Page:Excavations at the Kesslerloch.djvu/70

Rh remained the victor, as may be deduced from the fact that he used the flesh of these animals for food. But how he managed to overpower these giants is somewhat of a mystery to us. One thing is certain, that the cave-dweller of the Kesslerloch was exclusively a hunter, as has been often pointed out, and doubtless he secured his prey in a clever and dexterous way, like the Indians of the present day. He was equipped with arrow and lance, with dagger and bow. Hidden sometimes by a projecting rock, sometimes behind a bush, he watched the passing game; creeping on the ground, he got nearer to the grazing animal, and then either hurled or shot from his bow the deadly arrow into the body of his victim. His hunting-ground was not limited to the immediate neighbourhood, but extended to the Freudenthal and Hemmenthal, and even to Merishausen, as is indicated by the belemnites found in the cave. Our cave-dwellers seem therefore to have lived exclusively on the flesh of hunted animals which they roasted in the fire, and, as before mentioned, the marrow was one of their great luxuries. For in fact it is merely a supposition that they had tools for digging up eatable roots, though I cannot quite consider it as improbable. Another portion of their time was occupied in preparing flint implements and hunting gear. Probably the women had to prepare the food, to keep up the fire, to sew reindeer-skins together, and to make clothes of them. Every one had his work assigned to him, and no one durst venture to give himself up to idleness, if the whole family were to be victors in the struggle for existence. The love of adornment was very marked amongst our cave-dwellers. Their ornaments consisted chiefly of necklaces and earrings. Very probably, also, they painted their faces, as many savages do at the present day. I was led to this opinion by finding a slab about half a square foot in size, one side of which was finely ground down and regularly covered with red paint. Near this slab were found two pieces of soft ruddle, or red oxide, which evidently had been the colouring material. It is therefore a point tolerably well decided that the ancient inhabitants of Switzerland were people clothed in reindeer-skins, who made and adorned themselves with bone or coal earrings, carried weapons of bone, and painted their faces. How different was it then from the present day! Probably from the very desire of ornament arose the art of drawing, which, in the figures of the horse and the reindeer, was carried to a degree not before in existence. The opinion has indeed been expressed that these drawings very probably were not done by the inhabitants of the