most brutal acts which have been recorded against them are to be regarded less as instances of deliberate cruelty, than of a childish thoughtlessness and im- pulsiveness. A striking instance of this is recorded by Byron in his narrative of the Loss of the " Wager." A cacique of the Chonos, who was nominally a Christian, had been out with his wife to fish for sea-eggs, and having had little success, returned in a bad humour. "A little boy of theirs, about three years old, whom they appeared to be doatingly fond of, watching for his father and mother's return, ran into the surf to meet them : the father handed a basket of eggs to the child, which being too heavy for him to carry, he let it fall, upon which the father jumped out of the canoe, and catching the boy up in his arms, dashed him with the utmost violence against the stones. The poor little creature lay motionless and bleeding, and in that condition was taken up by the mother, but died soon after."* In fact, we may fairly sum up this part of the question in a few words by saying, as the most general conclusion which can be arrived at, that savages have the character of children with the passions and strength of men. No doubt different races of savages differ very much in character. An Esquimaux and a Fijian, for instance, have little in common. But after making every possible allowance for savages, it must I think be admitted that they are inferior, morally as well as in other respects, to the more civilized races. There is indeed no atrocious crime, no vice recorded by any traveller, which might not be paralleled in Europe. But that which is with us the exception, is with them the rule ; that which with us * Byron's Loss of tlie " Wager" ; Kerr's Voyages, vol. xvii. p. 374. 548 MOr,AL AND INTELLECTUAL INFERIORITY. is condemned by tlie general verdict of society, and is confined to the uneducated and vicious, is among savages passed over almost without condemnation, and treated as a mere matter of course. In Tahiti, for instance, the missionaries considered that "not less than two-thirds of the cliildren were murdered by their parents." If we now turn to the mental differences between civilized and uncivilized races, we shall find them very strongly markeil. Speaking of a Bushman tribe, Burchell observes that " wdiether capable of reflection or not, these individuals never exerted it."* The Eev. T. Dove describes the Tasmanians as distin- guished " by the absence of all moral views and impressions. Every idea bearing on our origin and destination as rational beings seems to have been erased from their breasts."-]- It would be easy to fill a volume with the evidence of excessive stupidity recorded by different travellers. It may be perhaps thought that these were rather instances of individual dulness, than any indication of a national characteristic ; but in the nature and capacity of a language we find a test and measure of the higher minds in a nation. Unfortunately, however, travellers have found it difficult enough to obtain vocabularies of the words in use; and it is far less easy to collect infor- mation as to those which they do not possess. Yet there are not a few cases in which this has been done. I have already mentioned the deficiency of some North American languages in terms of endearment ; this fact suggests a melancholy con- dition of the domestic relations, but it may here be referred to again as an evidence of a low mental, as well as moral, condition. What Spix and JNIartius tell us about the Brazilian tribes^: appears also to be true of many, if not of most, savage races. Their vocabulary is rich, and they have separate names for the different parts of the body, for all the different animals * 1. c. vol. i. p. 461. + Tasmaiiian Journal of Natural Science, vol. i. p. 249. X Reise in Brasilien, vol. i. p. 385, POVERTY OF SAVAGE LANGUAGES. 549 and i)l!ints with which thpy are acquainted ; for everythiug, in fact, which they can see and handle. Yet they are entirely deficient in words for abstract ideas ; they have no expressions for colour, tone, sex, genus, spirit, etc. The Abipones have no such words as man, body, place, time, never, ever, everywhere, etc.; nor such a verb as " to be." They cannot say, " I am an Abipon," but only, " I Abipon."* Tiie lilalay language, also, according to Crawf urd, is very deficient in abstract terms. It contains a word for each colour, but no term for colour itself. The St. Petersburg Bible Society endeavoured some years ago to translate the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments into the language of the Tschuktschi, but " partly from the language being entirely deficient in words to express new and abstract ideas, and partly for want of letters to convey the variety of strange and uncouth sounds of which the language itself consists, the translation was wholly unintelligible. "-j- So, again, the Tasmaniaus had no word for a tree, though they had a name for each species ; nor could they express " qualities, such as hard, soft, warm, cold, long, short, round, etc. ; for ' hard ' they would say ' like a stone ' ; for ' tall ' they would say ' long legs,' etc. ; and for ' round ' they said ' like a ball,' ' like the moon,' and so on." J According to the mis- sionaries, § Fuegians have "no abstract terms for expressing the truths of our religion " ; and among the North American languages, " a term sufficiently general to denote an ' oak-tree ' is exceptional." il Even the comparatively civilized inhabi- tants of Tahiti had, according to Forster, " no proper words for expressing abstract ideas." ^ The names for numbers are, perhaps, the best, or, at least, * Dobritzhoffer, vol. ii. p. 183. § The Voice of Pity, vol. x. p. 152. t Wrangell's Siberia and Polar || Latham, Varieties of Man, p. Sea, p. 121. 37.5. I Milligan, Proc. Roy. Society, IT I. c. p. 403. Tasmania, vol. iii. p. 281, 550 DEFICIENCIES IN NUMERATION. the most easily applieaLlc test of mental coiRlition among the lower races of man. We have seen that the Esqnimaux can only with diliiculty count up to ten, and that some indi- viduals cannot go beyond five. The Abipones* can only express three numbers in proper words. The Dammaras " in practice, whatever they may possess in their language, certainly use no numeral greater than three. When they wish to express four, they take to their fingers, which are to them as formidable instruments of calculation as a sliding rule is to an English schoolboy. They puzzle very much after five, because no spare hand remains to grasp and secure the fingers that are required for units."