Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/275

THE PALÆOLITHIC RACES OF EUROPE 211 by French writers propulseur, or spear-thrower, an example of which is figured on PI. IX., No. 8. This was used for throwing darts and the smaller lances. It consisted of a stick made from the beam of a reindeer horn, with a notch at one end in which the butt end of the lance rested. In discharging the weapon the operator manipulated with his fingers in such a way as to give a greater impulse and a better direction to the lance than if he merely threw it with the hand.

Among daggers are a few having the hilt sculptured in the form of an animal, fantastically adapted to suit the hand, of which the famous reindeer-hilted one from Laugerie Basse is one of the finest examples of the art of the Magdalénien epoch (PI. VIII., No. 29).

Other two fine specimens are from the station of Bruniquel, one representing a reindeer and the other a mammoth, but having no blade they are claimed as idols (PI. XVI., Nos. i, 2). No. 3 on the same Plate represents the head of an unknown animal, but it is evidently the top portion of a bâton de commandement. Besides a few human figurines, which will be noticed later, there are some specimens of sculpture in ivory and reindeer-horn which are truly astonishing works of art. For instance, the figurine of a horse made of ivory from the Grotte Espelungues (Basses Pyrenees, PI. XX., No. i), portion of a reindeer-horn from Mas-d'Azil sculptured into two horse-heads (Pl. XVII.), and the bridled head of a horse from Saint-Michel d'Arudy (Fig. 65).

That mysterious, but often highly ornamented object, the so-called bâton de commandement, though known in the Solutréen Age, was only now met with in sufficient numbers to be regarded as an object of utility. Excellent examples of this supposed badge of distinction are the bâton de Montgaudier, having salmon engraved on one side and eels on the other (PI. XVIII.); that showing a human figure with horses, a serpent, and some kind of wooden fence, and that with horses in sequence, both the latter specimens being from La Madeleine (PI. XIX.). On Plate XX. is figured a very remarkable form (No. 2), having its upper end carved into a spiral. Another (No. 3), terminates in the head of a bull and of a cow. No. 4 represents a whistle made of a phalangeal