_The Earth's Story: I_
THE FIRST DAYS OF MAN
FREDERIC ARNOLD KUMMER
[Illustration]
[Illustration: AFTER MOTHER NATURE HAD SENT HEAT AWAY TO MELT UP SOME
OTHER WORLDS, SHE CALLED FOR HIS BROTHER, COLD, AND COLD CAME RUSHING
UP, HIS GREAT WHITE WINGS GLITTERING WITH FROST.]
_The Earth's Story: I_
THE FIRST DAYS
OF MAN
AS NARRATED QUITE SIMPLY
FOR YOUNG READERS
BY
FREDERIC ARNOLD KUMMER
ILLUSTRATED
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1922,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
THE FIRST DAYS OF MAN. II
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
[Illustration]
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
THE Author desires to express his thanks to Dr. William K. Gregory,
of the American Museum of Natural History, as well as to the other
Museum authorities, for their courtesy and assistance in the matter
of illustrations, and in the preparation of the text. The book does
not pretend, of course, to be a strictly scientific work. Many
liberties have been taken, in order to render the subject interesting
to the youthful mind. Man's early inventions did not come about so
simply as is pictured in the various chapters. But the development of
civilisation is a romance, and only by so treating it can we hope to
enlist the interest of the young reader. It is sufficient that the
story rests upon a foundation of fact.
[Illustration]
PREFACE FOR PARENTS
EVERY child, between the ages of five and fifteen, seeks by constant
questioning to grasp the fundamental facts upon which our whole fabric
of present-day knowledge is based. These facts, painfully gathered
by the human race during its many centuries of development, must of
necessity be absorbed by the child within the short space of some ten
or twelve years. It is a prodigious task, and one in which the growing
mind should be afforded every possible assistance. Two courses are
usually adopted by parents; one, to dismiss the child's questions with
the stock phrase, "You are not old enough to understand," the other, to
place in his hands some so-called book of knowledge, containing, it is
true, a great mass of information which the child should possess, but
usually so badly presented, so jumbled together, that no one fact has
any bearing on another, and thus the child is left to turn from "Why
the ocean is salt?" to "What is a lightning rod?" without the least
understanding of the principles and laws which underly these and all
other facts, and link them together in a composite whole.
The writer has followed, with his own children, a method of presenting
the steps in the gradual development of man which has produced most
gratifying results. Instead of treating each fact, each laboriously
accumulated bit of human knowledge, as a mere isolated patch in a
crazy-quilt of information, he has attempted to arrange them in logical
sequence, to form an interesting pattern, so that as the child's fund
of knowledge increases, he feels a deeper and deeper interest in
fitting each newly acquired fact into its proper place in his mental
picture of things.
The result is that the child is constantly building a structure which
he understands. His mass of accumulated knowledge is not heaped
together hap-hazard, like a pile of blocks, but each occupies its
proper and logical place in a slowly developing whole. He derives
pleasure from what would otherwise be hard work, just as he would
derive pleasure from fitting together the pieces of a puzzle picture;
he finds himself progressing toward some understandable end, and
without knowing it, he has not only gathered his facts, and catalogued
them, but he has begun to think about them, and their relation to each
other, in short, he has begun the process of logical thought, which is
the first and greatest step in all education.
In this process of storing away in his brain the accumulated knowledge
of the ages, the child's mind passes, with inconceivable rapidity,
along the same route that the composite minds of his ancestors
travelled, during their centuries of development. The impulse that
causes him to want to hunt, to fish, to build brush huts, to camp out
in the woods, to use his hands as well as his brain, is an inheritance
from the past, when his primitive ancestors did these things. He
should be helped to trace the route they followed with intelligence
and understanding, he should be encouraged to know the woods and
all the great world of out of doors, to make and use the primitive
weapons, utensils, toys, his ancestors made and used, to come into
closer contact with the fundamental laws of nature, and thus to lay a
groundwork for wholesome and practical thinking which cannot be gained
in the classroom, or the city streets.
As has been said, the writer has tested the methods outlined above. The
chapters in "The Earth's Story" are merely the things he has told his
own children. It is of interest to note that one of these, a boy of
seven, on first going to school, easily outstripped in a single month
a dozen or more children who had been at school almost a year, and was
able to enter a grade a full year ahead of them. The child in question
is not in the least precocious, but having understood the knowledge
he has gained, he is able to make use of it, he has a definite mental
perspective, a sure grasp on things, which makes study of any kind easy
for him, and progression correspondingly rapid.
Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the fact that methods of thinking
are more important, than the particular things we think about. Right
thinking is the cornerstone of all mental development. In the writer's
opinion it is the great lack in modern education.
FREDERIC ARNOLD KUMMER.
