Fig. 56.—Tool made of Reindeer Horn, found in the Cave of Laugerie-Basse (Stiletto?).
Fig. 57.—Tool made of Reindeer Horn, found in the Cave of Laugerie-Basse (Needle?).
We must, likewise, point out the smoothers, intended to flatten down the seams in the skins used for garments.
One of the most important instruments of this epoch is a perfect drill with a sharpened point and cutting edge. With this flint point rapidly twirled round, holes could be bored in any kind of material—bone, teeth, horn, or shells. This stone drill worked as well as our tool made of steel, according to the statement of certain naturalists who have tried the effect of them.
The primitive human settlement at Laugerie-Basse has furnished several specimens of an instrument, the exact use of which has not been ascertained. They are rods, tapering off at one end, and hollowed out at the other in the shape of a spoon. M. Édouard Lartet has propounded the opinion that they were used by the tribes of this epoch as spoons, in order to extract the marrow from the long bones of the animals which were used for their food. M. Lartet would not, however, venture to assert this, and adds: "It is, perhaps, probable that our primitive forefathers would not have taken so much trouble." Be this as it may, one of these instruments is very remarkable for the lines and ornaments in relief with which it is decorated, testifying to the existence in the workman of some feeling of symmetry (fig. 58).