Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/33

 Early Mankind in Europe 9 vigor. Sometimes they are carved in the rock wall of the cavern (Fig. 4, 2) ; again the ancient hunter employed colored earth mixed with grease, and thus produced paintings which still survive on the cavern wall. We may suppose that the hunter believed the presence of this pictured game filling his cavern Fig. 5. Restoration of a Swiss Lake-Dwellers' Settlement The lake-dwellers felled trees with their stone axes (Fig. 7,5) and cut them into piles some twenty feet long, sharpened at the lower end. These they drove several feet into the bottom of the lake, in water eight or ten feet deep. On a platform supported by these piles they then built their houses. The platform was connected with the shore by a bridge, which may be seen here on the right. A section of it could be removed at night for protection. The fish nets seen drying at the rail, the "dug-out" boat of the hunters who bring in the deer, and many other things have been found on the lake bottom in recent times would work magically to aid him in filling it with the real game which he daily sought to bring in there. For the same reason also he decorated the ivory and bone weapons which he used with the figures of the animals he pursued (Fig. 4, z, j, 4). This is the earliest art in the whole career of man, in so far as we know.