Another human figure (fig. 72), which, like the preceding one, is long and lean, is graven on a staff of authority, a fragment of which was found in the cave of La Madelaine by MM. Lartet and Christy. The man is represented standing between two horses' heads, and by the side of a long serpent or fish, having the appearance of an eel. On the reverse side of the same bâton, which is not given in the figure, the heads of two bisons are represented.
Fig. 72.—Staff of Authority, on which are graven representations of a Man, two Horses, and a Fish.
On a fragment of a spear-head, found in the same settlement of Laugerie-Basse, there is a series of human hands, provided with four fingers only, represented in demi-relief. M. Lartet has called attention to the fact, that certain savage tribes still depict the hand without noticing the thumb.
In fig. 39, which represents man during the reindeer epoch, such as we must suppose him to have been from the sum total of our present stock of information on the point, we see a man clothed in garments sewn with a needle, carrying as his chief weapon the jaw-bone of a bear armed with its sharp fang, and also provided with his flint hatchet or knife. Close to him a woman is seated, arrayed in all the personal ornaments which are known to have been peculiar to this epoch.
The question now arises, what were the characteristics of man during the reindeer epoch, with regard to his physical organisation?
We know a little of some of the broader features of his physiognomy from studying the objects found in the Belgian bone-caves, of which we have spoken in the introduction to this work. These caves were explored by M. Édouard Dupont, assisted by M. Van Beneden, a Belgian palæontologist and anatomist. The excavations in question were ordered by King Leopold's Government, which supplied the funds necessary for extending them as far as possible. The three caves, all situated in the valley of the Lesse, are the Trou des Nutons, the Trou du Frontal, at Furfooz, near Dinant, and the Caverne de Chaleux, in the neighbourhood of the town from which its name is derived.
The Trou des Nutons and the Trou du Frontal have been completely thrown into confusion by a violent inroad of water; for the débris that they contained were intermingled in an almost incredible confusion with a quantity of earthy matter and calcareous rocks, which had been drifted in by the inundation.