By your leave, we will invoke the magic of those days, using as our focus a figurine found at Hohlenstein, Germany, carved from ivory nearly 30,000 years ago. That's more than 20,000 years before the first known settlements. Anthropologists consider this to be the first "therianthropic" figurine. Therianthropic refers to the projection of animal attributes upon human forms in art.
This figurine tells us that old Stone Age people were divinely inspired by the spirit in the lion to the point where they began to emulate and assume that spirit. In animism, as well as in other religious paths, it is routine to find mere mortals such as ourselves emulating the divine spirits we worship in every way possible, venerating their images and dressing for the part as best we can. We can find plentiful examples of modern day public icons wearing leopard caps, like ex-African dictator Mobutu, or leopard-skin negligees, like supermodel Linda Evangelista (Cosmopolitan, August 1995). It is reasonable to assume that similar dress was worn by our stone age ancestors and that it had "special" (ritual or other) significance for them as well. Certainly, the Hohlenstein figurine would support such an assumption.
The most advanced shamans become so familiar with the spirit of the lion that to this day African and Indian peoples believe some shamans possess the ability to shape-shift, becoming the lion. Were-lions and were-tigers are common in folk tales and many believe in the existence of lion cults, or witch doctors with power over lions in Africa. There are accounts of African "lion-cult" members being prosecuted for murder in early twentieth century ethnographies of the British colonial period.
Sir Samuel Baker, renowned nineteenth century hunter, tells of a surreal encounter in India, in which he killed a great tiger, a local legend, which he believed to be a scourge to the nearby villages because it preyed on livestock. When the tiger was brought back to the village dead, he found that over 300 women and children had gathered. The women were crying. One after another, the women kissed the tiger's feet and wiped their tears with its tail, to Baker's astonishment. Baker interpreted their "excitement" as joy that the predator was slain, but I find the tears of hundreds to be incompatible with the expression of joy, and believe that they were expressing grief for the death of a magical animal.
We can certainly find evidence that the wild magic was not unknown or forgotten by the very first settlements in the highlands of Anatolia (modern Turkey). At Catal Hyuk, a new stone age, or Neolithic settlement, the people had become so enthralled with the leopard spirit that they enshrined it, building a major altar that was maintained for hundreds of years. There are frescoes at Catal Hyuk which seem to show the villagers hunting together with leopards. In one case the prey being what appears to be a tapir, while in the second case the prey appears to be a bear. The bear is dangerous, and appears to have downed one hunter. Strange, then, that another leopard-hunter can be seen springing at the bear cat-like from the rear, with no weapons except bare hands (with claws extended).
This close association between man and lion for subsistence, so intense that man and beast joined together for the hunt, is not unknown in modern cultures. Sir Samuel Baker again (Wild Beasts and Their Ways, 1890), tells stories about the Guikwar of Baroda, in India, who possessed "first-class" hunting leopards (" leopard" and "cheetah" seem to be used somewhat interchangeably in the story, but it is the cheetah that is meant). He tells of a scene in which they embark on a hunting trip with "a pack of hounds, half a dozen well-trained cheetahs, and a posse of hawks and falcons." Baker claims that Felis jubata (the cheetah), has been trained from "time immemorial" by the native Indian princes to hunt with them.
With your permission, we will turn to the figurine of the lion-man again and try to travel back in time to the wild days of our ancestral youth to learn firsthand of the magic of life experienced and expressed by the carver of the artifact. The visions and thoughts that follow flow as they might have through the mind of this member of a band of stone age "hunter-gatherers":
The world is colder, and there are trees all around us. We follow the maiden, Sekh, as she leads us through the woods, towards the lion's kill. The birds have told us of the kill, and we must arrive before the hyenas. We are fortunate. There will be feasting and merriment around the fire tonight. We have found the kill before the hyenas. The kill is guarded by a lioness. We try to scare her away, for we will not kill a wild one needlessly, but the lioness resists us fiercely . She attacks, and we must slay her. We find a treasure beyond our expectations. A cub, now orphaned, is here. Sekh removes the lion skin she wears and wraps the cub in it. The scent of the fur helps to calm the cub. The skin covers eyes and claws and we carry it away with the meat from the kill and the dead lioness, who must now be consecrated by our Mother. Sekh has found her first "met" (mate, familiar). Soon the spirit of the Lion will be with her, and she will be Sekhmet, Mistress of the Beasts, and our mistress as well.
The artisan sets the figurine down, and the vision fades, but we bring something of that wildness back with us, something soft and furry, smooth against our skin, a swift, affectionate magic, prone to caprice at times, that prowls the night, likes high places, and teases before the kill.We return to camp. Sekh approaches her mother, the great lioness, whose rage can kill, who runs with the beasts of night. Mother approves. Sekh hands the cub to her daughter. The cub is healthy, and will soon adjust to its surroundings. It will need Sekh's milk for a time, but before a great cycle has passed, they will hunt together. Sekh approaches her mother and respectfully rubs nipples and groins with her. The children laugh and prance around mimicking Sekh, rubbing against each other like a bunch of monkeys. All is well. The wise women say we learned to live together peacefully from the apes. Sekh turns and embraces her sister. As her tongue parts her sister's lips, I wonder if perhaps we haven't made some embellishments. I remember that we will be celebrating the fullness of the moon tonight, and I feel a stirring in my loins. Sekh's first lion-mating was several moons ago. Perhaps her sister is ready. I look about and see many preparing for night. The fire is laid. We have stinky weed, body paint, mushrooms, oils, and food. The womben are stripping bark from the thin branches with which they will beat the ben as we all dance around the fire. Then there will be meetings (metings, matings), many of them.
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