! Mr. Crawfurd, to whom w'e are indebted for an interesting paper on this sub- ject,^ has examined no less than thirty Australian languages, and it appears that none of the tribes in that vast continent count beyond four. According to Mr. Scott Nind, indeed, the numerals used by the natives of King George's Sound reach up to five ; but the last is merely the word " many." The Cape Yorkers (Australia) can hardly be said to go be- yond two; their numerals are as follows: One Netat. Two Nacs. Three Nacs-nctat. Four Naes-naes. Five Naes-naes-netat. Six Naes-naes-naes. The Brazilian Indians also count only up to three ; for any higher number they use the word "many."| Again, in the state of their religious conceptions, still more in the absence of religious conceptions, we get another proof of extreme mental inferiority. The question has been * Dobritzh offer, vol. ii. p. 169. + Ethnological Society's Trans- t Galton's Tropical Africa, p. actions, New Series, a'oI. ii. p. 84. 33. § Spix and Martins, vol. i. p. 387. ABSENCE OF RELIGION AMONG SAVAGE RACES. 551 frequently discussed whether there is any race of men so degraded as to be entirely without a religion — without some idea of a deity. The conclusion to be arrived at depends, as it seems to me, very much on the meaning which we ascribe to the term " religion." If a mere fear of the unknown, if a more or less vague l)elief in witchcraft, is to be regarded as a religion, it would, I think, be difficult to refute this assertion. But if any higher estimate of religion is adopted, then, so far from this being true, the very reverse is the case. Many, we might almost say all, of the most savage races are, according to the nearly universal testimony of travellers, in this condition.* According to Spix and Martins,-]- Bates and Wallace, some of the Brazilian Indians were entirely without religion, Burmeister confirms this statement, and, in the list of the principal tribes of the valley of the Amazons, published by the Hakluyt Society, the Chunchos are stated " to have no religion whatever," and we are told that the Curetus " have no idea of a Supreme Being." The same is said of the Toupinambas. Bates J tells us " that none of the tribes on the Upper Amazons have an idea of a Supreme Being, and consequently have no word to express it in their languages." Azara also makes the same statement as regards many of the South American tribes visited by him. § The South American Indians of the Gran Chaco are said by the missionaries to have " no religious or idolatrous belief or worship whatever ; neither do they possess any idea of God or of a Supreme Being. They make no distinction between right and wrong, *Mr. Langhas recently attempted + Reise in Brasilien, vol. i. p. 379. to show (The Making of Religion) J Life in the Amazons, vol. ii. that even the lowest races of men p. 162. believe in an " omnipotent, moral, § Voyages dans I'Amer. Merid., and eternal Father and Jndge." vol. ii. pp. 3, 14, 33, 51, 60, 76, 80, Mr. Hartland in Folk Lore for 81, 84, 90, 138, 160, 164, 166. Dec. 1898 has, I think, completely replied to his arguments. 552 ABSENCE OF KELIGIOX AMONG SAVAGE EACES. aud havo, therefore, neither fear nor hope of any present or future punishment or reward, nor any mysterious terror of some supernatural power, whom they might seek to assuage by sacrifices or superstitious rites." * Father Baegert, who lived as a missionary among the Indians of California for seventeen years, aftirms that " idols, temples, religious worship, or ceremonies were unknown to them, and they neither believed in the true and only God, nor adored false deities " ; -|- and M. de la Perouse also says tliat they " had no knowledge of a God, or of a future state." Golden, who had ample means of judging, assures us that the celebrated " five nations" of Canada "had no public worship nor any word for God " ; and Hearne, who lived amongst the Northern American Indians for years, and was perfectly acquainted with their habits and language, says the same of some tribes on Hudson's Bay. In the Voyage of 1' Astrolabe, it is stated that the natives of the Samoan and Solomon Islands, in the Pacific, had no religion, and in the voyage of the Novara the same is said of the Caroline Islanders. The Samoans " have neither morals, nor temples, nor altars, nor offerings, and consequently none of the sanguinary rites, observed at the other groups. In consequence of this the Samoans were considered an impious race by their neighbours ; and their impiety became proverbial with the people of Earotonga, for, when upbraiding a person who neglected the worship of the gods, they would call him "a godless Samoan." :|: On Damood Island, between Australia and New Guinea, Jukes could find no " traces of any religious belief or observance." § Duradawan, a sepoy who lived some time with the Andaman Islanders, main- * Voice of Pity, vol. ix. p. 220. J Missionary Enterprises, p. 464. t See Mr. Rau's translation, § Jukes, Voyage of the "Fly," Smithsonian Contrib. 1863-64, p. vol. i. p. 164. 390. ABSENCE OF EELIGION AMONG SAVAGE RACES. 553 tained that they had no religion, and Dr. Mouatt believes his statements to be correct.* Portnian, who lived so long with them, and studied them so lovingly, makes the same state- ment as regards the native of the Lesser Andamans.f Some of the Australian tribes also are said to have no religion. | In the Pellew Islands, Wilson found no religious buildings, nor any sign of religion. Mr. Wallace, wdio had excellent opportunities for judging, and whose merits as an observer no one can question, tells us that among the people of Wanumbai, in the Aru Islands, he could find no trace of a religion ; § adding, however, that he was but a short time among them. The Yenadies and the Villees, according to Dr. Shortt, are entirely without any belief in a future state ; || and again, Hooker tells us that the Lepchas of Northern India have no religion. Captain Grant could find "no distinct form of religion " in some of the comparatively civilized tribes visited by him.^ According to Burchell, the Bachapins (Kaffirs) had no form of worship or religion.** They thought " that every thing made itself, and that trees and herbage grew l)y their own win." They had no belief in a good deity, but some vague idea of an evil being. Indeed, the first idea of a god is almost always as an evil spirit. Speaking of the Foulahs of Wassoulo, in Central Africa, Caillie states: "I tried to discover whether they had any religion of their own; whether they worshipped fetishes, or the sun, moon, or stars; but I could never perceive any religious ceremony amongst them." j"]- Again, he says of the * Trans. Ethn. Soc, vol. ii. p. 45. ment, Revenue Department. May, t J. Geog. Soc, Sep. 1888. 1864. X Collins' English Colony in New IT A Walk across Africa, p. 145. Soutli Wales, p. 354. ** Travels in South Africa, vol. ii. § The Malayan Archipelago, p. 550. vol. ii. p. 280. tt Travels to Tinibuctoo, vol. i. II Proceedings of Madras Govern- p. 303. 