[Illustration: Fig. 58.--Spoon of Reindeer Horn.]
In various caves--at Les Eyzies, Laugerie-Basse, and Chaffant, _commune_ of Savigné (Vienne)--whistles of a peculiar kind have been found (fig. 59). They are made from the first joint of the foot of the reindeer or some other ruminant of the stag genus. A hole has been bored in the base of the bone, a little in front of the metatarsal joint. If one blows into this hole, placing the lower lip in the hollow answering to the above-named joint, a shrill sound is produced, similar to that made by blowing into a piped key. We ourselves have had the pleasure of verifying the fact, at the Museum of Saint-Germain, that these primitive whistles act very well.
[Illustration: Fig. 59.--Knuckle-Bone of a Reindeer's Foot, bored with a hole and used as a Whistle.]
The settlements at Périgord have also furnished a certain number of staves made of reindeer horn (figs. 60, 61), the proper functions of which no one has succeeded in properly explaining. They are invariably bored with one or more holes at the base, and are covered with designs to which we shall hereafter refer. M. Lartet has thought that they were perhaps symbols or staves of authority.
[Illustration: Fig. 60.--Staff of authority in Reindeer's Horn, found in the Cave of Périgord.]
[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Another Staff of authority in Reindeer's Horn.]
This explanation appears the correct one when we consider the care with which these bâtons were fashioned. If the hypothesis of their being symbols of authority be adopted, the varying number of the holes would not be without intention; it might point to some kind of hierarchy, the highest grade of which corresponded to the bâton with the most holes. Thus, in the Chinese empire, the degree of a mandarin's authority is estimated by the number of buttons on his silk cap. And just as in the Mussulman hierarchy there were pachas of from one to three tails, so it may be fancied that among primitive man of the reindeer epoch there were chiefs of from one to three holes!
We have already stated that in the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth the art of manufacturing a rough description of pottery was, perhaps, known in Europe. The men of the reindeer epoch made, however, but little progress in this respect. Nevertheless, if certain relics really belong to this period, they may have known how to make rough vessels, formed of clay, mixed with sand, and hardened by the action of fire. This primitive art was, as yet, anything but generally adopted: for we very rarely find _débris_ of pottery in close contiguity with other remains of the reindeer epoch.