The Story of Mankind | Page 9

catch a sparrow or a small wild dog or perhaps a rabbit.
These he would eat raw for he had never discovered that food tasted
better when it was cooked.
During the hours of day, this primitive human being prowled about
looking for things to eat.
When night descended upon the earth, he hid his wife and his children
in a hollow tree or behind some heavy boulders, for he was surrounded
on all sides by ferocious animals and when it was dark these animals
began to prowl about, looking for something to eat for their mates and
their own young, and they liked the taste of human beings. It was a
world where you must either eat or be eaten, and life was very unhappy
because it was full of fear and misery.
In summer, man was exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, and
during the winter his children would freeze to death in his arms. When

such a creature hurt itself, (and hunting animals are forever breaking
their bones or spraining their ankles) he had no one to take care of him
and he must die a horrible death.
Like many of the animals who fill the Zoo with their strange noises,
early man liked to jabber. That is to say, he endlessly repeated the same
unintelligible gibberish because it pleased him to hear the sound of his
voice. In due time he learned that he could use this guttural noise to
warn his fellow beings whenever danger threatened and he gave certain
little shrieks which came to mean ``there is a tiger!'' or ``here come five
elephants.'' Then the others grunted something back at him and their
growl meant, ``I see them,'' or ``let us run away and hide.'' And this was
probably the origin of all language.
But, as I have said before, of these beginnings we know so very little.
Early man had no tools and he built himself no houses. He lived and
died and left no trace of his existence except a few collar-bones and a
few pieces of his skull. These tell us that many thousands of years ago
the world was inhabited by certain mammals who were quite different
from all the other animals--who had probably developed from another
unknown ape-like animal which had learned to walk on its hind-legs
and use its fore-paws as hands--and who were most probably connected
with the creatures who happen to be our own immediate ancestors.
It is little enough we know and the rest is darkness.

PREHISTORIC MAN
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