DEVELOPMENT OF PRIMAL SHAPING ARTS. 503 



ORIGIN OF MANUAL PROCESSES. 



Taking the evolutional view of the development of man and his arts, 

 we must first turn our attention toward the probable activities of the 

 creature man as he issued from the prehuman stage and began slowly 

 to make use of the objects with which he was surrounded for imple- 

 ments and utensils. By the utilization of stone in the form of frag- 

 ments, nodules, and bowlders, the properties of that material would 

 })c gradually revealed to him, and in time four processes of modifying 

 its shapes would inevitably be suggested and utilized. These are frac- 

 turing, bruising, abrading, and incising. 



FRACTURING PROCESSES. 



The fracturing processes are placed first for reasons that will appear 

 in the sequel. As known to us, they employ two groups of acts, per- 

 cussion, and pressure. The first of these implies the use of a hard 

 and heavy implement with which the stone to be shaped is struck, 

 producing fracture; the second implies an implement of at least mod- 

 erate hardness, which is pressed against the brittle stone, producing 

 fracture. These necessaiT acts — the simple manual operations — are 

 so elemental as to be within the reach of man in a very low stage of 

 mental and physical development. The first — percussion — probably 

 the only act employed in the auroral da} r s, demands nothing more in 

 the way of skill than that required in the casting or striking of one 

 stone against another, or that required in the cracking of a skull or a 

 nut. In the operation of this process a hard, compact hammer of stone 

 or other suitable material having a convex striking surface is essential. 

 The second process — pressure — is less primal, requiring, before it can 

 be operated with success, a specially prepared tool of hard wood, 

 bone, or other compact substance. The several varieties of acts 

 employed in fracturing are named, according to the nature of the 

 particular results produced, "■breaking," "splitting," "flaking," and 

 "chipping." The term ''flaking" is in common use to represent the 

 form-elaborating operations of the group. The material shaped must 

 be measurably compact, homogeneous, and brittle. Such stone is 

 widely distributed over the habitable world. 



BRUISING <)K BATTERING PROCESSES. 



The acts employed in this class of operations are wholly or in the 

 main percussive, the impact resulting in a bruising and crumbling of 

 minute portions of the surface of the stone. The hammer employed 

 must be hard and tough, and the stone shaped must be sufficiently 

 tough to practically preclude fracture by the ordinary blow. The 

 simple act, like that required for fracture, is quite elemental and 

 within the reach of a creature of low organization. No specialized 



