XII PBEFAOE 



science finds evidences of the fire art in the ancient traces of man where 

 relics of his arts have not been disturbed. Even the man whose 

 stone implements are distributed in the gravels is believed to have 

 known the use of fire. Such an unbroken line running through 

 thousands of years admits of a study of the development of an art so 

 intimately connected with man's progress under unusual conditions. 



In this subject are encountered traces, sometimes clear and again 

 obscure, of the deeper currents of our history which mark the begin- 

 ning and accompany the development of our connection with nature. 

 It is evident that fire was the first abnormal phenomenon striking 

 man, and that it was the first natural force which he consciously used. 

 Without fire it is difficult to imagine how most of the early arts 

 would have been possible, and no one needs to be reminded of the 

 extent to which the present arts and sciences depend on this agency. 

 It may be shown also that fire in time has exerted a modifying 

 influence on man more radical than has been suspected. 



There is some data, more or less reliable, on the psychology of the 

 higher primates in respect to fire. Purchas quaintly says: "The 

 people of the countrie, when they travaile in the woods make fire 

 when they sleep in the night ; and in the morning when they are gone 

 the Pongoes will come and sit about the fire till it goeth out; for 

 they have no understanding to lay the wood together." ^ 



Man has possessed fire so long that the inquiry as to whether it is 

 a human characteristic has some point. And the question is: Shall 

 we then extend the use of fire to other primates than man? It is 

 evident that of all animals primates are the only species who could 

 undertake the task of caring for fire. As a deduction from the lever- 

 age of fire possession shall we say that here began the elevation of 

 the primates toward man? 



Definitely, the first traces of fire associated with human remains 

 were found with the Ehringsdorf jaw, where charcoal occurs with flint 

 implements. Only two finds, the Piltdown and Mauer (Heidelberg) 

 are older. The Ehringsdorf man dates from either the Mousterian, 

 Acheulian, or Chellean. As Dr. George G. MacCurdy observes, in 

 any case in the Riss-Wiirm interglacial period.' Dr. Ales Hrdlicka 

 informs me that European archeologists place the first traces of fire 

 of human origin in the AcheuHan. 



The discussion of the beginnings of the fire art requires the utili- 

 zation of all the resources which the science of man affords, and even 

 the use of the scientific imagination as an aid. The difficulties which 



* Purchas his Pilgrim es, 1619, chap, 3, sec. 6. ' Human Origins, 1924, vol. 1, p. 348. 



