Religiously, there is little to be atlirmed or inferred of the Palaeolithic tribe-. Some of the curiously wrought flints may have served as religious emblems; and occa- sional discovery of deposits of food near the body of the dead may very naturally be regarded as evidence of a belief in the future life. In the Reindeer Epoch this class of evidences becomes very greatly augmented, as shown in the systematic ami carefully provided burials in some of the tumulus-dolmens, and in the traces of funeral repasts in these and the rock-shelters of Auri- gnac, Bruniquel, and Furfooz. The numerous specimens of bright and shining minerals found about many set- tlements-as of hydrated oxide of iron, carbonate of copper, fluor-spar— may have been used as amulet-, and thus testify to the vague sense of the supernatural which characterizes the infancy of human society. The Neolithic people add to such indications the erection of megalithic structures, some of which, surrounded by their cemeteries, as at Abnry, England, must naturally lie considered as their sacred temples.
Prehistoric man, in brief, represented, in Europe, the infancy of his race. All his powers were undeveloped and uneducated. Every evidence sustains us in thf conclusion that he was not inferior in psychic endow- ments to the average man of the highest races; but Ik. was lacking in acquired skill, and in tin n su perience accumulated through a long series of genera- tions, ami preserved from forgetfulness bj the blessings of a written language.
i l.i Antiquity of Prehistoric Europeans. In debat- ing this question, social and intellectual considerations signify nothing, since all conditions have existed in all ages. As to the geological antiquity of European man. we have stated that he dates from Bom probably an early part ol' the Champlain period. It lias been earnestly maintained, however, and i- -till be- lieved by some, that man appeared in Europe before the epoch of the last general glaciation. The following are the grounds on w hich the opinion has been based : (a.) Preglacial remains erroneously supposed hum bones found at Saint-Presl (Loir-et-Cher) in stratified sand and gravel bore cuts, notches, and Bcratches sup- posed to indicate the u-e of flint implements. The bones,
however, were associated with those of Elepkas meridi- onalis, which ranged from the Later Pliocene to the be- ginning of the Quaternary age. But it was proven by experiment that very similar markings are made upon bones by porcU| iues : while in the beds containing the boms in question were abundant remains of a large rodent, quite capable of causing the supposed human markings. Again, the shell-marls (Jaluns) of Le'ognan, near Bordeaux, enclose bones of an extinct manatee
and of certain cetaceans and chcloiieans. which beat
marks appearing to have been made by human imple- ments. 'I he manatee in question i- of .Miocene age. But in the same deposits OCCUI the remains oi a carniv- orous fish (Sargus serratus) whose serrated teeth lit exactly the markings on the fossil bones. .\ similar explanation probably await- the furrowed Ualitherium
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