I Shall Entrap The
Giant Woolly Elephant - I Shall Rejoice At His Capture; We Shall Triumph
Yet Again And Again.
Let then my spear and knife be buried with me, but
chip them first - kill them - that I may use their spirit likenesses in the
dream-chase.'
With a keen-edged splinter of flint in the daylight he incised the
outlines of the mammoth upon a smooth portion of its tusk - its image was
associated with his thoughts of a future life, and thus Art in its
earliest inception represented the highest aspirations of man.
But could the ignorant savage of that long-lost day have been capable of
such work? The lowest race of savages in Southern Africa - the Bushmen - go
about with festoons of entrails wound around their loins. After a
successful hunt - with the pit or poisoned arrows - they remove the
entrails of the slain animal and wear them like coronals for present
ornament and future regalement. These creatures are nevertheless artists.
On the walls of caves they have painted the antelope and the lion in
bright colours; they have not only caught the shape and hue of the
animals about them, but their action and movement. The figures are in
motion, skilfully drawn and full of spirit.
If any one asks, is the application of Art to the chase really so old, so
very very old, as this? I refer them to the stars. How long ago is it
since the constellations received their names?
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