In 1852, several citizens of Aurignac, France

In 1852, several citizens of Aurignac, France found, carefully collected and buried, the fossilized remains of seventeen skeletons, later identified as Cro-Magnon, a fair race of ancient artisans believed extinct some 5,000 years before the birth of Christ.

A child led the march upon the wood.
Seventeen lay as if they slept
And lost their flesh in starlit slumber.
The fellowship of Frenchmen stood,
One wept,
Counting in horror the fallen number
Scattered in orderly array.
Skulls of children too, beneath the moss,
Exposed where root and rain had pried
The soils to reveal decay.
He, that was holy, signed the cross
As each villager took up a piece of them that died,
And in the name of Christ removed them from the wood.
To town the mute procession crept,
And lastly looking back in wonder
The child felt a stain of blood
Where none had been, then leaped
Ahead to join the others.
Strange, the trees, where once he had played
Could be the scene of such mysterious loss.
He cried
Watching them place the bare brown stones into the grave,
Beneath the carven cross
To signify that seventeen lambs of Christ had also died.