The explanation thus derived from the traces of America’s native savage arts, in possible elucidation of a class of archaic European sculptures which have been made the subject of such learned speculation and research, may seem too artless to be substituted for theories of religious symbolism or rites of worship. But the ancient evidences of artistic labour in either hemisphere accord with the idea that man’s earliest arts were of the most practical kind. He did, indeed, find leisure to ornament the tools designed for common uses; and gave play to his imitative faculty in drawings and carvings which answered no other end than the pleasure the draughtsman in all ages has derived from the manifestation of his skill in the arts. But the grafting of recondite theories of symbolism and ritualistic devices either on such delineations, or on the simpler evidences of his handiwork, is apt to lead us astray into fanciful and profitless speculations, wholly apart from the true significance of such traces of primitive mechanical ingenuity as reveal the presence of man even on the skirts of ancient glaciers, and among the drift-gravels, of Europe’s post-pleiocene dawn. ----- [33] _Archæologia_, vol. xlii. p. 68. [34] _Journ. Ethnol. Soc. N.S._, vol. ii. p. 419. [35] _Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond._, vol. xvii. pp. 322, 368; vol. xviii. p. 113, etc. [36] _Report of Explorations of the Colorado of the West and its Tributaries_, p. 27. [37] _Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain_, p. 289. [38] _Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain_, pp. 270-277. [39] _Archæol. Journ._, vol. x. p. 64. [40] _Antiquities of the Southern Indians_, p. 378. [41] _Antiquities of the Southern Indians_, p. 315-320. [42] _Archaic Sculpturings_, p. 92. [43] _Ibid._, p. 147. CHAPTER IV. BONE AND IVORY WORKERS. BONE AND IVORY WORKERS—SUBSTITUTES FOR FLINT—PROOFS OF RELATIVE AGE—DOMESTIC BONE IMPLEMENTS—RUDE PALÆOLITHIC ART—WHALEBONE WORKERS—PRIMITIVE WORKING TOOLS—FISH-SPEARS AND HARPOONS— ARTISTIC INGENUITY—DRAWING OF THE MAMMOTH—THE MADELAINE ETCHINGS—RIGHT-HANDED WORKERS—DEERHORN QUARRY PICKS— BONE-BRACER OR GUARD—BIRTHTIME OF THE FINE-ARTS—INNUIT CARVERS OF ALASKA—TROGLODYTES OF CENTRAL FRANCE—POST-GLACIAL MAN— SYMMETRICAL HEAD-FORM—INTELLECTUAL VIGOUR—EVIDENCE OF LATENT POWERS—TAWATIN IVORY CARVING—LAKE-DWELLERS’ IMPLEMENTS—CAVE IMPLEMENTS—ARTS OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDERS—CARIB SHELL-KNIVES— ABORIGINES OF THE ANTILLES—CARIBS OF ST. DOMINGO—CAVE PICTURES AND CARVINGS—PRIZED TROPICAL SHELLS—ANCIENT GRAVES OF TENNESSEE—SHELL MANUFACTURES—HURON AND PETUN GRAVES—SACRED SHELL-VESSELS—PRIMITIVE SHELL ORNAMENTS—AMERICAN SHELL MOUNDS —A SHELL CURRENCY—IOQUA STANDARD OF VALUE.