_Catonsville, Maryland._
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I HOW MOTHER NATURE MADE THE
EARTH READY FOR MAN 19
II THE FISH THAT GOT STUCK IN THE MUD 29
III THE APE THAT WALKED LIKE A MAN 40
IV THE HUNGRY APE AND THE BUNCH OF
WILD FRUIT 51
V THE CAVE, AND THE FISH 63
VI ADH'S FIRST FIGHT 76
VII RA MAKES A NEW SPEAR 87
VIII MA-RA FINDS A NEW KIND OF FOOD, AND A
COAT OF FUR 103
IX THE COMING OF FIRE 117
X THE FIRST BOAT 133
XI TOR-AD THE POTTER 148
XII HOW RA-NA SAVED HIS PEOPLE 162
XIII THE FIRST BOW AND ARROW 173
XIV KA-MA THE TRAVELLER 182
XV THE SEA PEOPLE 199
XVI MA-YA BUILDS A CANOE 209
XVII THE CONQUERORS 225
XVIII THE ISLAND MEN 245
XIX THE FIRST SEA FIGHT 259
XX THE SEA ROVERS 276
XXI THE END OF THE STONE AGE 285
ILLUSTRATIONS
[Illustration]
COLD CAME RUSHING UP, HIS GREAT WHITE
WINGS GLITTERING WITH FROST _Frontispiece_
PAGE
BEFORE MAN 37
THE FIRST THINKER 57
THE WOODEN SPEAR 73
THE CAVE MAN'S FIGHT WITH A BEAR 79
THE HOME OF EARLY MAN 83
THE FIGHT WITH A MAMMOTH 91
THE BEGINNING OF THE STONE AGE 95
TYPES OF WEAPONS USED BY EARLY MAN 99
THE BEAR SKIN 111
THE FIRST FIRE 119
THE FIRST COOK 127
THE FIRST VOYAGE 137
A DUG-OUT CANOE OF EARLY MAN 137
THE FIRST ARTIST 149
THE FIRST POTTER 155
THE SACRED FIRE 167
BOWS AND ARROWS AND SLINGS 177
EARLY STONE WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS 195
EARLY METHODS OF BREAD AND FIRE MAKING 231
THE FIRST MUSIC 267
THE FIRST ARMOUR 271
STONEHENGE 287
THE FIRST DAYS OF MAN
[Illustration]
THE FIRST DAYS OF MAN
CHAPTER I
HOW MOTHER NATURE MADE THE EARTH READY FOR MAN
IN the beginning, millions of years ago, before there were any men, or
animals, or trees, or flowers, the Earth was just a great round ball of
fire, bright and dazzling, like the Sun.
Instead of being solid, as it is now, it was a huge cloud of white-hot
gases, whirling through space.
We all know how solids can be turned into liquids, and liquids into
gases, by Heat, for we have only to heat a solid piece of ice to turn
it into a liquid, water, and if we keep on heating the water, _it_ will
turn into a gas, which we call steam. It was the same way with all the
solid things on the Earth; Heat had turned them all to gases, like
steam.
Then God called Mother Nature to Him and told her to get the Earth
ready for Man to live on.
So Mother Nature sent Heat away to melt up some other worlds, and
called for his brother, Cold. And Cold came rushing up, his great white
wings glittering with frost.
"What can I do for you, Mother Nature?" he asked.
"Blow on the Earth with all your might, Cold," said Mother Nature, "and
get it ready for Man to live on." Then she flew away, and as she went
she took a piece of the Earth-cloud and rolled it into a ball, and set
it spinning in space about the Earth, so that it might cool down later
and be the Moon.
When Mother Nature had gone, Cold, who was the spirit of the great
outer darkness in which the Sun and Stars move, hovered about the Earth
and blew on it with all his might, and as his icy breath swept over the
fiery Earth, the hot gases began to get cooler and cooler, and at last
they turned back to liquids again. And after that, they got cooler
still and began to turn to solids, just as hot melted taffy gets hard
and solid when it cools.
It took Cold a very long time to cool the Earth, millions of years, but
he did not mind, for he had nothing else to do. So he blew and blew,
and after a while a hard solid crust began to form all over the Earth,
very rough and uneven, with high hills and mountains sticking up here
and there, and between them great wide valleys and plains, all of solid
rock.
When Mother Nature came back to look at the Earth, Cold asked her how
she liked it.
"You have done very well, Cold," she said, "but it isn't fit for Man to
live on yet, for it is too hot, and there isn't any water. Blow some
more, and make Rain."
So Cold blew again, on the great white clouds of steam that came
rolling up from the hot Earth, and his icy breath cooled the steam and
turned it into Rain, just as the steam from a teakettle will turn to
little drops of water if you cool it suddenly. And the Rain fell back
on the Earth, year after year, until at last it filled up the great
wide plains and valleys between the hills and turned them into rivers,
and lakes and oceans. But they were boiling hot.
"How do you like it now, Mother Nature?" asked Cold.
"It still isn't fit for anything to live on," said Mother Nature. "You
must cool it some more. And tell Rain to make some earth for things to
grow in. They can't grow in solid rock."
So Cold blew again, harder than ever, and as the cool Rain fell he said:
"Rain, will you please make some earth for things to grow in?"
"Very well," said Rain. "I will."
