400 PROCEEDINGS AT MEETINGS OF

leadiug us to suppose that tho skins were not thrown loosely over the j)erson, but were cut into suitable forms, and sewn together. " It may be objected that it would be extremely ditHcult to sew leather with a bone needle. But, possibly, the jta.ssage of the needle was rendered more easy by sulijecting tlje leather to some previous treatment; and wc know that Estpiimaux women chew the leather upon which they are about to work in order to ])ropare it for sewing. " No imi)lements for spinning — no spindle-whorls — are found in the oaves with remains of this early jicriod; l)ut the cave-folk probably used sinew-thread, and spun it by simple hand-twirling on the thigh. The Liips still pre]iare sinew-thread in tins manner, and it is an art practised by the New Zealanders and many other savages. " Even in this remote ])eriod of man's history we do not only learn that he had wants to supply, and that he sought by the exercise of his ingenuity to supply those wants; we find him feebly but distinctly feeling after art— decorating objects with carving, and sculpturing the forms of his fellow-man and the contemi)orary animals, such as the mammoth and the reindeer, upon pieces of ivory, horn, bone, and stone. " Several of these sketches and carvings are extremely spirited, and nearly all sliow, at least, the attempt to copy nature. In order to appre- ciate the importance of this fact, it is necessary to observe how few modern savages make anj* attempt to copy natural objects with fidelity, Perha])S the Esquimaux furnish tiie solitary exception. " When savages wish to represent any natural ol)ject, they usually ad'jpt a purely conventional treatment; and, what is very remarkable, this conventional treatment becomes peculiar to tliemselves, and is not shared in conunon with other savage tril)es. Having once adopted a conventional form for any inirticuhu* object, they copy it, and it only, over and over again. " No one, for instance, can mistake the typical ' man ' of tho Mar- qucsan: you see this hideous caricature of the human countenance in collection after collection, and it is always line for line the same. Speaking generally, modern savages (with tho exception of the Ivsqui- maux) caricature, rather than copy, nature. Like an inexperienced artist, the savage seizes ui)on some ])rominent characteristic and exag- gerates it, instead of preserving the natural proportions and the graceful outlines of the original. I will not go so far as to sa}' that the cave- jieople, those men who lived contemporary with the mammoth, produced works of high art, liut tlicy certainly possessed a skill in drawing far in fulvancc of that attained by most moilern savage trilu-s. As far as wo know, this skill in drawing wa.s possessed by but a limited iiuinber of tho cavc-i)Ooplo, and it appears to have perisiieil with them. " The later stone-using i)ro-historic races did not inherit it, at least no Hculptured representations of animals or natural objects to bo referred to this later period have reached our time; and even during the Hronzo I'eriod such figures are extremely rare, — Sir John liUbiiock says, 'they lire 80 rare, that it is doulitful whether a single well authenticated iuHtance could be produced.'^ " This remark, however, cannot be iutendrd to apply to the New World, for the H<.;u]j»tured htone jiipes found in ih. Ohid nioimdh finni^h s ♦• Pro liintorJc Tjnu«," p. 328.