Page:A Short History of the World.djvu/75

 The First True Men 55 Almost fifteen or twelve thousand years ago a fresh people drifted into the south of Spain, and left very remarkable drawings of them- selves upon exposed rock faces there. These were the Azilians (named from the Mas d'Azil cave). They had the bow ; they seem to have worn feather headdresses ; they drew vividly ; but also they had reduced their drawings to a sort of symbolism — a man for in- stance would be represented by a vertical dab with two or three horizontal dabs — that suggests the dawn of the writing idea. Against THE RUTOT BUST OF A CRO-MAGNON MAN hunting sketches there are often marks like tallies. One drawing shows two men smoking out a bees' nest. These are the latest of the men that we call Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) because they had only chipped implements. By ten or twelve thousand years ago a new sort of life has dawned in Europe, men have learnt not only to chip but to polish and grind stone implements, and they have begun cultivation. The Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) was beginning. It is interesting to note that less than a century ago there still