554 ABSENCE OF RELIGION AMONG SAVAGE RACES. Bainbaras that, " like the people of Wassoulo, they have no voligioii," * adtliiijj;, however, that they have great faith in eharms. Burton also states tliat some of tlie triljes in the Lake districts of Central Africa " admit neither God, nor angel, nor devil." -f Speaking of Hottentots, Le Vaillant says : J " Je n'y ai vu aucune trace de religion, rien qni approche meme de I'id^e d'un etre vengeur et remunerateur. J'ai vecu assez longtemps avec eux, chez eux anx sein de leui'S deserts paisibles ; j'ai fait, avec ces braves humains, des voyages dans des regions fort eloignees ; nulle part je n'ai rencontre rien qui ressemble a la religion." Livingstone mentions that on one occasion, after talking to a Bushman for some time, as he supposed, about the Deity, he found that the savage thought he was speaking about Sekomi, the principal chief of the district. Speaking of the Esquimaux, Eoss says : " Ervick, being the senior of the first party that came on board, was judged to be the most proper person to question on the subject of religion. I directed Sacheuse to ask him if he had any knowledge of a Supreme Being ; but after trying every word used in his own language to express it, he could not make him understand what he meant. It was distinctly ascertained that he did not w^orship the sun, moon, stars, or any image or living creatm^e. When asked what the sun or moon was for, he said to give light. He had no knowledge, or idea, how he came into being, or of a futiu-e state ; but said that when he died he would be put into the gi'ound. Ha\'ing fully ascertained that he had no idea of a beneficent Supreme Being, I proceeded, thi'ough Sacheuse, to inquire if he believed in an evil spirit ; but he could not be made to understand what it meant. . . , He was * 1. c. p. 37.5. + Voyages dans I'Afrique, vol. i. + Trans. Ethn. Soc, Xew Ser., p. 93. vol. i. p. 323. RUDIMENTS OF RELIGION. 555 positive that in this incantation he did not receive assistance from anything, nor could he be made to understand what a good or an evil spirit meant." * In some cases travellers have arrived at these views very much to their own astonishment. Thus Father Dobritzhoffer says : " Theologians agree in denying that any man in posses- sion of his reason can, without a crime, remain ignorant of God for any length of time. This opinion I warmly defended in the University of Cordoba, where I finished the four years' course of theology begun at Gratz, in Styria. But what w^as my astonishment when, on removing from thence to a colony of Abipones, I found that the whole language of these savages does not contain a single word which expresses God or a divinity. To instruct them in religion, it was necessary to borrow the Spanish word for God, and insert into the cate- chism ' Dios ecnam caogerik,' ' God, the creator of things.' "-j- Canon Callaway, in his " Religious System of the Amazulu Kaffirs," agrees;]: with Casalis, Arbousset, Vanderkemp, and Moffat, that they have "scarcely any notion of a Deity, if any." We have already observed a case of this kind in Kolben, who, in spite of the assertions of the natives themselves, felt quite sure that certain dances must be of a religious charac- ter, " let the Hottentots say what they will." Again, Mr. Matthews, who went out to act as a missionary among the Fuegians, but was soon obliged to abandon the hopeless task, observed only one act " which could be supposed devotional." He sometimes, we are told, " heard a great howling or lamen- tation about sunrise in the morning ; and upon asking Jemmy Button what occasioned the outcry, he could obtain no satis- * Boss's Voyage of Discovery to J Callaway, Eel igious System of the Arctic Regions, p. 127. the Amazulu, p. 124. t 1. c. vol. ii. p. 57. See also p. 64. 556 LOW IDEAS OF THE DEITY. factory answer ; the boy only Siiying, ' People very sad, cry very mucli.'" This appears so natural and sufficient an ex- planation, tliat why the outcry should be " supposed devo- tional," I must confess myself uualde to see. Once more. Sir J. D. Hooker states that the Khasias, an Indian tribe, had no religion. Col. Yule,* on the contrary, says that they have ; but he admits that breaking hens' eggs is " the principal part of their religious practice." But if most travellers have ex- pected to find a religion everywhere, and have been convinced, almost against their will, that the reverse is the case, it is quite possible that there may have been others who have too hastily denied the existence of a religion among the tribes they visited. However this may be, those who assert that even the lowest savages believe in a Supreme Deity, affirm that which is entirely contrary to the evidence. The direct testimony of travellers on this point is indirectly corroljorated by their other statements. How, for instance, can a people who are unable to count their own fingers, possibly raise their mind so far as to realize the difficult problems of religion ? j- This view becomes less improbable when we consider those races who present us with what may be called the Dawn of Religion. Fetich worship, which is so widely prevalent in Africa, can hardly be called a religion ; and even the South Sea Islanders, who were in many respects so highly civilized, are said to have been seriously offended with their deity if they thought that he treated them with undue severity, or without proper consideration. According to Kotzebue, the Kamschatkans adored their deities " when their wishes were fulfilled, and insulted them when their affairs went amiss." J When the missionaries introduced a printing- * Yule, On tlie Khasia Hills and % Xew Voyage round tlie World, People, p. 18. vol. ii. p. 13. t See, for instance, Greg's Creed of Christendom, -p. 212. WITCIICEAFT. 557 press into Fiji, " the heathen at once declared it to be a god." * The natives of the Xicohar Islands put up scarecrows to frighten away the deity ,j- and Burton once heard an old Eesa woman, who was suffering from tooth-ache, offer up the follow- ing prayer: "Oh Allah, may thy teeth ache like mine! Oh Allah, may thy gums be as sore as mine are now ! " Savages very generally believe in witchcraft. Confusing together subjective and objective relations, he is a prey to constant fears. As regards pictures, the most curious fancies exist among savage races. They have a very general dislike to be repre- sented, thinking that the artist thereby acquires some mysterious j)ower over them. Kane on one occasion freed himself from some importunate Indians by threatening to draw them if they did not go away. I have already mentioned (p. 505) the danger in which Catling found himself from sketching a chief in a profile, and thereby, as it was supposed, depriving him of half his face. So, again, a mysterious con- nection is supposed to exist between a cut lock of hair and the person to whom it belonged. In various parts of the world the sorcerer gets clippings of the hair of his enemy, parings of his nails, or leavings of his food, convinced that whatever evil is done to these will re-act