--are moderating. The needles we have
found--round, polished, and pierced splinters of bone, sometimes
nearly as fine as a bodkin--show indisputably that man then had
clothing, but it is curious that the artist nearly always draws
him nude. There is also generally a series of marks round the
contour of the body to indicate that he had a conspicuous coat of
hair. Unfortunately, the faces of the men are merely a few
unsatisfactory gashes in the bone or horn, and do not picture
this interesting race to us. The various statuettes of women
generally suggest a type akin to the wife of the Bushman.
We have, in fine, a race of hunters, with fine stone knives and
javelins. Toward the close of the period we find a single
representation of an arrow, which was probably just coming into
use, but it is not generally known in the Old Stone Age. One of
the drawings seems to represent a kind of bridle on a horse, but
we need more evidence than this to convince us that the horse was
already tamed, nor is there any reason to suppose that the dog or
reindeer had been tamed, or that the ground was tilled even in
the most rudimentary way. Artistic skill, the use of clothing and
fire, and a finer feeling in the shaping of weapons and
implements, are the highest certain indications of the progress
made by the end of the Old Stone Age.
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