cannibalism, and Dr. Spring concludes that it was certainly practised
by the earliest inhabitants of Belgium. We must add, however, that
other excavations in the same cave at Chauvaux prove that it was
used as a burial-place, some skeletons being ranged in regular order
with weapons and stone implements placed beside them.[52] M. Dupont
mentions having found in the caves of the Lesse, which date from the
Reindeer period, human bones mixed with other remains of a meal. He
notes a similar fact in another cave that he considers belongs to
Neolithic times. "But," he adds, "none of these bones bear any trace
of having been struck with a flint or other tool with a view to their
fracture. If any of them are broken it is transversely, and the cause
of the fracture has been merely the weight of the earth above them;
moreover, they show no trace of the action of fire."[53] M. Dupont,
therefore, still retains some doubt of the cannibalism of the cave-men
of the valley of the Lesse, and attributes the presence of the bones of
the dead amongst the rubbish of all kinds accumulated by the living,
to their idleness and indifference. One example at the present day
tends to confirm this opinion, for travellers tell us of the same
revolting carelessness amongst the Esquimaux, who cannot certainly
be classed amongst cannibals.

The Abbe Chierici, speaking at the Brussels Congress[54] of the
excavations in one of the Reggio caves, remarked that human bones
were mixed with those of animals, and that both showed traces of
having been burnt. These bones date from the Neolithic period, and
with them were picked up various objects of remarkable workmanship,
including fragments of pottery, half a grindstone for crushing grain,
and some admirably polished serpentine hatchets.

Other facts leave no doubt of the cannibalism of the earliest