on their former owner. Even a piece of clothing, or the ground on which a person has trodden, will answer the purpose, and among some tribes the mere knowledge of a person's name is sup- posed to give a mysterious power. The Indians of British Columbia have a great horror of telling their names. Among the Algonquins a person's real name is communicated only to his nearest relations and dearest friends : the outer w^orld address him by a kind of nickname. Thus the true name of * Figi and tlie Figians, vol. ii. t Voyage of tlie " Novara," vol. p. 222. ii. p. 6G. 558 WITCHCKAFT. La Belle Sauvage was not Pocahontas, but ]\Iatokes, which they were afraid to communicate to the English, In some tribes these name-fancies take a different form. According to Ward, it is an unpardonable sin for a Hindoo woman to mention the name of her husband. The Kaffirs have a similar custom, and so have some East African tribes. In many parts of the world the names of the dead are avoided with superstitious horror. This is the case in great parts of North and South America, in Siberia, among the Papuans and Australians, and even in Shetland, where it is said that widows are very reluctant to mention their departed husbands. Throughout Australia, among some of the Brazilian tribes, in parts of Africa, and in various other countries, natural death is regarded as an impossibility. In the New Heljrides, " when a man fell ill, he knew that some sorcerer was burning his rubbish ; and shell-trumpets, which could be heard for miles, were blown to signal to the sorcerers to stop, and wait for the presents which would be sent next morning. Night after night, Mr. Turner used to hear the melancholy too-tooing of the shells, entreating the wizards to stop plaguing their victims." * Savages never know but what they may be placing themselves in the power of these terrible enemies ; -f and it is not too much to say that the horrible dread of unknown evil hangs like a thick cloud over savage life, and embitters every pleasure. Nor is the belief in sorcery easily shaken off even by the most civilized nations. James the First was under the im- pression that by melting little images of wax, " the persons that they bear the name of may be continually melted or dried away by continual sickness." The belief in witclicraft is not indeed even yet extinct among us. * Tylor, 1. c. p. 129 ; Turner's t See Brown, Xew Zeafaud and Polynesia, jip. 18, 89, 424. its Aborigines, p. 80. GENERAL WRETCHEDNESS OF SAVAGES. 559 The mental sufferings which they thus undergo, the horrible tortures which tliey sometimes inflict on themselves, and the crimes which they are led to commit, are melancholy in the extreme. It must not be supposed that in the preceding chapter I have selected from various works all the passages most unfavourable to savages, and that the picture I have drawn of them is unfair. In reality, the very reverse is the case. Their real condition is even worse and more abject than that which I have endeavoured to depict. I have been careful to quote only from trustworthy authorities, but there are many things stated by them which I have not ventured to repeat ; and there are other facts which the travellers tell us they could not bring themselves to publish. ( 560 ) CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUDING EEMARKS. I HAVE already expressed my belief that the simple arts and implements have been independently invented by various tribes, at different times, and in different parts of the world. Even at the present day, we may, I think, oljtain glimpses of the manner in which they were, or may have been, invented. Elephants break off boughs to use as fans and scrapers. Monkeys use clubs, and throw sticks and stones at those who intrude upon them. Eengger saw a monkey take a stick and use it to open the lid of a box, and this has since been confirmed by other observers. They also use round stones for cracking nuts, and surely a very small step would lead fi'om that to the application of a sharp stone for cutting. When the edge became blunt, it would be thrown away, and another chosen ; but after awhile, accident, if not reflection, w^ould show that a round stone would crack other stones, as well as nuts, and thus the savage would learn to make sharp-edged stones for himself. At first, as we see in the drift specimens, these would be coarse and rough, but gradually the pieces chipped off would become smaller, tlie blows would be more cautiously and thoughtfully given, and at length it would be found that better work might be done by pressure than by blows. From pressure to polishing would again be but a small step. In making flint implements, sparks would be produced ; in polishing them, it woidd not fail to be THE HIGHER ANIMALS. 561 observed that they became hot, and in this way it is easy to see how the two metliods of obtaining fire may have origi- nated.* The chimpanzee builds himself a house or resting-place quite equal to that of some savages. Our earliest ancestors therefore may have had this art ; but even if not, when they became hunters, and, as we find to be the case with all hunt- ing tribes, supplemented the inefficiency of their weapons by an intimate acquaintance with the manners and customs of the animals on which they preyed, they could not fail to observe, and perhaps to copy, the houses which various species of animals construct for themselves. The Esquimaux have no pottery ; they use cup-shaped stones as a substitute ; but we have seen how they sometimes improve upon these by a rim of clay. To extend this rim, diminish, and at last replace, the stone, is an obvious process. In hotter countries, vessels of wood, or the shells of fruit, such as cocoa- nuts and gourds, are used for holding liquids. These will not stand fire, but in some cases by plastering them on the out- side with clay, they are enabled to do so. There is some evidence that this obvious improvement has been made by several separate tribes even in modern times. Other similar cases might be mentioned, in which by a very simple and apparently obvious process, an important improvement is secured. It seems very improbable that any such advantage should ever be lost again. There is no evidence, says Mr. Tylor,f " of any tribe giving up the use of the spindle to twist their thread by hand, or having been in the habit of working the fire-drill with a thong, and going back to the clumsier practice of working it without, and it is even hard to fancy such a thing happening. What follows from this argument ? * The idea of using fire would ning, and by the natural fires which also have been suggested by vol- occur in hot summers, canoes, by trees set on fire by light- t 1. c. p. 364. 