The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page
Copyright, 1912. by American-Examiner. Great Britain Rights Reserved.
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The 'Clubman"
Sneaking Home
of a.Primeval , .VV C
I wy vf wwlr n "L 7
EVERY one more or less looks
. back upon our prehistoric in
fancy as a time, of terrific
V-strife,", bloodshed and brutality.
; . The cave-man has been depicted as
' constantly going about with a club
in his hand and murder in his heart.
Men's lives, and their wives, it has
been understood, were then at the
mercy of whomever was strong
enough to take them.
The condition of the cave-woman
was particularly distressing. It has
been . thought, , indeed, that Cupid's
target in those days was the head
rather than the heart, and that the
, current method of popping the ques
tion was to club the chosen one into
Insensibility, the courtship compris
ing the period between the time sbe
fell and the time she was dragged
into the cave of her captor.
It is a depressing picture that has
heen drawn of .our naive and cloth
less childhood, the only redeeming
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1
"The cup thai cheered when the world waa young conswied of bmat ttew
with pottage
Joke
to Death
a Favorite
ifWf Stm Egg
JCSl Bad Actors )
Buying
Fossil
Shells the
Delight of the
IV s Antiques A 4
s To-day ) r.U.X
Women Wore
Just as Funny
Hats as Now !
feature about it being that It isn't
true! At least, according to a re
markable series of analyses made by
Professor De Foux, an eminent au
thority on matters' prehistoric, the
ancient dwellings of the cave-dwellers
in Europe indicate that a mill
ion years .ago we lived and loved
pretty much as we Co now.
M. De Foux has discovered that
we were not shaggy, brutal people, of
a color Indeterminable, because we
had not shed our ape-like hair, and
we did not have pointed ears. On
the' contrary, we were white, had
smooth skins and ears very much
"like those of to-day. Incidentally,
we all had red hair, a fact which in-
A Musician of the Cave-Age Stoned to Death, Possibly, for Playing "The Maiden's Prayer."
dicates that those of us who "to-day
have red hair are more or less a
reversion to our-cave-age type, and
explains the illy governed tempers,
the sudden fits of passion and the
generally heated temperament which
we have come to associate with
auburn tresses. ,
"Our skeletons and the shape of
our heads do not differ very much
to-day from those of the old days. ;
The Neanderthal skull '. and other
human skulls of-apparent ape-like'
formation were not representative of ;
us at all." says M. De Foux. "They '
were simply low elements -in the ;
clan, probably murderers or idiots, .
and we can find men la all great
in the original cup."
Torturing tlie
Just Like the ;
V Pull Ring J,
cities whose
heads are very
much the same
as those brutal
looking skulls."
The cave-men
even had a
sense of humor.
The French
scientist gives
some extraordi-
nary instances
of our jokes of . a million years ago.
They have been perpetuated in the
shape of bones, skeletons, pits, draw
ings on the walls o caves and other
fragments of : those ancient days
which have been found In the dwell
ings of the cave-men.
The "ve-mn, it 'is found, were
fond of music. Instead of resorting
to their dens at night' to escape the
saber-toothed tiger or 'the -unclad
gentlemen with a stone, they sat
around the fire and listened to their
musicians. . : '
It is true that their '.musical In
struments were not exactly the kind
favored by our symphony orchestras,
but at . least they made; a noise,
which is as much as some of ; our .
twentieth century artists accomplish.
The principal musical Instrument
of this period consisted . of a rein
deer's foot with a hole bored in it,
which made a serviceable . whistle.
On the rude Instrument a
range of five notes and two
octaves was possible.
One i can imagine the
cave-man musician stand
ing before he fire, sur
rounded by a horde of ad
miring music-lovers, toot
ing away on; the whistle,
accompanied by another
who thumped two large
" pieces of wood together,
while the birds,, monkeys
and other denizens of the '
forest primeval supplied
an active if somewhat dis
cordant chorus. : .
And woe betide the un
lucky performer whose
-toots were not . shrill
enough or whose thumps
were not loud enough to
satisfy hlB critical : audi
ence, for In those days, it
would seem, it was re
garded as a huge joke to
pelt the incompetent mu
sician with boulders weigh
ing anywhere from three
- 1
Stoning Bad Musicians
' i S " ll .. - ft' Ml S. I
"Mobbing the Mammoth'' One of the Principal
to twenty pounds. By the time
the shower of stones ceased the
tooter had tooted his last toot. He
would never offend again.
