und level.
Thin lines of smoke, slowly ascending, would mark the places where the
common meals were in course of preparation. As the traveller descended
the hillside, his approach would be challenged by gaunt, savage sheep
dogs, from whose attacks he would need to defend himself. As he passed
out into the clearing, he would be confronted by the men, some of them
tilling the soil, others acting as shepherds or swineherds. Perhaps a
field of golden wheat would lend its beauty to the scene, Approaching
the dwellings, the women would be seen at their several employments;
some busy cutting up the meat and swinging it over the fires to roast,
or boiling it in pots with herbs and roots to make a savory stew,
others mixing dough and spreading it upon flat stones over hot embers
to bake. Sitting about on the rocks or squatting upon skins spread
upon the ground, other women would be found busily making pottery,
modelling the clay with their hands, and scratching upon it lines,
circles, and pyramids in various combinations, or fashioning designs
by pressing reindeer sinews into the substance. Still others would be
discovered busily spinning and weaving flax and wool into fabrics for
the clothing that marked one of the advances of the Neolithic people.
In the distance would be heard the dull strokes of the stone axes with
which, in the depth of the wood, the men felled the tall timber.

For the industries presented in this picture of a Neolithic village,
there were suitable implements. For all domestic purposes, the art of
pottery making had solved the question of satisfactory vessels. These
were generally in two colors, either brown or black. The potter's
wheel had not yet been invented, so that the vessels lacked the grace
and uniformity of later work of the sort. Wheat was ground by means of
a mortar and pestle. Knives for various uses, saws, and scrapers were
all made of highly polished and very keen-edged flint flakes. The
great superiority of their stone implements over those of earlier
races has given a name to the people, but the culture of the Polished
Stone Age reveals, as its most salient fact, not this, but rather
the domestication of animals and the tilling of the soil. It is
significant to note that these most characteristic features of the
Polished Stone Age denote the advance of society in the arts of
peaceful living. War was prevalent enough, but human development
had discovered another line of advancement, and, by