Mythology, which will be examined in the following chapters by specific regions and

epochs, implies a belief in supernatural forces, that is to say in beings who are both different from

and superior to living men in that they exercise, either directly or through the intermediary of

natural phenomena, a benign or harmful influence. It is the function of ritual practices or

ceremonies to encourage the former influence and prevent or neutralise the latter.

As an introduction to the study of the varied forms and the often poetic embellishments

which these beliefs assumed among different peoples throughout the ages, it is appropriate to

inquire into their origins: when in the life of mankind did such beliefs first appear?

Supernatural beings, the objects of these beliefs, can be divided into two categories which,

though in principle distinct, overlap in a number of cases. On the one hand there are the dead,

ancestors or manes, who have been known to their contemporaries in the form and condition of

normal men. On the other hand there are the divinities, strictly speaking, who never existed as

ordinary mortals.

Our information about the religious beliefs of peoples known to history can be derived

from written documents; about primitive peoples who still exist we have the oral reports of

travellers and ethnologists. But for prehistoric ages both of these sources of information are

entirely lacking, and we never find ourselves in the actual presence of prehistoric religious beliefs.

The only materials we possess are either physical traces of what appear to be vestiges of ritual

practices or else pictorial representations of such practices from which can be inferred - with the

aid of ethnological parallels - a belief in the existence of the supernatural beings to whom they

were addressed. One cannot, therefore, insist too strongly on the hypothetical character of

conclusions based on such material.

We shall confine ourselves to the study of those people we call Palaeolithic because of their

industry in chipped, not polished, stone, and who lived during the Pleistocene geological epoch.

We shall retrace our way cautiously through the course of time and, ignoring facts which are too

ambiguous, try to discover what may reasonably be conjectured about their religious beliefs.

It is not impossible that the Magdalenians - the least ancient of Palaeolithic peoples - had a

mythology in the strict sense of the word: that is to say, that they attributed to certain supernatural

beings not only a specific form but specific acts. This at least is an acceptable interpretation of

wall-drawings discovered in the cavern of the Trois-Freres in the Ariege department of southern

France. There are three of them, and two at least seem to form an intentional group. Objectively

the one on the right depicts a personage whose upright posture, legs and rump belong to a man.

He has a horse's tail, a bison's head and the front legs of an animal, with one hoof distinctly

cloven. He is perhaps dancing, and is certainly playing some kind of bowed musical instrument.

He is preceded by an animal which turns its head towards him. To be sure, the human figure may

be a magician in disguise who is charming the animal in front of him; but it would seem difficult

to disguise the arms of an actual man with imitation hooved forelegs. Moreover, neither of the two

animals who precede him is altogether real. The one nearest to him, a female whose sex is

carefully accentuated, has the hind-quarters of the deer tribe and the forequarters of a bison. The

forelegs of the reindeer in front terminate in the hooves of anything but a reindeer. We may thus

suppose that this group of figures, of which not one entirely corresponds to reality, was intended

to represent a mythological scene a sort of Palaeolithic Orpheus charming equally mythical

animals by means of his music and dancing.

But this interpretation of the Trois-Frercs group is by no means the only one possible.

Actually, the combination in the same animal of characteristics belonging to different species is

found again elsewhere, not only in other drawings from the same cave. In the Trois-Freres cavern

there are two bears, one with a wolf's head, the other with a bison's tail. A Solutrean bas-relief at

Roc in the Charente shows a swine with a bull's back.

Such figures, as we shall see, are connected with the magic of hunting and fertility and

represent not mythological but real animals who are partially deformed in order to avert the

hostility which might be aroused in them were their exact resemblance drawn. In addition,

personages who combine human and animal characteristics occur elsewhere in Magdalenian art,

both in wall-paintings and household possessions. Some of them also seem to be dancing and -

according to ethnological parallels - may quite probably represent magicians in disguise. Such are,

to cite only the least debatable specimens, another figure carved and painted on a wall of the same

Trois-Freres cave a man with a bearded head, bull's ears, stag's antlers and a horse's tail - and the

three personages with chamois heads carved on a staff found in the Mege shelter at Teyjat in the

Dordogne. Though all these figures may equally be interpreted as either divinities or magicians, it

would seem that the figure cut on one side of a limestone pebble from La Madeleine, in which

human features are represented under a covering mask, must be that of a magician. On the other

face of the same stone there is a feminine figure whose animal head is not so certainly a mask. If

we assume that she also is a magician we reach the interesting conclusion that at least in the

Lower Magdalenian period magic functions were not an exclusively masculine prerogative.