In this custom of the cave-man
doubtlessly we have the origin of our
own penchant for throwing eggs, de
clining fruit and similar messages of
regard at- the actors who fall to
please us, and the baseball, fan who
. attracts the attention of an off end
. ing. umpire by hurling a bottle at his
head is only doing Just, what, we all
were doing a million years ago.
How do we know this? ,
Because M. De Foux has found in
.the valley of the Vezere, in south
western France, which seems to have
been the site, of a huge colony of
cave-men, an amphitheatre contain
ing the skeleton of one of those prim
eval musicians. The poor fellow
' must have been a very bad musician,
Indeed, for his skeleton was simply
covered with the boulders. Beside
him lay his little reindeer whistle,
while a few ' feet away lay 'the
chunks of wood with which a more
fortunate musician no doubt accom
panied him.
From the -position of his body
there is no doubt that he was stoned
to death, the only question remain-.
; lng to be settled being the nature
of bis particular offense. It has been
suggested that he may have : been
unwise enough to have rendered
"The Maiden's Player," In which
event, of course, even a modern Jury
would have - returned a verdict of
justifiable homicide. ; .
That these early ancestor of ours
found amusement in vaudeville
performances of a sort not very
different from those of to-day is in
dicated . by numerous drawings
rudely carved on the walls of their
caves, on the antlers and bones of
reindeer, mammoth ivory and stones.
The main, attraction of these per
formances seems to have been the
torturing of the mammoth. Pic
tures of the huge beast safely con
fined in a pit just big enough to
hold him, with cave-men assailing
him with stones and arrowheads
are numerous.
This pastime of "mobbing the
mammoth" evidently filled our
early ancestors with as much de
light as the modern bull fight
affords our Spanish and Mexican
friends, for the carvings show that
the function was well attended by
spectators of both sexes.
. According to M. De Foux, our
troglodytic ancestors were club
men In more senses than one.
There 1b plenty of evidence of their
convivial gatherings, and though
the cup that cheered their prehis
toric souls waa nothing more invit
ing than the skulls of their enemies,
containing a brew of brains and
pottage, it seems to have answered
the purpose very well. In a cave
at Gourdan, France, have been dug
up several of these broken skulls
bearing the marks of flint knives.
It la thought likely that (after the
manner of some modern savages)
thes? skulls were used as drinking
cups, and the brains they had con
tained were mixed In pottage and
partaken of as a great delicacy.
This Is a common practise among
the head-hunters of the Philippines.
That this concoction bad an in
toxicating effect Is quite probable,
for feme of the pictures on the
cave walls portraying groups of '
thesi early bon vlvants imbibing
from the skulls indicate that some
of the participants in the orgy were
decidedly "under the weather."
How our inebriated forebears
managed to find their wayv home
after a celebration of this kind may
better be imagined than described.
It could not have been the easiest
task under the most favorable cir
cumstances to make one's way over
the enormous boulders which
marked the path to their crude
cave dwellings, but with a cargo of
brain-stew aboard in the bargain
the Journey must have been diffi
cult In the extreme. One can
imagine, perhaps, the' enraged
spouse in the cave lying in wait for
her erring chief, with a boulder in
ond hand and the jawbone of a
cave bear In the other, peering
through the small opening . which
formed the ' entrance at the con-
vlvial cave man directing his zig-
zag footsteps toward his humble
dwelling In the wee, small hours ;
of a primeval morning!
Recent research reveals ,tco, that -our
cave-dwellers were not unfa
miliar with the pains of various ;
dis'issea which afflict the present
generation. One may well imagine
that they became more or less lm- i
mune to colds by reason of their
constant exposure to the elements, .
but that they suffered from dyspep
sia, tout and rheumatism is amply '
confirmed by the thickened condl- '
tion of their Joints and similar sig
nificant symptoms presented by
their skeletons.