So Rain fell for days and months and years on the hot rocks, and
cracked and softened them, and each little raindrop as it rushed down
the sides of the mountains, carried a bit of soft, crumbling rock
down into the valleys, and after a very long time, all these bits of
rock-dust which Rain had washed down from the hills formed great wide
beds of mud covering the rocky surface of the plains many feet deep.
At the same time that Rain was washing the soft rock down into the
valleys to form mud, he also carried down many bits of harder rock,
yellow and white, and other colours, like glass. These rocks would not
form mud, because they were too hard, but instead they became smooth
round pebbles of all sizes, with millions of tiny bits, called sand,
and the rivers carried them down to the ocean, and made beautiful clean
beaches, as you can see whenever you go to the seashore. And Rain
washed many other things out of the rocks and carried them down into
the ocean, such as salt. There are great beds of rock-salt all over the
Earth, and Rain melted them, and washed the salt into the ocean, and
that is why the ocean is salt.
When Mother Nature, who was very busy, came to look at the Earth she
smiled, because it pleased her.
"You have done very well, Cold and Rain," she said. "All the rivers and
lakes and oceans are full of nice warm water, and all the valleys and
plains are covered with soft warm mud, ready for things to grow in. I
think I had better speak to the Sun."
So Mother Nature said to the Sun:
"Sun, the Earth is ready for you now. Please make something grow." Then
she went away to look after some other worlds she was fixing up.
The Sun looked down at the Earth and smiled as he saw the nice rich
beds of mud, and the great wide Ocean.
"Are you ready, Ocean?" he asked.
"Yes," said the Ocean. "I am warm and salt and full of Rain."
"Good. We shall need plenty of Rain," said the Sun. Then he turned to
the Air.
"Are you moist and warm, Air?" he asked. "Yes," said the Air. "I am
very moist and warm."
"Good," said the Sun. Then he turned to the beds of mud.
"Mud," he said, "you are ugly and black, but you are also full of nice
rich chemicals and all sorts of substances we need to make things
grow. With the help of Air, and Rain, I am going to cover you with a
beautiful carpet of green, so that you will not be ugly any longer."
So the Sun turned his blazing rays on the soft mud and warmed it,
and then a wonderful thing happened. Tiny living things, like plants,
formed out of the chemicals in the Mud and the Water, and the Air,
began to spring up, just as God had long ago planned. They were very
small and weak at first, but after a while they grew stronger and
stronger, until they had spread all over the Earth, wherever there was
mud or dirt for them to grow in. And later on, because the Air was so
moist and warm, the way it is in the tropics, and because the Sun was
so hot, and there was plenty of Rain, the plants on the Earth grew to
be very large and strong. There were ferns, like the little ones we see
in flower-pots, as big as trees, and all sorts of tall, rank grasses,
and vines, even at the North and South Poles, for in those days, before
the Earth had cooled down the way it has now, the Poles were warm, too.
For hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years these great ferns and
other plants grew, and died, and fell back into the mud, and as they
rotted they made more earth, for other plants to grow in, so that the
earth-covering on top of the rocks grew thicker and thicker. In some
places the leaves and trunks of these fern-trees got mashed down on
each other in thick layers, and became harder and harder, until they
turned to coal. Often, in coal mines, the miners will break open a lump
of coal and find printed in its surface the exact pattern of the leaf
of one of these great fern-trees, just as it fell, millions of years
ago.
While all this was going on, Mother Nature, having a little time
to spare, came back to take a look at the Earth. It was one of the
smallest worlds she had to look after, so she could not give it all her
time.
"It is doing very nicely indeed," she said to the Sun. "In eight or ten
million years it may be ready for Man. But we must have some fish and
other things first. Won't you please attend to it for me, Sun? I am
very busy just now looking after some new-born stars in the Milky Way."
"Certainly," said the Sun. "I will attend to it at once." So he turned
to the Ocean.
"Ocean," he said, "wouldn't you like to have some fish swimming about
in you?"
"Indeed I should," said the Ocean. "I am very big, and I have plenty of
room for all the fish you can make."
"Good," said the Sun. "Do you see those tiny spongy growths along the
edge of the mud—those funny little things like jelly-fish. I have
noticed that some of them haven't quite made up their minds yet whether
to be plants, or fish. They have begun to wriggle and squirm about
in the mud, and a plant, you know, is supposed to take root and stay
in one place. Don't you think we ought to help them to make up their
minds?"
"Yes," said the Ocean. "What do you want me to do?"
"Well, suppose you gently wash them loose from the shore, and let them
drift for a while in your nice warm salt water. Maybe they will get to
like it."
"I'll try it," said the Ocean.
So he did, and after a time the tiny creatures got to like the water
so much that they lived in it all the time, instead of just squirming
about in the mud. And as thousands of years went by, some of them grew
little shell-houses to live in, and some of them fastened themselves
to rocks, like oysters, and waited for food to drift right into their
mouths, but others grew fins and tails, so that they could swim about
in search of something to eat. It took a very long time of course, but
after a while, as they grew and grew, and changed and changed, the
Ocean came to be full of all sorts of fish, large and small. And the
Ocean was very proud of them.