Whether any of the figures mentioned above actually represented a hybrid deity or not, it

is easy to see how the use of magic disguise contributed to the belief in such deities. The power of

the magician was attributed to his disguise. It played the role of establishing a mystic communion,

a fusion of essence, between him and the animals on which he proposed to act. Magic power and

the magician's appearance were naturally associated. His aspect, simultaneously animal and

human, naturally led to the conception of gods under the same hybrid form. The god possessed

similar powers, and the magician, at least in the exercise of his functions, was in some way the

god's incarnation. In any case, whether these figures rcprcsented divinities or magicians, they bear

witness to the existence of religious beliefs. There can be no doubt that during the Magdalenian

period many caverns, either wholly or at least in their lower depths were sanctuaries.

Food in Palaeolithic times depended primarily on hunting, and the essential role of

magic was to assure its success. Mimetic magic with animal disguises must have contributed. But

Magdaienian man certainly had recourse to sympathetic or homoeopathic magic, which relies on

the theory that an operation performed on an image of a real being will produce the same effect on

the being itself. Many of the drawings and clay figures of the cave of Montespan in the Haute-

Garonne seem to have been made in order to be slashed or pierced with holes with the object of

wounding real animals. Particularly remarkable is a statue of a bear cub, modelled in the round

and placed on a stand, which seems to have been destined for this purpose. The statue never

had a head. There is a cavity in the neck which seems to have been produced by a wooden peg

supporting some object - and the skull of a bear cub was found on the ground between the statue's

two front paws. This suggests that the headless statue, which is riddled with more than thirty

holes, was completed by the head of an actual animal. There are other indications that it was

perhaps covered with an animal's hide which also played a part in the magic ceremony.

Also sculptured in the round at Isturitz in the Basses-Pyrenees is a feline creature,

perforated in a manner which does not seem to suggest that the holes were made in order to hang

up the figure. They must therefore represent wounds; and there are also arrows or harpoons

scratched on the figure's thighs and spine. Another sculpture in the same grotto was even more

obviously intended for sympathetic magic. This is a bison in sandstone. On its flank there is a deep

vertical incision, at the side of which an arrow is cut. It is even possible that the original fracturing

of the head and feet was the result of intentional mutilation which completed the magic ceremony.

From these examples, in which the magic operation consists of actually wounding the

animal's image, ancient man passed gradually to merely portraying the wounds or even simply

evoking them by- drawing the weapons which were supposed to inflict them. This can he seen,

among many other examples, in a wall-drawing of a bear at Trois-Freres. Its body is depicted as

having been stoned. It bristles with arrows, and from the muzzle flow copious streams of blood.

In these figures, and in others which seem to represent animals being hunted not with

weapons but with snares, it is almost certain that the portrayal of a wished-for event was intended

to bring about the event itself.

Two drawings on limestone of animals pierced with arrows, a rhinoceros and a stag, found

at La Colombicre in the Ain, must antedate the Magdaienian and correspond chronologically to

the Solutrean period in a region to which this civilization did not penetrate.

Since hunting of necessity required the existence of game it is natural that Palaeolithic man,

in order that game should be plentiful, also practiced fertility magic. In this case sympathetic

magic could not, as with hunting magic, consist of performing in animal images the operations

which would produce the desired result on the animals themselves. Fertility could only be caused

artificially in effigy. We can therefore consider the representation of certain animal couples, and

certain females, as examples of fertility magic. Such animal couples are the clay-modelled bisons

of Tuc d'Audoubert, the reindeer sculptured in ivory of Bruniquel and the bull following a cow at

Teyjat. To these may be added a wall-drawing of bison at Altamira. A female fertility figure is the

drawing on a flagstone at La Madeleine of a doe accompanied by her fawn. All these specimens

are of the Magdaienian period. But the older Solutrean frieze at Roc presents several bas-reliefs of

female forms: the sow with cow's back already mentioned and some mares, one of which seems to

be accompanied by the rough outline of a male.

It is possible, though disputable, that certain figures of wounded men - for example a

drawing in the shelter at Saltadora - were intended to bewitch an enemy, and thus correspond to a

war magic similar to hunting magic. We consider it even more doubtful that representations of

amorous scenes between human beings or the figurines of women with exaggerated bellies were

intended to cause fertility among women. There is the Magdaienian 'Woman with a Reindeer' of

Laugerie-Basse and the luxuriant females who are particularly abundant in, though not exclusive

to, the Aurignacian period. But their role, we believe, was purely erotic. There is, however, a

curious drawing on a blade of bone at Isturitz in which a woman, followed by a man, bears on her

thigh a harpoon similar to those which in the picture on the opposite side of the blade have

wounded a bison. This we are tempted to interpret as a love charm.

