Necdum res igni scibant tractare neque uti Pellibus et spoliis corpus vestire ferarum, Sed nemora atque caveos monteis sylvasque colebant Et frutices inter condebant squalida membra Verbera ventorum vitare imbreisque coactei.27 1 Indra, the all-seer, to whom it is given to pierce the cloud, personified by Vritra, and “to open the receptacles of the waters with his far-reaching thunder-bolts,” is of course the sun, the worship of which was one of the earliest and most natural instincts of humanity; whilst Vritra was in the first instance merely the symbol of the cloud, intervening between heaven and earth, shutting out from men the light of the sun, and keeping back the refreshing rain. The gradual conversion of these natural phenomena into a good and a malignant power, ever struggling for the mastery, is a forcible illustration of the way in which myths are evolved.—Trans. 2 De Mortillet: “Le Préhistorique,” Paris, 1883, p. 133. 3 “Limon du Plateau du Nord de la France,” Paris, 1878. Acheuléen et Moustérien: _Revue des Questions Scientifiques_ , October, 1880. _Bul. Soc_. _Anth_., 1884, 1887. 4 _Chelléen_, so called from their having been found at Chelles (Seine-et-Marne), where the remains of the _Elephas antiquus_, the most ancient of the pachyderms now known in Europe, was associated with these tools. 5 De Mortillet: “Musée Préhistorique,” pl. xvi. to xix. 6 M. de Mortillet enumerates 127 polishers found at various points in thirty departments of France. “Le Préhistorique,” first edition, p. 534. 7 Piette: _Ass. Franç. pour l’Avancement des Sciences_, Nantes, 1875, p. 909. 8 De Mortillet: “Le Préhistorique,” p. 544; “Musée Préhistorique,” figs. 431 to 434. 9 “Musée Préhistorique,” fig. 410. 10 Lagneau: “De l’Uusage des Flèches empoisonnées chez les Anciens Peuples l’Europe,” Ac. des Insc., 2d November, 1877. 11 “Les Temps Préhistoriques en Belgique,” p. 151. 12 “Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ,” p. 127. 13 _Nature_, 1876, second week, p. 5. 14 In this cave, in the second ossiferous deposit, were found four fragments of pottery. De Puydt and Lohest: “L’Homme Contemporain du mammouth.” 15 “La poterie en Belgique à l’ age du mammouth,” _Revue d’Anthropologie_, 1887. 16 _Ac. des Sciences_, Nov. 9, 1885. We must add that at a later séance M. Cartailhac contested, if not the facts, the conclusions deducted from them. 17 But what is the value of categorical assertions of this kind in presence of the fragments of pottery found at different levels in Kent’s Hole? One of these fragments was so rotten that when placed in water it formed a black liquid mud as it decomposed. 18 I have not space to speak here of the curious pottery found in America. The most ancient specimens, moreover, are of much later date than the Quaternary epoch. I can only refer those interested in the subject to my book on “Prehistoric America,” published in French by M. Masson of Paris, and in English in America by Messrs. G. P. Putnam’s Sons.