Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/151

Rh love of personal ornament does not play an important part in the life of the individual. The savage of the present day, who paints, or tattoos, his body and adorns it with shells, feathers, teeth and trinkets made of the more gaudy materials at his disposal, may be accepted as on a parallel with the Neolithic people of Europe. The ornaments of the latter consisted chiefly of beads, pendants, rings, bracelets, necklaces, etc., made of jet, amber, bone, horn, teeth, etc. Few of such relics have, however, been found in Britain that can be identified as belonging exclusively to them. Teeth are often perforated and used as pendants, especially the canines of carnivorous animals, but such ornaments are not peculiar to Neolithic times, as they were equally prevalent among the later Palæolithic races of Europe. Buttons made of jet, amber, ivory or stone are not uncommon among the contents of ancient graves. They are more or less conical on the upper surface and flat beneath, with a curved V-shaped tunnel, both ends of which open on the under surface. But perhaps the earliest of all methods of fastening garments was the simple bone pin. Then came an elongated piece of wood, bone or horn, with a groove cut round its middle for retaining the string which fastened it to the cloth or skin garment.

Of the more perishable works of the early inhabitants of Britain very little has reached our day. Of the spinning industry the spindle-whorl alone remains as evidence,