To sum up, there seem to be no indications of hunting magic or fertility magic during

Aurignacian times. They only appear with the Solutrean and continue into the Magdaienian

period, reaching their apogee in its first phase.

Different religious practices are encountered in pre-Mousterian central Europe, a period

which goes back to the last ice age. The most characteristic remains come from Drachenloch, above

Vattis in the valley of the Tamina (canton of Saint-Gall, Switzerland), which is the highest known

Palaeolithic cavern, over 7,500 feet above sea level. In two of the chambers there are low stone

walls nearly three feet high, which were certainly made by the hand of man. They run along the

cave wall, leaving between it and them a space about fifteen inches "wide. This space is filled with

the bones of cave bears. These bones are chiefly skulls and are usually accompanied by the two

first cervical vertebrae. There are also leg bones belonging, with rare exceptions, to different

individual bears. At the entrance and in the forepart of one of these chambers similar bone-heaps

were accumulated in half a dozen rectangular stone chests, covered by large slabs which form lids.

In the far end of the same chamber three skulls were gathered together in an empty space between

fallen blocks. Another skull had been carefully placed beneath a huge stone which was wedged in

a manner to protect it against the pressure of the earth. It was encircled by a sort of stone crown

adapted to the shape of the head.

All these collections of bears' remains were certainly deliberate Since the skulls were

generally attached to the first two vertebra they were not deposited there fleshless, but in a state to

be eaten Moreover, the brain, like the legs with their meat and marrowbone represented the most

succulent part of the animal. They were thus all probability offerings to some supernatural power.

It is, of course arbitrary to see in this power a Supreme Being like our own God and more likely

these choice morsels were offered to conciliate the spirits of the game, to give them thanks for the

success of a hunting expedition and to solicit the continuance of their favor in the future. In any

case we have here what may be the oldest known example of practices addressed to supernatural

powers.

THE CULT OF THE DEAD

The dead, too, were considered to be supernatural power Corpses were the object of

practices which give evidence not of deference but also, in the broad sense of the word, of a cult.'

The skeletons which have been found in artificially dug trenches or surrounded and covered by

durable materials, like stones or bones fragments, were incontestably buried with funerary

intention.

Many of them, moreover, were buried with funerary furnishings such as the jewels and

ornaments which have been found on or around them. Doubtless these were objects which they

had owned during their lifetimes. But even if they had not been presented with these ornaments

on burial, at least the survivors had not, in spite of their considerable value, taken them away as

they could have done. The fact that they belonged to the dead rendered them in some taboo. And

then other objects found with the bodies could of have been placed there by the survivors, and

constitute geniune funerary furnishings, destined for the use of the dead man in after life: utensils,

works of art, food.

In many cases red ochre (clay colored with haematite or iron peroxide) was sprinkled over

the corpse's grave and has left traces of its colour on the skeleton and surrounding objects. Because

of its color certain primitive peoples of today, in particular the Austrialian aborigines, liken red

ochre to blood (even we call it haematite) and for this reason consider it a symbol of life and

strength. It is reasonable to suppose that the ochre spread over the tombs and bodies of

Palaeolithic man was intended, like the deposits of food to strengthen the dead one during his

journey to the after-world and his sojourn in his new abode.

Among numerous examples of these various funeral practices we shall call attention only

to those that are particularly character-istic, and establish at which periods such practices were in

force.

The Magdalenian skeleton of Hoteaux in the Ain, covered with red ochre, was found in a

small trench. Behind the head a large stone had been placed. Beside it were chipped flint

instruments and a chieftain's staff in reindeer horn on which was engraved a stag. The skeleton of

Sordes in the Landes had several slabs placed on its skull and had been covered with red ochre.

Beside it was found about forty bears' and three lions' canine teeth, almost all carefuly pierced.

Some twenty of them were carved with seals, fish and arrows. In view of their position they must

have constitutited a necklace and a belt. The perforated shellfish which formed the adornment of

'the crushed man' of Laugerie-Basse belonged to two species which are native to the

Mediterranean. Having come from such a distance they must have been especially valuable.