2 N 562 THE PRIMITIVE CONDITION OF MAN. Evidently that the lowest races of existing savages must, always assuming the common origin of the human race, be at least as far advanced as were our ancestors when they spread over the earth's sui'face. What, then, must have been their condition ? They were ignorant of pottery, for the Esquimaux, the Polynesians, the Australians, some North and South American tribes, and many other savage races, have none even now, or at least had none until quite lately. They had no bows and aiTows, for these weapons were unknown to the Austrahans and Xew Zealanders ; their boats for the same reason must have been (jf the rudest possible character ; they were naked, and igno- rant of the art of spinning ; they had no knowledge of agri- culture, and probably no domestic animal but the dog, though here the argument is weaker, inasmuch as experience is more portable than property. It is, however, probable that the dog was long the only domesticated animal. Of the more unusual weapons, such as the boomerang, blow-pipe, bolas, etc., they were certainly ignorant. The sling and the thro wing-stick were doubtless unknown, and even the shield, as it is only used in war, had probably not been invented. The spear, vviiich is but a development of the knife-point, and the club, which is but a long hammer, are the only things left by this line of argument. They seem to be the only natural and universal weapons of man. We might be disposed to wonder how man was at first able to kill game; but we must remember that if man was un- skilful, animals were unsuspicious. The tameness of the birds on uninhabited islands is well known ; the wariness of animals and the skill of man must have increased almost pari ■passu. The same argument may be applied to the mental condition of savages. Our earliest ancestors certainly could not have counted to ten, considering that so many races now in exist- DIFFUSION OF MAN. 563 ence cannot get beyond four. It is probable that man originated in a warm climate, and so long as he was con- fined to tlie tropics he may have found a succession of fruits, and liave lived as the monkeys do now. Indeed, according to Bates, this is still the case with some of the Brazilian Indians. " The monkeys," he says, " lead in fact a life similar to tliat of the Pararauate Indians." Directly, however, men spread into temperate climates, this mode of life would become impossible, and they would be compelled to seek their nourishment, in part at least, from the animal kingdom. Then, if not before, the knife and the hammer would develop into the spear and the club. It is too often supposed that the world was peopled by a series of " migrations." But migrations, properly so-called, are compatible only with a comparatively high state of organiza- tion. Moreover, it has been observed that the geographical distribution of the various races of man curiously coincides with tliat of other races of animals : and there can be no doubt that he originally crept over the earth's surface little by little, year by year, just, for instance, as the weeds of Europe are now gradually but surely creeping over the surface of Australia. The preceding argument assumes, of course, the unity o^ the human race. It would, however, be impossible for me to end this volume without saying a few words on this great question. It must be admitted that the principal varieties of mankind are of great antiquity. We find on some of the earliest Egyptian monuments, dating back to 4000 B.C., three distinct types, the Semitic on the east and west of Egypt, the Negro on the south ; and the Egyptian type occupying a middle place betvfeen the two. The representations of the monuments, although somewhat conventional, are extremely characteristic. The statue of Kephren, the third king of the fourth Dynasty, who erected the second of the great pyramids of 564 EARLY RACES OF MAN. Gizeh, and is supposed to have reigned about 3900 B.C., is a real masterpiece. These distinct types still predominate in Egypt and the neighbouring countries. Thus, then, says Mr. Poole, in this immense interval we do not find " the least change in the Negro or the Arab ; and even the type which seems to be intermediate between them is virtually as unaltered. Those who consider that length of time can change a type of man, will do well to consider the fact that three thousand years give no ratio on which a calculation could be founded."* I am, however, not aware that it is supposed by any school of ethnologists that " time " alone, without a change of external conditions, will produce an alteration of type. Let us now turn to the instances relied on by Mr. Crawfurd.f The millions, he says, " of African Negroes that have during three centuries been transported to the New World and its islands, are the same in colour as the present inhabitants of the parent country of their forefathers. The Creole Spaniards, who have for at least as long a time been settled in tropical America, are as fair as the people of Arragon and Andalusia, with the same variety of colour in the hair and eye as their progenitors. The pure Dutch Creole colonists of the Cape of Good Hope, after dwelling two centuries among black Kaffirs and yellow Hottentots, do not differ in colour from the people of Holland." Here, on the contrary, we have great change of circumstances, but a very insuffi- cient lapse of time, and in fact there is no well-authenticated case in which these two requisites are united. But Mr. Crawfurd went, I think, too far, when he denied altogether any change of type. In spite of the comparatively short time which has elapsed, and of the immense immigration which has been kept up, there is already a marked difference between the English of Europe and those of America; and * Poole, Trans. Etlm Soc, New t Cra^vfurd, Trans. Ethn. Soc, Ser., vol. ii. p. 261. New Ser., vol. ii. p. 252. PRIMITIVE CONDITION OF MAN. 5Go it would be desirable to inquire whetber, in tbeir own eyes, tbe Negroes of the New World exactly resemble those of Africa. But there are some reasons which make it probable that changes of external condition, or rather of country, produce less effect now than was formerly the case. At present, when men migrate they carry with them the manners and appliances of civilized li!'e. They build houses more or less like those to which they have been accustomed, carry with them flocks and herds, and introduce into their new country the principal plants which served them for food in the old. If their new abode is cold, they increase their clothing ; if warm, they diminish it. In these and a liundred other ways the effect which would otherwise be produced is greatly dimin- ished. But, as we have seen, this has not always been the case. When man first spread over the earth, he had no domestic animals, perhaps not even the dog ; no knowledge of agricul- ture : his weapons were of the rudest character, and his houses scarcely worthy of the name. His food, habits, and whole manner of life must then have varied as he passed from one country to another ; he