第 三 章 · Prehistoric Man Begins To Make Things For Himself

Early man did not know what time meant. He kept no records of birthdays

or wedding anniversaries or the hour of death. He had no idea of days

or weeks or even years. But in a general way he kept track of the

seasons for he had noticed that the cold winter was invariably followed

by the mild spring—that spring grew into the hot summer when fruits

ripened and the wild ears of corn were ready to be eaten and that

summer ended when sudden gusts of wind swept the leaves from the trees

and a number of animals were getting ready for the long hibernal sleep.

But now, something unusual and rather frightening had happened.

Something was the matter with the weather. The warm days of summer had

come very late. The fruits had not ripened. The tops of the mountains

which used to be covered with grass now lay deeply hidden underneath a

heavy burden of snow.

Then, one morning, a number of wild people, different from the other

creatures who lived in that neighbourhood, came wandering down from the

region of the high peaks. They looked lean and appeared to be starving.

They uttered sounds which no one could understand. They seemed to say

that they were hungry. There was not food enough for both the old

inhabitants and the newcomers. When they tried to stay more than a

few days there was a terrible battle with claw-like hands and feet and

whole families were killed. The others fled back to their mountain

slopes and died in the next blizzard.

But the people in the forest were greatly frightened. All the time the

days grew shorter and the nights grew colder than they ought to have

been.

Finally, in a gap between two high hills, there appeared a tiny speck

of greenish ice. Rapidly it increased in size. A gigantic glacier came

sliding downhill. Huge stones were being pushed into the valley. With

the noise of a dozen thunderstorms torrents of ice and mud and blocks

of granite suddenly tumbled among the people of the forest and killed

them while they slept. Century old trees were crushed into kindling

wood. And then it began to snow.

It snowed for months and months. All the plants died and the animals

fled in search of the southern sun. Man hoisted his young upon his

back and followed them. But he could not travel as fast as the wilder

creatures and he was forced to choose between quick thinking or quick

dying. He seems to have preferred the former for he has managed

to survive the terrible glacial periods which upon four different

occasions threatened to kill every human being on the face of the earth.

In the first place it was necessary that man clothe himself lest he

freeze to death. He learned how to dig holes and cover them with

branches and leaves and in these traps he caught bears and hyenas,

which he then killed with heavy stones and whose skins he used as coats

for himself and his family.

Next came the housing problem. This was simple. Many animals were in

the habit of sleeping in dark caves. Man now followed their example,

drove the animals out of their warm homes and claimed them for his own.

Even so, the climate was too severe for most people and the old and

the young died at a terrible rate. Then a genius bethought himself

of the use of fire. Once, while out hunting, he had been caught in a

forest-fire. He remembered that he had been almost roasted to death

by the flames. Thus far fire had been an enemy. Now it became a

friend. A dead tree was dragged into the cave and lighted by means of

smouldering branches from a burning wood. This turned the cave into a

cozy little room.

[Illustration: PREHISTORIC EUROPE]

And then one evening a dead chicken fell into the fire. It was not

rescued until it had been well roasted. Man discovered that meat tasted

better when cooked and he then and there discarded one of the old

habits which he had shared with the other animals and began to prepare

his food.

In this way thousands of years passed. Only the people with the

cleverest brains survived. They had to struggle day and night against

cold and hunger. They were forced to invent tools. They learned how to

sharpen stones into axes and how to make hammers. They were obliged to

put up large stores of food for the endless days of the winter and they

found that clay could be made into bowls and jars and hardened in the

rays of the sun. And so the glacial period, which had threatened to

destroy the human race, became its greatest teacher because it forced

man to use his brain.