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result will not be the truth, although each individual fact may be as 

 indisputable as the multiplication table itself."^ 



History, beyond doubt, had its beginnings in a form of biography, 

 or rather of autobiography. The mighty hunter or fisherman, the 

 man of deeds, or uncommon skill and success, became inspired with 

 an irresistible desire to make his actions known to his fellow-men and, 

 if possible, to posterity. As generally they were known only to 

 himself, he had to tell his own story, and it lost nothing in the telling. 

 It was oft-repeated, sung or chanted, by him, by members of his 

 family, or by his friends and followers. The deeds of Nimrod, of 

 Hercules, or of Samson, and other mighty men were thus perpet- 

 uated in popular tradition, and handed down from generation to 

 generation by word of mouth. 



Frequently this man of action was not endowed with the faculty 

 of oral expression, and the women of his family or clan, or some weaker 

 male person, gifted in that way, took up the tale, embellished it and 



magnified it. 



Gradually the deeds of the heroic individual almost insensibly 

 became a portion of the biography of the patriarchal family, the most 

 important product of human evolution in the early days of civiliza- 

 tion. This community of kinsfolk thus became the first great history- 

 making group. 



In time this group was enlarged to the clan, the tribe, and the 

 nation. The process of primitive history-making still went on in 

 much the same way, having been largely taken in hand by the women, 

 or by men, who were in some way physically unfitted for the chase. 



As a rule primitive man, whose chief occupations are hunting 

 and fighting, makes little, if any, distinction between war and the 

 hunt. All other men, not belonging to his particular group, are 

 foes, or at least trespassers on his hunting-grounds, and regarded 

 by him just as he does other varieties of wild game, being only a 

 more dangerous, and, consequently, a nobler quarry. All means and 

 devices are right in his efforts to kill or capture them. 



The biography of the nation, or the political society, or common- 

 wealth finally evolved, became what we call history. 



Next came the aspiration to record the notable deeds of the 

 individual or clan in some more permanent and evident form than 

 by mere oral repetition. For this purpose the rock-walls or cliffs 

 of their native hills afforded at once the most prominent situation 

 and most lasting material. 



' Mahan: From Sail to Steam, p. 168. 