Under the right hand of the skeleton of Solutre there were numerous flints chipped in the

shape of laurel leaves and also a pierced scallop shell. Found with it were two crude statuettes of

reindeer in stone.

The skeleton of Klause in Bavaria was enclosed between boulders fallen from the ceiling.

They had been arranged to make a place or the body. It was completely surrounded by a mass of

red powder. Above and benoath the head was a great heap of fragments of mammoths' tusks.

For the Aurignacian period a number of consonant facts have been established in the

caverns of Grimaldi, near Menton. In the grotto 'des Enfanis' the two negroid skeletons lie in a

trench about thirty inches deep. The head of the old woman was found in a tightly closed chest

formed by two lateral blocks of stone, covered over by

a horizontal slab. The young man was wearing a sort of crown made of four rows of pierced

nassas. The same shellfish provided the two bracelets on the old woman's left arm. This tomb

contained red powder in the rubble, around the head and on parts of the young man's skeleton.

The two children, to whom the cave owes its name, were wearing a kind of apron made of

thousands of perforated nassas. In the same cave a female skeleton was covered over with animal

bones, the jawbones of a wild boar and some chips of flint. Under its head there was a white stone

bearing traces of red coloring. It was literally lying in a bed of trochus shells. Not being pierced,

these shells could not have been for adornment, but had been put near the body for food.

At La Barma Grande the three bodies stretched side by side were placed in an obviously

man-made trench and had a bed of red earth. They wore adornments composed of shells, teeth,

fish vertebrae and artificial pendants in bone and ivory. Particularly remarkable is the young

man's necklace, which was held in its original position by a coating of clay and, in the symmetry

and rhythm of its arrangement, bears witness to a sense of artistry. These skeletons were

accompanied by very beautiful flint instruments, and the woman's head reposed on the femur of

an ox.

The corpse of Paviland in Wales was powdered with iron oxide which stained the earth and burial

objects, and in some places formed a coating on the bones. Although probably male, it has for this

reason been christened 'The Red Lady'. Beside it was found the entire head of a mammoth

complete with tusks. Near the thighs were found two handfuls of small shells drenched in red,

and near the chest some fifty fragments of round ivory rings.

At Predmosti in Moravia twenty human skeletons were gathered under a veritable lid of

stones. A child's skeleton wore a necklace of fourteen pendants. Beside the skeleton of Brno there

were more than six hundred fragments of fossilised shells, strung together to form conical tubes.

Some were still inserted in each other and together they must have made a kind of breastplate for

the body. Near it were also found large perforated stone disks, small disks decorated with

incisions, three solid disks made of mammoth's or rhinoceros's ribs, some rhinoceros ribs, and

finally an ivory statuette of a human being. The skeleton and some of the objects in the tomb were

partially stained red.

The skeleton of La Chapelle-aux-Saints belongs to the Mousterian period. It lay in a trench

a little less than five feet long, about three feet wide and a foot deep. The head lay against a corner

of the trench, propped by stones and covered over with broad slabs of bone. At La Ferrassie the

two children at least were laid in artificial trenches. The man's skeleton was covered by rubble and

protected by chips of bone. The skeleton of Moustier had its skull placed on a sort of pillow

formed by a heap of flint fragments carefully adapted to the shape of the head. The nose seems to

have been especially protected by two chips of flint. The bodies of both La Chapelle-aux-Saints

and Moustier were provided with funerary furnishings, instruments and joints of game.

The use of red ochre has not been observed in the Mousterian period, but burial rites are as

apparent then as in later Magdalenian times. What, then, was their intention? Since they were

performed for people whose earthly life was finished they imply a belief that the dead continue

after death to lead some kind of existence. This posthumous life appears to have been conceived as

similar to life on earth, with the same needs and the same means of satisfying them. This explains

the ornaments left with the dead, the implements, the food (quarters of venison and piles of

shellfish) and the red ochre.

In thus providing for the posthumous needs of the dead, the survivors seem, however, to

have acted less from disinterested affection than from self-interest. Their care seems to have been

to encourage the deceased's favourable disposition towards themselves, to soften his possible

hostility or to put him physically in a position where he could do no harm. Generally speaking,

primitive people believe that death, like sickness, is the result of a magic operation. Deaths to

which we assign natural causes are attributed by them to an evil spell, the author of which,

whether unconscious or malevolent, they attempt to discover by various means.

