an inch. The diameter of the holes varies also very much, viz., from 14 inch to very nearly an inch. The smallest of these bones are ornamented on the upper surface. MM. Vogt and Dupont consider these perforated implements as 'commando-staffs' (or bâtons of office) because the Indians have similar distinctions for their chiefs. (Plate V. fig. 17, and Plate VIII. fig. 43.[1])
It can hardly be divined for what purpose the doubly perforated bones were used, which are drawn, Plate VII. fig. 41, and Plate IX. fig. 49.
Another bone has been perforated in a very peculiar manner. The hole has been made in such a direction through the bone, that a staff or pole forced through it would not be at right angles to the bone, but nearly in the same line with it. The bone is hollowed out in some measure on both sides near the hole, and everything seems to indicate that a staff has been driven through the opening. According to our ideas this implement bears some likeness to a kind of spade or spud, certainly of a very primitive description, but which the cave-dwellers may possibly have used to get edible roots from the ground.
Having finished these remarks as to the different classes of implements, I will now pass on to the more valuable art productions of that age; namely, the engraved drawings on the bones, some of which far surpass in execution all that has been previously known of the kind.[2] A drawing, somewhat defectively executed, was found on the broken brow-antler of a reindeer (Plate XI. fig. 67). The drawing is of some animal, but unfortunately only the hinder part has been preserved. The outline is sharply marked, more especially the line of the back. The small curled tail and the clumsy build of the body lead to the idea that it was intended for a pig, but there are no further indications which may help us to decide as to this figure. On
- ↑ Several of these 'bâtons' are drawn in Reliq. Aquit., Plates B. XV. and XVI. On that drawn, Plate VIII. fig. 43, and also on several other bone implements, there are certain peculiar notches or marks which are very similar to those so well described by Professor T. Rupert Jones in the 13th and 14th numbers of Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ, and which he considers to be 'marks, indicative of ownership, tallying, and gambling.' But may they not have been mere ornaments? I have in my possession a pipe, of which the bowl is clay, but the stem and mouthpiece are of wood and horn; it was given to me by Mr. Geo. II. Kinahan, of the Irish Geological Survey, and was manufactured (or at least the stem of it was) by some of the natives on the west coast of Ireland. This stem is ornamented in a very 'prehistoric' (!) way, and I am told that the natives there have no better tool for the ornamentation than a common kitchen knife.
- ↑ This, as already mentioned, is doubted by Mr. Franks.
