Lord
Avebury reproduces an Eskimo drawing, or picture-message, in his
"Prehistoric Times," to which it would be difficult to find a
parallel in Magdalenian remains. I do not mean that the art is
superior, but the complex life represented on the
picture-message, and the intelligence with which it is
represented, are beyond anything that we know of Palaeolithic
man. I may add that nearly all the drawings and statues of men
and women which the Palaeolithic artist has left us are marked by
the intense sexual exaggeration--the "obscenity," in modern
phraseology--which we are apt to find in coarse savages.
Three races are traced in this period. One, identified by
skeletons found at Mentone and by certain statuettes, was negroid
in character. Probably there was an occasional immigration from
Africa. Another race (Cro-Magnon) was very tall, and seems to
represent an invasion from some other part of the earth toward
the close of the Old Stone Age. The third race, which is compared
to the Eskimo, and had a stature of about five feet, seem to be
the real continuers of the Palaeolithic man of Europe. Curiously
enough, we have less authentic remains of this race than of its
predecessor, and can only say that, as we should expect, the
ape-like features--the low forehead, the heavy frontal ridges,
the bulging teeth, etc.
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