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Rh of the Dordogne. Some of these weapons are so small as to be sometimes described as arrow-points; but there is no evidence to show that the bow was known to the Palæolithic people.

Both spears and harpoons were thrown by the hand, but this action was sometimes assisted by an apparatus called by French writers propulseur, or spear-thrower, which 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. That mysterious but often highly ornamented object, the so-called bâton de commandement, though known as early as the Solutréen Age, was only now met with in sufficient numbers to be regarded as an object of utility. With regard to the multiplicity of manufactured objects requisite for the management of domestic affairs, the people had now learned to make a better selection of the raw material for special purposes. For this reason needles were always made from a portion of the surface of a long bone, the cannon-bone of a horse's leg being generally preferred for this purpose, on account of its hardness. Long slender pieces were cut out of the bone by sharp flint implements. The eye was made by scraping a small hollow near one end, and a similar