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[[underlined]] Chapter XVIII. [[/underlined]] 39^[[7]]. any other material. Thus on the whole the evidence (most of it, be it said, negative in nature) indicated that the Neolithic people of Wa Cha Hsieh placed comparatively little reliance either upon domestic animals (other than the pig and the dog) or upon hunting and fishing, as a means of augmenting their food-supply. [[superscript]] (353) [[/superscript]] ---------------------- [[superscript]] (353) [[/superscript]] For the identification of the above animal forms I am much indebted to the eminent French palaeontologist, Father Teilhard de Chardin, who happened to be in Peiping (Peking) throughout the time when our excavations at Wa Cha Hsieh were taking place. ----------------------------- [[underlined]] Relations with Distant Regions. [[/underlined]] The absence at Wa Cha Hsieh of objects or materials imported from a distance indicated fairly conclusively that trade was little if at all developed; though the comparative homogeneity of the Chinese painted pottery styles and their associated type of culture over the whole wide area where these have been found clearly shows that intercommunication of some sort was taking place. Nevertheless the Neolithic village where Mr. Tung and his little staff of field-workers partially excavated must, like many another near it in both time and space, have been very nearly self-containing---its inhabitants closely limited by their own physical and visible horizon. The same sort of parochial outlook has survived, very little altered, among the Chinese peasantry down to the present day. [[superscript]] (354) [[/superscript]] ---------------------- [[superscript]] (354) [[/superscript]] For a striking modern instance, see pp. 298 [[underlined]] sq. [[/underlined]] ----------------------- [[underlined]] Possible Cult-Practices. [[/underlined]] Of the psychic or spiritual life of the occupants of the site, we can naturally say little. It is however possible to interpret some of the actual finds, with all due caution, in the light of analogous features in the religious life of various modern backward groups of that quarter