must have been far more subject to the influence of external circumstances, and in all probability more susceptible of change. Moreover, his form, which is now stereotyped by long ages of repetition, may reasonably be supposed to have been itself more plastic than is now the case. If there is any truth in this view of the subject, it will necessarily follow that the principal varieties of man are of great antiquity, and in fact go back almost to the very origin of the human race. We may then cease to wonder that the earliest paintings on Egyptian tombs represent so accurately several varieties still existing in those regions, and that the Engis skull, probably the most ancient yet found in Europe, 566 THE INFLUENCE OF MIND. SO closely resembles many that may be seen even at the present day. Slow and gradual changes, however, still take place, although his " mere bodily structure " long ago became of less importance to man than " that subtle force we term mind." This, as Mr. Wallace eloquently says, " with a naked and unprotected body, this gave him clothing against the vary- ing inclemencies of the seasons. Though unable to compete with the deer in swiftness, or with the wild bull in strength, this gave him weapons wherewith to capture or overcome both. Though less capable than most other animals of living on the herbs and the fruits that unaided nature supplies, this wonder- ful faculty taught him to govern and direct nature to his own benefit, and make her produce food for him when and where he pleased. From the moment when the first skin was used as a covering, when the first rude spear was formed to assist in the chase, the first seed sown or shoot planted, a grand revolution was effected in nature, a revolution which in all the previous ages of the world's history had had no parallel, for a being had arisen who was no longer necessarily subject to change with the changing universe, — a being who was in some degree superior to nature, inasmuch as he knew how to control and regulate her action, and could keep himself in harmony with her, not by a change in body, but by an advance in mind. " Here, then, we see the true grandeur and dignity of man. On this view of his special attributes, we may admit that even those who claim for him a position and an order, a class, or a sub-kingdom by himself, have some reason on their side. He is, indeed, a being apart, since he is not influenced by the great laws which irresistibly modify all other organic beings. Nay, more : this victory which he has gained for himself gives him a directing influence over other existences. Man has not only escaped ' natural THE INFLUENCE OF MIND. 567 selection ' himself, but he is actually able to take away some of that power from nature which, before his appearance, she universally exercised. We can anticipate the time when the earth will produce only cultivated plants and domestic animals ; when man's selection shall have supplanted ' natural selection ' ; and when the ocean will be the only domain in which that power can be exerted, which for countless cycles of ages ruled supreme over the earth." Thus, then, the great principle of Natural Selection, which is to biology what the law of gravitation is for astronomy, not only throws an unexpected light on the past, but illuminates the future with hope ; nor can I but feel sur- prised that a theory which thus teaches us humility for the past, faith in the present, and hope for the future, should have been regarded as opposed to the principles of true religion. I say of hope because we are, I think, justified in believing that the happiness of man is on the increase. It is generally admitted that if any animal increases in numbers, it must be because the conditions are becoming more favourable to it — in other words, because it is happier and more comfort- able. Now how will this test apply to man ? Schoolcraft estimates * that in a population which lives on the produce of the chase, each hunter requires on an average 50,000 acres, or 78 square miles, for his support. Again, he tells usf that, excluding Michigan territory, west of Lake Michigan, and north of Illinois, there were in the United States in 1825 about 97,000 Indians, occupying 77,000,000 of acres, or 120,312 square miles. This gives one inhabitant to every 1| square miles. In this case, how- ever, the Indians lived partly on the subsidies granted them by Government in exchange for land, and the population was therefore greater than would have been the case if they * Indian Tribes, vol. i. p. 433. t 1. c vol. iii. p. 575. 568 INCREASE OF IIAPriNESS. had lived entirely on the produce of the chase. The same reason affects, though to a smaller extent, the Indians in the Hudson's Bay territory. These tribes were estimated by Sir George Simpson, late Governor of the territories belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, in his evidence given before the Committee of the House of Commons in 1857, at 139,000, and the extent is supposed to be more than 1,400,000 square miles, to which we must add 13,000 more for Vancouver's Island, maldng a total of more than 900,000,000 of acres ; about 6500 acres, or 10 square miles, to each individual. Again, the inhabitants of Patagonia, south of 40°, and ex- clusive of Chiloe and Tierra del Fuego, are estimated by Admiral Fitzroy at less than 4000, and the number of acres is 176,640,000, giving more than 44,000 acres, or 68 square miles, for each person. A writer in the " Voice of Pity," however, thinks that their numbers may perhaps amount to 14,000 or 15,000.* It would be difficult to form any census of the aborigines in Australia : Mr. Oldfield estimates that there is one native to every fifty square miles ; j- and it is at least evident, that, since the introduction of civilization, the total population of that continent has greatly increased. Population, indeed, as a general rule, increases with civiliza- tion. Paraguay, with 100,000 square miles, has from 300,000 to 500,000 inhabitants, or about four to a square mile. The uncivilized parts of Mexico contained 374,000 inhabitants in 675,000 square miles ; while Mexico proper, with 833,600 square miles, had 6,691,000 inhabitants. Naples had more than 183 inhabitants to each square mile, Venetia more than 200, Lombardy 280, England 280, Belgium as many as 320. Finally, we cannot but observe that, under civilization, the means of subsistence have increased even more rapidly than the population. Far from suffering for want of food, * 1. c. vol. ii. p. 93. t Trans. Etlm. Soc, New Ser., vol. iii. p. 220. SUFFERINGS OF SAVAGES. 