part of their faith, so that the mounds became temples. On this
point we are told "it is impossible not to believe then that the people
who made these great, and in some cases elaborately constructed, tombs
would continue ever after to regard them as in some sort consecrated to
the great chiefs who were buried under them. Each tribe would have its
own specially sacred tombs, and perhaps we may here see a germ of that
ancestor-worship which may be traced in every variety of religions
belief."<34>

We now approach a difficult part of our inquiry, but, at the same time,
one that possesses for us a great interest. Who were these people into
whose culture we have been inquiring? While laying the foundation of our
present civilization, though being the fountain head from whence many
of the arts and industries, which now make our existence comfortable and
happy, take their feeble origin, gradually developing and expanding
as the time rolls on, have they themselves, as a race, vanished in the
mighty past, or are their descendants still to be found in Europe? Who
were they? Whence and when? Difficult problems, but we have read to but
little purpose if we have not already learned that earnest observers
need but the slightest clue to enable them to trace out brilliant
results.

In the first place, are there any grounds for supposing the Neolithic
people to be the descendants of those who hunted the reindeer along
the Vezere? This view has its supporters. M. Quatrefages, a very able
scholar indeed, maintains that the Neolithic people were the same race
as those who inhabited the caves and found shelter in the rock grottoes
of France.<35> This, to others, does not seem credible. We must recall
the long lapse of time that it is apparent has elapsed between the two
ages. We have seen how different were the two cultures; as Mr. Geikie
remarks, "So great, indeed, is the difference between the conditions of
life that obtained in the two ages of Stone, that we can hardly doubt
that the two people came of different stocks."<36> The Neolithic people
brought with them domestic animals and plants whose native home is in
Western Asia. We can hardly account for this fact, if we suppose them to
be the descendants of Paleolithic tribes in France.

Abandoning, therefore, any attempt to trace lines of connection between
the people of the two ages, let us carefully study all the facts
connected with the Neolithic people and their culture, to see