The Republican journal., 1876-11-09

The skeletons, weapons, and ornaments OF
the cay e-men who form the subject of this pa
per, were discovered, a. we shall presently
show. for the most part n two distinct regions
OF Southern France, The excavations which
brought them To light having been undertaken,
under government patronage by Jealous French
antiquaries.
Skull of 4 man who dWelt ages ago in a cave at
I.angerie BasSc, in the French department Of
the DordognP. When he lived we can only
guess, 1t was 50 very. very long ago. But IN
hi- day there was no village of Lower LANCE
rie, no department of the Dordogne, no France,
republican or imperial, no Gaul eYen--nothlng
bat a namcleSs, trigid land of lagoon forest,
swamp. and glacier, ranged by wild beasts and
Wild men Long ages before Troy was be
4iegcd or Jerusalem built, this savage hunter
drank of the water of the little river Nczere.
which still tnkles past the cavern on it, pas
sage to the blue, sunny Bay OF Bisray that
dlmpes aud flashes hard by.
He died in his sleep, and by an accident to
which these savage masters of Europe seem to
have been very liable. A. he lay, a limestone
block from the roof of the cave fell upon his
neck and chest. leaving the head nnlnured. y
Wcli-shaped, largely developed head II was,
more like, 80 cranoogists declare, to Gre
clan skull than TO that OF a Carb or a Mongol,
the head of one who could appreciate beauty,
ana w :lS mol utNOfti ol me lit
was indeed not merely Il mighty hunter. used
to grappie with bruteS more terrible than our
continent can now show, but Il draughtsman OF
no mean preEensons. as we shall presently see.
The great cave near Langerie Basse, behind
the picturesque Gorge dEnfer, and called the
Mousticr from some f;ncied resemblance to a
medieval minister or church, was known 10 be
rich in animal remains. Bones and teeth once
belonging to the monstrous caVe-bear, the long
haired caye-lion, the great tiger, in comparison
with which the herceSt deniZen OF the Bengal
Jungle is but Il punv thing, and of the hyena,
were dragged to light, along with the bones of
horse and ON, stag and reindeer the bison of
the north and the ibeN of the hills. Quite re-
Gently, and after hard work with pick, shovel,
and gunpoWder, the way was cleared to the
spot where lay the buried man OF the cave
himself.
He had lain down to rest, no doubt, after the
fashion of all barbalans. fully dressed but time
has r0tted away every scrap OF the bears 1ur
| and deerskin that clothed him. His ornaments
have proved more durable, for his broad collar
| and bracelets lay in fragments around him
| when the searchcrs reached his rocky couch.
| These were entirely composed of perforated
| Sea-shels of two varieties of the genus Cy-
prra, only found in the Mediterranean, and
| quite unknown in that stormy Atlantic which
| foamed and rolled within IA league or so of the
wild mans grave. Here was fact, then, rest
| ing on indlsputabie evidence; either by COM
merce or by migration the hunters Of Western
| Gaul could procure the products of the faro
| Southern Sea.
These Shells faded with age and damp. had
once been of Il rare lustre and beauty. Each
was somewhat larger than a pigeons egg
| transparent porcelain, and while half OF
| them were of Il slVery mouse-gray, the rest
| We're of light red color, so that the contraSted
| hues must have produced an effect which mod
| ern jewellers would not despise. AT some
| PAGES off, amidst the rubbish which Uttered the
uneven floor, We're picked up, first the sketch
| of a horses head, scratched with flint or bone
| Oh the horn of IA buck, then similar sketches OF
| wild cat, of the antlered head of stag, and OF
bare. Lastly was found, executed with the
| rudest tools, no doubt and on part OF the horn
of reindeer, really admirable engraving
! which represents a taWn in the act of running
| A similar sketch on mammoth ivory, and rep
| resenting MAMMOTH had been found i'll q
| cave, eight years earlier, in Auvergne.
| The great prepOnderance OF reindeer bones
| in the Moustier proved that these animals, now
| confined to Scandin inavia and Lapiand, were the
| chief game pursued by the nomadic people who
| dwelt in caves, while the ornaments of subtro-
| pic shells suggest Winterly migration south
| wards to escape the severe froSts which mus
| have been general in Gaul, country whicl
could at bes! have presented but Il soitenet
| prototype of the Greenland of to-day.
! What little we know of the former inhabi
| tauts of France is full of strange contrasts
| They dwe!t in caves, exposed TO peril, no
| merely from enemies brute and human, but o.
| those land-sips and falls OF rock SO common
among the honey-combed cliffs of limestone
OF metals. of pottery, of cloth, silk, or tanneo
| leather, of fruits, grain, or domestic ANIMALS
| they seem to have known nothing. F1shermel
| they were, and in a sense naylSat0rs, as theH
long and solid canoes seem to prove. Above
all things they We're intrepid hunters. contrly
| ing, with no weapons but spears, arrows, anC
| tomahawks of sharrened flint, to slay mann
moth and rhinoceros, lion and boar, to say
nothing of wolves and bears, tigers and wllo
| cats.
That they travelled the mute witness of the
bracelets and collar of the Dordogne skeleton
| testify; while the skill with which, on scraI
of horn and with the angle of flint, they coult
depict the wild animals in the chase of which
their lives were spent, was, for savages, eX
traordnary. By burnt-otferings and the inter
! ment of arms and adornments they did honor
| TO their mighty dead; while the rude plenty in
which they lived is evidenced by the heaped-uI
relics of their feasts forming q bed of bones ant
organic matter, often some feet in thickness
on the floor of the tribal grotto. 1t is worthy
of notice that the wild horse Of these pre-his
toric times was no pony, as In America ant
Tartary, but an animal fully equal in dimen
| sions to our domestic steed of to-day