569 the more densely peopled countries are exactly those in which it is, not only absolutely, but even relatively, most abundant. It is said that any one who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before is a benefactor to the human race ; what, then, shall we say of that which enables a thousand men to live in plenty where one savage could scarcely find a scanty and precarious subsistence ? There are, indeed, many who doubt whetlier happiness is increased by civilization, and who talk of the free and noble savage. But the true savage is neither free nor noble ; he is a slave to his own wants, his own passions ; imperfectly protected from the weather, he suffers from the cold by night and the heat of the sun by day ; ignorant of agricul- ture, living by the chase, and improvident in success, hunger always stares him in the face, and often drives him to the dreadful alternative of cannibalism or death. Wild animals are always in danger. Mr. Gal ton, who is so well qualified to form an opinion, believes that the life of all beasts in their wild state is an exceedingly anxious one ; that " every antelope in South Africa has literally to run for its life once in every one or two days upon an average, and that he starts or gallops under the influence of a false alarm many times in a day."* So it is with the savage, he is always suspicious, always in danger, always on the watch. He can depend on no one, and no one can depend upon him. He expects nothing from his neighbour, and does unto others as he believes that they would do unto him. Thus his life is one prolonged scene of selfishness and fear. Even in his religion, if he has any, he creates for himself a new source of terror, and peoples the world with invisible enemies. The position of the female savage is even more wretched than that of her master. She not only shares his sufferings, but has to bear his ill-humour and ill-usage. She may truly be said to be * Trans. Etlm. Soc, New Ser., vol. iii. p. 133. 570 SELF-INFLICTED SUFFERINGS. " little better than his dog, little dearer than his horse." In Australia, Mr. Oldtield never saw a woman's grave, and does not think that the natives took the trouble to bury them. But, indeed, he believes that few of them are so fortunate as to die a natural death, " they being generally despatched ere they become old and emaciated, that so much good food may not be lost. ... In fine, so little importance is attached to them, either before or after death, that it may be doubted whether the man does not value his dog, when alive, quite as much as he does his woman, and think of both quite as often and lovingly after he has eaten them." * Not content, moreover, with those incident to their mode of life, savages appear to take a melancholy pleasure in self- inflicted sufferings. Besides the very general practice of tattooing, the most extraordinary methods of disfigurement and self-torture are adopted ; some cut off the little finger, some make an immense hole in the under-lip, or pierce the cartilage of the nose. The Easter Islanders enlarge their ears till they come down to their shoulders ; the Chinooks, and many other American tribes, alter the shape of their heads. Some of the African tribes chip their teeth in various manners, each community having a fashion of its own. The Nyara- banas, a division of the Kaffirs, are characterized by a row of artificial pimples or warts, about the size of a pea, and ex- tending from the upper part of the forehead to the tip of the nose. Of these they are very proud, j- Among the Bachapins, those who have distinguished themselves in battle are allowed the privilege of marking " their thigh with a long scar, which is rendered indelible and of a bluish colour by means of wood ashes rubbed into the fresh wound." | In * Trans. Etlin. Soc, New Ser., J Burcfiell, 1. c. vol. ii. pp. 478, vol. iii. p. 248. 535. t United States' Exploring Ex- pedition, vol. i. p, 63. SELF-INFLICTED SUFFERINGS. 571 Australia, Captain King saw a native ort)amented with horizontal scars which extended across the upper part of the chest. They were at least an inch in diameter, and protruded half an inch from the body.* In some parts of Australia, and in Tasmania, all the men have a tooth knocked out in a very clumsy and painful manner.j- " The inhabitants of Tana have on their arms and bellies elevated scars, representing plants, flowers, stars, and various other figures. They are made by first cutting the skin with a sharp bamboo reed, and then applying a certain plant to the wound, which raises the scar above the rest of the skin. The inhabitants of Tazavan, or Formosa, by a very painful operation, impress on their naked skins various figures of trees, flowers, and animals. The great men in Guinea have their skin flowered like damask ; and in the Deccan the women likewise have flowers cut into their flesh on the forehead, the arms, and the breast, and the elevated scars are painted in colours, and exhibit the appearance of flowered damask."J The native women in New South Wales used to tie a string tightly round the little finger, and wear it until the finger rotted off. Few of them escaped the painful experience. § The American Indians also inflicted the most horrible tortures upon themselves.il In many cases the boys, on arriving at maturity, are subjected to ordeals which must involve great suffering. These and many other curious practices are none the less painful because they are voluntary. If we turn to the bright side of the question, the whole analogy of nature justifies us in concluding that the pleasures of civilized man are greater than those of the savage. As we descend in the scale of organization, we find that animals * Narrative of a Survey of the J Forster, 1. c. p. 588. Intertropical and Western Coasts § D'Urville, vol. i. p. 406. of Australia, p. 42. See also Eyre's 1 1 See, for instance, Catlin's account, quoted in p. 449. North American Indians, vol. i. p. t Freycinet, vol. ii. p. 705. 170; Azara, vol. ii. p. 136. 572 THE BLESSINGS OF CIVILIZATION. become more and more vegetative in their characteristics ; with less susceptibility to pain, and consequently less capa- city for happiness. It may, indeed, be doubted whether some of those beings, which from their anatomy we are compelled to class as animals, have much more consciousness of enjoy- ment, or even of existence, than a tree or a sea-weed. But even to animals which possess a clearly defined nervous system, we must ascribe very different degrees of sensibility. The study of the sensory organs in the lower animals offers great difiiculties ; but at least we know that they are, in many cases, few in number, and capable of conveying only general impressions. Every one will admit that the posses- sion of a new sense, or the improvement of an old one, is a fresh source of possible happiness ; but how, it may be asked, does this affect the present question ? There are no just grounds for expecting man to- be ever endued with a sixth sense ; so far from being able to improve the organization of the eye or the ear, we cannot make one hair black or white, uor add one cubit to our stature. But, on the other hand, the invention of the telescope and microscope is equivalent in its results to an immense improvement of the eye, and opens up to us new worlds, fresh sources of interest and happiness. Again, we cannot alter the physical structure of the ear, but we can train it, we can invent new musical instru- ments, compose new melodies. The music of savages is rude and melancholy in comparison with ours ; and thus, though the ear of man may not have appreciably altered, the pleasure which we may derive from it has been immensely increased. Moreover, the savage is like a child who sees and hears only that which is brought directly before him, but the civilized man questions nature, and by the various processes of chemistry, by electricity, and magnetism, by a thousand ingenious con- trivances, he forces nature to throw light upon herself, discovers hidden uses and unsuspected beauties, almost THE DIMINUTION OF SUFFERING. 