Catoctin clarion., 1899-12-14

says: "The position In which the bones
were found leaves no doubt they We're
the remnants of cannibal ban4urts. l
examined many compartments OF the
caves and in twelve of them found hu-
man bones, part Of which comprised
the complete skeleton Of child, skulls
and fragments of skulls. thigh bones
and arm bones, parts of the human
jaw, shoulder bones and pieces of the
bones of the foot. They seemed to he
the remains of at least eight persons.
"The skeleton of the child was per-
fectly preserved and on the edges OF
the bones were the unmistakahle signs
OF the teeth that had gnawed at The
bones in the dreadful feast. Sucn
teeth markc could only have been
made by person biting grerdily at
the bone in picking off the flesh. On
all the bones these same significant
marks were visible, but more impor-
tant sign of the ule to which the re-
mains had been put was to be noted
in the burned edges of the bone, which
showed clearly that they had been
cooked over a pile Of ashes. There
was no possibility of mistaking the
marks for the fire Of sacriticial burn
ing. The marks pointed only to a
fire of ashes such as would have been
used for slowly cooking flesh destined
for eating purposes. In one case the
skull had been only burned a little
and was in perfect state of preser-
walton. On this skull the marks of
the teeth were plainly to be seem
1t may be contended that the bones
were buried in the usual way after
death, but the position of the remains,
as we'll as the fact that they were in
such peculiar fras ments proved this
idea to be erroneo, S, for the parts OF
the skulls and bon as were only those
that would have b Aen brought to the
cave for cannib llistic feast. The
small bones that W ,uld naturally have
been thrown away by those who pre-
pared the feast W re missing, except
in the case of the child, whose body
was probably cook ,d entire.
Another crcums ance that confirms
this view is that le bones and frag-
ments were found mixed with the re-
mains of earthenw. re jars that prclliS-
toric man must Ii: We used for eating
utensils. Still &C 1itional proof was
found Of the cam oalistic habits OF
prehistoric man II the fact that the
skulls in every cas- : had been opened,
evidently with the Intention of extract
ing the brains, VII ch the eater OF hui
man flesh always considers a dainty.
The manner in wi ich the bones were
broken also disclOs I'd the fact that the
diners had liki & for the marrow
and the bones hat. been broken with
the intention of ;tractng this. In
SOME of the bones this ev'drllcn was
clearer than in OF ers, but 1t was in
every case so cle' from close eX-
animation of the ,dges of the bones
that there could not be the slightest
doubt about the breaking being done
for the purpose of getting at the mar
low. SO much importance was at
tached to this point that the bones
were submitted to other scientists for
the purpose of g, ting their opinion
regarding the eau of the breakage
of the bones and , every case it was
pronounced to have been done inten-
tionally by those no were engaged in
a feast of human iesh.
A close study of ne conditions exist
ing at the time tn se bones We're left
as remnants Of cannibalistic feast
shows that they W re eaten first from
necessity. Food was scarce and tho
same motive that imFels a ship.
wrecked mariner to slay his fellow
castaway to allay the pangs of huu-
ger induced these prehistoric cann-
balls to dine off tn s1r fellows. In some
cases the objects Of the feast were tie