All early peoples made their songs by singing over and over a line or two. And into these words they put what they were thinking most about, or hoping for. They believed that the whispered wish went into the thing they sang to, and helped to bring about the thing they hoped for. So the old axmaker, in time to his chipping, sings over and over to the arrow head:
"I give you the eye of the eagle,To find the rabbit's heart.I give you the eye of the eagle,To find the rabbit's heart."
And the mother sings to the child:
"Though a baby,Soon a-hunting after berriesWill be going."
Early men believed that since they themselves are alive and move, all other things that move also are alive, and have feelings and likes and dislikes as men have. The rustling leaves, the waving grass, a rolling stone, a drifting cloud, the rising moon—all are to them alive, and many of them are to be feared.
The speech of the cave and the shell men was made up of few words, and the meaning was helped out by motions of the hands and body. They knew little outside of their forest life, and probably could not count beyond three. But the power to grow was in them, and from such rude beginnings came the men who built the cities of Paris and London.
Up to a short time ago, on the island of Tasmania, near Australia, there lived a people more nearly like the cave men than any people we know about. Their weapons were made of limestone and were without handles, because they did not know how to fix handles to them. Their boat was a raft of bark bundles and was pushed by a pole. They lived under shelters made of boughs, and made fire by twirling a stick on a piece of soft wood. They drew rude pictures on bark; and they were quick and cunning about hunting, but knew little more. They believed that the shadow of a thing was its other self—the self that traveled in dreams and that lived after the body died; and that the echo was the talking shadow. Like the cave men these people were hunters, without any tamed animal to help them.
A flint knife; found in Australia[Illustration: A flint knife; found in Australia]
A flint knife; found in Australia[Illustration: A flint knife; found in Australia]
The teacher who wishes to make the most of this work will take her class to visit a museum, if a museum is available; or, if not, she will do what she can to show her class actual specimens of the things described in the story.
In a museum primitive implements should be observed, and specimens of animals and birds. Pictures of caves, pieces of stalactites, stalagmites, of limestone, quartz, and flint would be of value, either seen in the museum or, better still, looked at and handled in the classroom as the story is read. A tendon procured from the butcher and dried for a few weeks and then pulled to pieces would show primitive thread.
Out of doors a limestone cliff showing stratification would be the best kind of illustration to explain both the formation of caves and the gradual burying and preservation of animal bones and other primitive relics.
In the schoolroom, again, on a large stand might be made a model of a hilly country. A cave could be shown, shaped of two upright stones and a crosspiece, the whole covered with sods and earth; and animals and men might be made of paper or of clay.
Various scenes from the story are adapted to dramatization; for instance, the visit of the cave bear, the making of fire, work in the stone yard, or the feast of mammoth's meat.
For those who wish to read further in a subject so suggestive along the lines, not only of social life, but of history, geography, and nature study, the following books will be full of interest:
The Story of Primitive Man.Clodd.D. Appleton & Company, 50 cents. (If only one book on the subject is purchased, this is the most valuable for the price.)
Early Man in Britain.Dawkins.Cave Hunting.Dawkins.Ancient Stone Implements.Evans.Primitive Man.Figuier.The Origin of Inventions.Mason.Woman's Share in Primitive Culture.Mason.Some First Steps in Primitive Culture.Starr.Myths and Dreams.Clodd.Primitive Culture.Tylor.Prehistoric Times.Lubbock.Animals of the Past.Lucas.The Beginnings of Art.Grosse.Prehistoric Europe.Geikie.Materiaux.Massenet.Phases of Animal Life, Past and Present.Lyddecker.Royal Natural History.Lyddecker.Ancient Quarry Sites.Holmes.The Language of Paleolithic Man.Brinton.Ancient Society.Morgan.The Descent of Man.Darwin.The Voyage of the Vega.Nordenskjöld.The History of America, Vol. I.Payne.The Story of Ab.Waterloo.
THE AUTHOR