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.
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.