"Tom," at the instant, felt that the spirit of the departed was
manifesting, in the hollow tones of a frog and the activity of a bird,
resentment at the intrusion of his haunts, and was warning us to begone.
But we had come far on a toilsome errand, and were not to be scared away
by trifles, though a transient feeling of reluctance to disturb the
solemnity of the studio could not be withheld.
Remembering the fervid praises of the treasures by those who had not
seen them, a sense of disappointment when they came to be examined was
inevitable. They are not to be classed in any standard beyond that
displayed on early school-slates; but imperfect as they are, they
possess a certain symmetry and proportion, and the facts that they are
where they are, and that the artist--dead and forgotten--had no light or
leading, and was in other respects probably one of the most rude, most
uncouth of human beings, are sufficient to lend to the drawings an
interest as absorbing (though of a nature quite apart) as that with
which the average individual contemplates the stiff works of masters of
Continental fame.
One able critic of aboriginal art refers to similar rock paintings as
frescoes, for lack of a significant title.
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