573 as if he were endowed with some entirely new organ of sense. The love of travel is deeply implanted in the human breast ; it is an immense pleasure to visit other countries, and see new races of men. Again, the discovery of printing brings all who choose into communion with the greatest minds. The thoughts of a Shakespeare or a Tennyson, the discoveries of a Newton or a Darwin, become thus the common property of mankind. Already the results of this all-important though simple process have been equivalent to an immense improve- ment of our mental faculties ; and day by day, as books become cheaper, schools are established, and education is improved, a greater and greater effect will be produced. The well-known proverb against looking a gift horse in the mouth does not apply to the gifts of nature ; they will bear the closest inspection, and the more we examine, the more we shall find to admire. Nor are these new sources of happiness accompanied by any new liability to suffering ; on the contrary, while our pleasures are increased, our pains are lessened ; in a thousand ways we can avoid or diminish evils which to our ancestors were great and inevitable. How much misery, for instance, has been spared to tho human race by the single discovery of chloroform ? The capacity for pain, so far as it can serve as a warning, remains in full force, but the necessity for endurance has been greatly diminished. With increased knowledge of, and attention to, the laws of health, disease will become less and less frequent. Those tendencies thereto which we have derived from our ancestors will gradually die out; and if fresh seeds are not sown, our race may one day enjoy the inestimable advantages of health. Thus, then, with the increasing influence of science, we may confidently look to a great improvement in the condition of man. But it may be said that our present sufferings and sorrows arise principally from sin, and that any moral im- 574 THE ADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. provement must be due to religion, not to science. This separation of the two mighty agents of improvement is the great misfortune of humanity, and has done more than any- thing else to retard the progress of civilization. But even if for the moment we admit that science will not render us more virtuous, it must certainly make us more innocent. Out of 104,000 persons committed to prison in England and Wales, only 4000 could read and write well. In fact, our criminal population are mere savages, and most of their crimes are but injudicious and desperate attempts to live as a savage in the midst, and at the expense, of a civilized community. Men do not sin for the sake of sinning ; they yield to temptation. Most of our sufferings arise from a mistaken pursuit of pleasure ; from a misapprehension of that which constitutes true happiness. Men do wrong either from ignorance or in the hope, unexpressed perhaps even to them- selves, that they may enjoy the pleasure, and yet avoid the penalty, of sin. In this respect there can be no doubt that religious teaching is much misapprehended. Eepentance is too often regarded as a substitute for punishment. Sin, it is thought, is followed cither by the one or the other. So far, however, as our world is concerned, this is not the case ; repentance may enable a man to avoid sin in future, but has no effect on the consequences of the past. The laws of nature are just and salutary, but they are also inexorable. All men admit that " the wages of sin is death " ; but they seem to think that this is a general rule to which there may be many exceptions — that some sins may possibly tend to happiness — that some thorns may grow grapes, some thistles produce figs. That suffering is the inevitable consequence of sin, as surely as night follows day, is, however, the stern yet salutary teaching of science. And surely if this lesson were thoroughly impressed upon our minds, if we really THE ADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 575 believed in the certainty of punishment, and that sin could not conduce to happiness, temptation, which is at the very root of crime, would be cut away, and mankind must necessarily become more innocent. May we not, however, go even farther than this, and say that science will also render man more virtuous ? " To pass our time," says Lord Brougham,* " in the study of the sciences, in learning what others have discovered, and in extending the bounds of human knowledge, has, in all ages, been reckoned the most dignified and happy of human occupations. . . . No man until he has studied philosophy can have a just idea of the great things for which Providence has fitted his understanding, the extraordinary disproportion which there is between his natural strength and the powers of his mind, and the force he derives from them." Finally he concludes that science would not only " make our lives more agreeable, but better; and that a rational being is bound, by every motive of intex-est and duty, to direct his mind towards pursuits which are found to be the sure path of virtue as well as of happiness." 'We are in reality but on the threshold of civilization. Far from showing any indication of having come to an end, the tendency to improvement seems latterly to have proceeded with augmented impetus and accelerated rapidity. Why, then, should we suppose that it must now cease ? Man has surely not reached the limits of his intellectvial development, and it is certain that he has not exhausted the infinite capabilities of nature. There are many things which are not as yet dreamt of in our philosophy ; many discoveries which will immortalize those who make them, and confer upon the human race advantages which as yet, perhaps, we are not in a condition to appreciate. We may still say with our great countryman, Sir Isaac Newton, that we have been but like * Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science, p. 39. 576 THE FUTURE. children playing on the sea-shore, and picl