The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-03-08

Prof. ROlleston, is SO uncompromising
an opponent of cremation in it's revived
form; fellow-feeling for antiquarians
and anatomists of the ninetieth century
doubtless makes him realize how incon-
venient they would find it to be de-
prived of all skeletons of the nineteenth.
At any rate, paleolithic bones are far
rarer than paleolithic weapons and only
a very small number of skulls, the most
important relics for reconstructing the
features and appearance of our remote
progenitors, have been casually discoy-
cred in Swiss or German caves. Fortu-
nately, these are sufficient to give us all
the most important clues to the physiog-
nomy and mien Of theif quondam pos
SCISSORS.
Paleolithic man approximated some
what in type to the Bushman of South
Africa and the Digger Indian of Califor-
mia; but he was on the whole less human
and more ape-like than even those most
british of modern savages. His fore
head was villainously low anu retreating,
the worst existing specimen being lar
worse and the best a good deal better
than those of the living Bushman. His
jaws were more ponderous, and armed
with huge canine teeth, which recall in
many particulars those or the gorilla.
We can hardly doubt that his skin was
a deep black, though here we have only
the inferential proof to be drawn from
the skin of those existing savages who
have departed the least from the ancts-
trail type. And we may reasonably con-
lecture that his limbs and back were far
hairier than is the case with any men
now living.
There is no reason to suppose that he
was acquainted with the use of any cloth
ing except the skins of beasts. The flint
clippers apparently lived in natural or
artificial caves only, and did not build
huts or villages. At least, no trace of
anything like town of this period any
where occurs. On the other hand, the
remains found in the caves have every
appearance of belonging to human hab-
itations. The flint implements, bone
needles and ornamental necklets, all seem
to have been lost in the caves by people
who lived there, and to be associated with
the refuse Of their meals. We must re-
member, in connection with this ap-
parent absence of towns, that man was
not yet, in all likelihood, the absolutely
dominant animal that we know him to
be at the present day. He did not hold
the whole country side as his acknowI-
edged hunting-ground, and rule over
the beasts Of the field as their undis-
puted lord.
Rather was he one among a number of
competitors, struggling hard for suprem-
acy against the cave-lion, the mammoth,
and the grizzly bear. In each cave dwelt
different family, ungoverned save by
tbs harsh government of its father and
hunter, and unbound to the inhabitants
of other caves by any ties save those of
a rude and half-developed barter. The
size and shape of the jaws may even lead
one to suppose that men still fought
with one another like the higher apes
using their ponderous canine teeth as
weapons of otfense. But in any case we
must suppose that these primitive fam
lilies lived in a state of isolation more
complete than even that OF our modern
Australians, and remained utterly un-
consolidated into any form of tribe or
nation.