This being so, it can be understood that the dead were thought to harbour vengeance

against their presumed murderers and, in consequence of the idea of collective responsibility,

against all those who survived them. At the very least they would entertain sentiments of envy

towards those who still enjoyed the earthly life of which they themselves had been deprived. It

seems, then, that the basic attitude towards the dead was one of fear, and that burial rites were

originally measures of protection against the deceased. This Palaeolithic trenches and tombs may

have been intended less the shelter the dead than to imprison them. The statuette of Brno, was

probably masculine and buried with a masculine corpse, could have played the role of a 'double',

meant to keep the dead one in his tomb and prevent him from 'returning' to torment the living.

This would account for the statuette's being made with neither leg nor right arm.

Particularly remarkable is the trussed-up position in which made of these bodies were

found. A typical example from the Magdalenian period is the old man of Chancelade in the

Dordogne, covered with red ochre, with arms and legs folded and the vertical column bent to such

a degree that the skeleton only occupies a space little more than two feet long and sixteen inches

wide. In the grotto 'des Enfants', which is Aurignacian, the negroid young man's legs were

completely drawn up to his thighs. The old woman's thighs were raised as far as possible so that

her knees reached the level of her shoulders. The legs were sharply folded under the thighs and

the feet nearly touched the pelvis. The forearms were bent upwards so that the left hand was just

beneath the shoulder-blade. In the Mousterian period the woman of La Ferrassie had her legs

doubled up; the bent right forearm rested along the thigh, the hand on a knee. This arm and the

legs formed a letter 'N', the knee reaching a distance of only six inches from the shoulder. The legs

of the skeleton of La Chapelle-aux-Saints were folded and raised so that the kneecaps were more

or less on a level with the chest.

This contracted condition which has been observed in so many skeletons from the

Mousterian until the Magdalenian period could of course, only have been imposed on the body by

those who buried it. In addition, it means that the body must have been tied up at the moment of

death: for rigor mortis would later have prevented its being forced into such a position. It seems,

then, that among Palaeolithic as among other primitive peoples who share similar burial customs,

the doubled-up posture of the body was only a result of the trussing-up and binding - this beirig

the essential operation, intended to prevent the dead from coming back to torment the living. This

also explains the diversity of positions in which Palaeolithic bodies are found: provided that they

were securely bound and could not leave their graves, the actual position of the body was of

secondary importance and could be left to individual initiative.

Although fear of the dead seems to have been the dominant sentiment it does not follow

that in some cases at least there was not also a belief that the dead could be helpful and beneficent

especially when funeral rites devised to assure their maximum well-being in the after-life had

been performed. This seems to account for certain practices which differed from burial in the strict

sense in that they tended not to set the dead apart from the living but on the contrary, to preserve

their remains and keep them, as it were to hand. Such, notably, was the practice of stripping the

flesh from the body before burial. This was done by various means, especially by natural

putrefaction in a provisional grave. The object was to conserve the skeleton or its bones, which

were sometimes worn by the survivors as amulets. The practice seems to have existed from

Palaeolithic times. A Lower Magdalenian example is found in the grotto of Le Placard in the

Charente. An entire skull of a woman complete with lower jawbone, was placed on a rock and

surrounded by a hundred and seventy shells of different sorts, some pierced, some not. Skulls in

the same cave, belonging to Lower Magdalenian and Upper Solutrean periods, show clear traces

of deliberate flesh-stripping and have undoubtedly been cut and altered. In the Au-rignacian cave

of Le Cavillon at Grimaldi three such bones were found: the broken radius of a child and two

bones from a man's foot, coloured a vivid red. Scattered nearby was a set of pierced and unpierced

shells. A tomb at Predmosti contained only a few bone-remains which had been scraped; the head

was missing but must once have been there, for two teeth still remained. A Mous-terian skeleton,

found in a trench at La Ferrassie, had its skull deprived of face and jawbone, placed nearly four

feet away from the body. At Le Pech de I'Aze the skull of a five or six years old child was

surrounded by deliberately broken animal bones, by teeth and by a quantity of implements.

Finally, we must take into account many finds of isolated human bones from all periods, generally

skulls or jawbones.

The deposits of Fu-Ku-Tien near Peking permit us to go back to the earliest Pleistocene

times. They have yielded - together with abundant vestiges of fire, and work in bone and stone -

the remains of a dozen human beings, halfway between Pithecanthropus man of Java and

Neanderthal man of Mousterian Europe. For the moment these remains are confined to skull and

lower jaw, without traces of cervical vertebrae, while the animals on which these men fed are

represented by bones from all parts of the body. There can thus be no question of cannibalism or

of the heads being cut from corpses immediately after death. To all appearances these skulls must

have been preserved after the bodies had been stripped of flesh.

