Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/26

22 instance of paleolithic modeling in clay has thus far come to light, the discovery being made only last October in the newly found (July 20) cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert. I visited this cavern only five days after its discovery by Count Bégouen and his sons, who in continuing their researches less than three months later came upon two clay figures of the bison, a female 61 centimeters long followed by a male 63 centimeters in length. These figures were never wholly separated from the matrix out of which they were so deftly fashioned. They seem to stand out of the sloping clay talus that flanks a fallen rock (Figs. 7 and 8). They are far removed from any known entrance to the cave and were discovered only after Count Bégouen had broken away huge stalagmite pillars that blocked the narrow corridor leading to that particular gallery, which was evidently a paleolithic shrine since mercifully guarded from unhallowed hands by Nature's own silent white sentinels. On the walls of another gallery of this same cavern are engravings of favorite game animals: a horse, with arrows sticking in his side (Fig. 9); a reindeer with a club-shaped figure across its head (Fig. 10).

In visiting a long series of paleolithic caverns with mural decorations one is struck not only by the number of figures of animals wounded by arrows or associated with claviform representations (Fig. 11), but also by the evident desire of the artist to leave his work in a secluded spot difficult of access. Among the most remarkable art works found in the floor deposits of caves and rock shelters are the spear throwers ornamented with gracefully carved figures in the round or in high relief of the animal to be hunted.

These facts would seem to point to one of the cogent reasons for the phenomenon of cave art. To be sure, many of the figures are so meritorious as to make their execution well worth while for the simple satisfaction they must have given to the artist or the chance beholder. Reading between the lines, one may detect other reasons. The art might well have served another purpose. It was called forth no doubt in a large measure to meet an economic need. As the population increased—and no one familiar with the Vézère valley, for example, can fail to be impressed by the evidences of a relatively dense population—as this increased, the food supply of game and fish decreased in inverse ratio. In order to adjust the supply to the ever-increasing demand, recourse was had to magic, to the aid of the spirit world. The female bison closely followed by the male (Fig. 7). the wounded horse and bison (Figs. 9 and 11), the clubbed reindeer (Fig. 10) are votive offerings for the multiplication of game and for success in the chase. In the end magic was bound to fail as it always will. Then passed away the picturesque paleolithic culture, superseded by the neolithic, capable of meeting the demands of an increased population, based as it was on the domestication of animals and plants as well as on the utilitarian potter's art.