And if one Imagines that the
mandates of Dame Fashion are all
of modern origin, the investiga
tions of M. De Foux would seem to
indicate that the idea is quite ,
erroneous. : . ,
It may have been modesty which j
irapalled the cave-woman to clothe j
her nakedness. but ' it was cer-'.
tainly vanity which suggested the
elaborate costumes in which she at-!
tired herself at times. .. . ... , :,t
These garments would hardly do :
credit to a Paquin or a Lucile, out
they must have appeared really
wonderful to the primitive minds
of the time. They were made of the
Pastimes of the Cave-Men.
skins of reindeer, made supple by
rubbing them with marrow, and
after being scraped and smoothed
were cut in accordance with the
prevailing fashion of the moment
and sewed together with bone
neequ'S and tendon threads. Many
of the scrapers and smoothers em
ployee In preparing the hides have
been found in the caves and marks
of flint knives on reindeer leg-,
bones . show where the tendons
wer detached for the purpose
mentioned. The bone needles have
boon found In large numbers. They
wen not much longer than the
steel needles used to-day, and were
pierced with eyes.
For ornamentation these gowns
were decorated with various kinds
of marine shells, the teeth of bears
and tigers, plates of ivory and
beads of clay died in the sun and
colored with ' various pigments.
Fragments of necklaces and brace
lets have been dug up in a number
of places. On a skeleton in the
The "Latest Mode"
as Worn by a Cave
Woman of Fashion.
cavern at . Laugerie Basse were
found twenty pierced shells in
pai'-s on different parts of the body.
Evid'iutly they had been arranged
In a symmetrical manner on the
clothing.
But strangest of all the recent
discoveries along these l'nes is the
fact that our early ancestors of the
paleolithic age were antiquarians!
Fossil shells dating bask to even
paleozoic days, millions of years
before the advent of the cave-men,
have been found among the bones
of 'Ihe cave-dwellers. Many of
them could have come only from
the isle ; of , Wight. They were
doubtless regarded as precious
jewels "in- those days, and were
"Fond thellt dating back million
jewels by the Cave-Maa. Hero ia
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mm t j-a-w j,i.m i t-yww.'i wim ujnummi iiiu miu-.ijn i-,nBi.-,iiimji-.i
lip 1 X i r
passed in exchange from tribe to
tribvj until they reached the valleys
of Perlgord. Only such traffic
coull account for an oyster shell
from the Red Sea dug up in an
othr French cave,
Ii these days when the chief
occupation of the men was hunting
and fishing, the Implements it the
chads must have been the principal
artiu es of wealth. The man who
pos3cssed a dozen assorted 'lint
heads may have been considered
' in moderate circumstances, while
the ownership of a dozen reindeer
horn daggers would mark a man as
being comfortably "fixed." What
thea must be thought of the prehis
toric Morgan who owned 20,000
flint hatchets and reindeer dag
gers? His cave has been found fit
Chaleux, while that of the paleo
lithic Rockefeller, recently revealed
at Ferigord, contained an equally
large number of flint spearheads
and various tools made of reindeer
antler.
Ia these two caves, too, is plenty
St evidence that the Morgans and
:ockefellers of the cave age were
just as much lovers of art as the
magnates of the present day. The
caves are covered with drawings
(often in color) and with engrav
ing, which may be considered as
representing the very best ' speci
mens of primitive sculpture. They
are carved and engraved with flint
tools on bone and reindeer antler,
and on the walls represent all sorts
of animals. The pictures include
whales and seals, and the likenesses
of the species we know are so ex
cellent that there is no reason to
doubt the accuracy of those, of ex
tinct creatures, such aa the' cave
bear and the mammoth.
Altogether, these recent discov
eries indicate that the general ideas
prevailing regarding life among the
cave-dwellers are entirely errone
ous. Although primitive in point
of civilization, there is evidence,
indeed, that they had even de
veloped some notion of religion
and a future life, for they invaria
bly burled food, arms and orna
ments with their dead.
The picture of the human race in
this early stage, as science now
presents it to view, is wonderfully
vivid and striking, and indicates
that in many respects their mode
of life, their foibles and their fail
ings were not very different from
thos.a of the present day,
13
of years -were regarded as precious
the Piorpoat Morgan of that day,"-