Hence from the remotest times when, on the evidence of the skull which is all we have of

his body, man was still closely related to the ape, it would seem that there are proofs of his

industry and that, at least in the form of a cult of the dead, he revealed traces of religion.

The Plates in this chapter

(1) Part of the Relief Frieze of Le Roc, Charente (according to Dr. Henri Martin)

Effigies of female animals connected with fertility magic

(frontpiece back)

(2) Engraved shaft from the Mege Shelter at Tejat, Dorfogne (according to H. Breuil).

Men diguised as chamois. Hunting magic

(Page 2)

(3) Egyptian terracotta figurine. Fashioned from Nile mud, these female figures were

probably fertility Goddesses or served as simple representations in magic rites.

Prehistoric period

(Page 2)

(4) Wall Engraving in the Trois-Freres (according to H. Begouen and H. Breuil)

Mythic scene or representation of some form of hunting magic

(Page 3)

(5) Negative handprint in red ochre

A very early example of man expressing man, and leading to more complicated

designs and to sympathic magic

Grotto de Gargas (Hautes-Pyrenees)

(Page 3)

(6) Designs resembling symbolic suns deom their frequency in the later engraving period

would appear to point to the existence of sun worship in this area.

Cave in the Matopo Hills, Rhodesia

(Page 4)

(7) Male bison about to mount a female

Representations of animals coupling are believed to been made as part of fertility rites.

Clay figures of the Magladenian period

Le Tuc d'Audoubert (Ariege)

(Page 4)

(8) Wall Engraving from the Trois-Freres (according to H. Begouen and H. Breuil)

Bear stoned and pierced with arrows, vomitting blood

Sympathic magic

(Page 4)

(9) Funeral scene

The large reclining figure in the upper half is masked and bandaged body, probably

of a chief or somebody of rank, wearing an antelope mask and ready for burial. The figure

below with raised knees is possibly a wife mourning him, but she could possibly be ready for

burial with him-- in effect to follow him into the next world. The curved lines in the lower part

may represent a river, a frequent symbol among primative people for the barrier to be

crossed before reaching the next world. Numerous other figures are shown and offerings of

food.

Rock painting believed to be about 5,000 years old at "Diana's Vow" Farm near Rusape,

Rhodesia

(Page 5)

(10) Thutmoses II pours a libation to the God Amon-Ra

The Pharoah stands before the seated God pouring a double libation with his right

hand and holding burning incense in his left. The God is portrayed seated in a throne

wearing his headdress of a crown surmounted by two tall plumes and holding a sceptre and the

Originally a God of Thebes, Amon was raised by the conquests of Thutmoses III to the

position of Supreme God of the known world.

Tomb of Thutmoses III from Deir el-Behri

Eighteen dynasty, 1580-1350 BC

(Page 6)

(11) Carved stone stele discovered near Avigone

The face probably represents a deity and the stele itself would have been erected at a cult

center.

Neolithic period

(Page 7)

(12) Rock drawing of a woman giving birth, almost certainly an example of sympathic magic.

The signs near the drawing are believed to be an early form of pictograph

Sha'ib Samma in the Yemen

(Page 7)

(13) Spear thrower in carved bone

The spear shaft fitted into the hole to provide additional leverage

The figure of the horse suggests that wild horses were hunted for food

Paleolithic period

(Page 8)

(14) Engraved bone from Isturitz (according to R. de Saint-Perier)

On one side bison with arrows (hunting magic); on the other side, man following woman

with an arrow in her thigh (possibly love charm)

(Page 8)

(15) Stone Age men armed with bows and arrows preparing for battle or the hunt.

In the world of primitive magic success in either was sought by the formal representations

such as these.

From a cave painting at Teruel

(Page 9)

(16) Pottery figure discovered in Lake Maracaibo, Venezueka

Of unknown date, it probably represents a primitive Mother Goddess

The sun sign on the base would seem to anticipate the later sun cultures.

(Page 9)

17 Two female figures with goats, probably engaged in some kind of ritual.

Rock painting from Tanzoumaitak, Tassili N'Ajier

(Page 9)

18 Ivory statuette from the Cave of Les Rideaux at Lepugne, Hte. Garonne (according to R. de

Saint-Perier)

Connected to fertility magic