Earliest Man 



119 



weather that he will wander far out of 

 subtropical latitudes. 



"It would at first sight seem to be a 

 very simple matter to kill a fur-bearing 

 animal and wear its skin. It must be 

 borne in mind, however, that in the 

 subtropical regions fur-bearing animals 

 do not exist, or only at high altitudes. 

 They are large and fierce animals, and 

 so far man has not acquired the skill or 

 understanding to make a dart or 

 weapon to kill them with. If by some 

 rare chance he did manage to kill one 

 when attacked by it, he has next to 

 skin it, and this is im]3ossible without 

 the equivalent of a knife, which he has 

 not got yet. Then, too, he would want 

 ashes to rub on the skin in order to 

 preserve it, and he has not fire yet at 

 the stage at which we are considering 

 him. He must, therefore, have ad- 

 vanced considerably in the arts before 

 he could clothe himself in the skins of 

 wild beasts; in fact, he must be already 

 well advanced in the stage of Homo 

 primigenius before attaining to this stage 

 of culture. Another point is that in the 

 tropics and sub tropics many of the 

 animals are hairy, except those of the 

 cat tribe. Certainly those that it would 

 be easiest to kil' are hair}^ and a rough, 

 hairy skin would be no desiderattmi to 

 wear. 



" On the whole the cold would have to 

 become very great before the need of 

 clothing, if due to that cause, made it- 

 self felt. Man at that time was prac- 

 tically equal to the beasts in his ability 

 to stand cold if the transition of the 

 race into a cold region was not too 

 rapid. We have the example of the 

 Fuegians who are practically unclothed, 

 or were until comparatively recent years, 

 and, unlike proto-man, they are hairless. 

 That cold was the cause of the adoption 

 of clothing is, as we shall see later, most 

 unlikely. It began first as a means of 

 adornment, and it was not until it was 

 practiced for that purpose that its ex- 

 tension as a means of protection came 

 into use. 



IMPLEMENTS PROBABLY UNKNOWN 



"As to implements, proto-man would 

 at first be without any, and would have 

 no more knowledge of their possible 



use than such as he had derived from 

 his simian ]5redecessors who could throw 

 stones and roll down rocks like the 

 baboons of the present day, or use a 

 stick spasmodically like the orang- 

 outang or gorilla. 



The manner in which he would make 

 use of a stick at first is somewhat un- 

 certain. As a thing to be thrown, we 

 can of course accept its use, but that he 

 would systematically take a stick about 

 with him is unlikely. He would be 

 too irresponsible for that. If he were 

 attacked, or wanted to attack, he might 

 break one off and make use of it, only to 

 drop it immediately afterwards. Man 

 was still at this stage without thought 

 for the future, and certainly would not 

 take a stick out in the morning when 

 starting off to feed, as some drawings 

 made of early man in recent years would 

 seem to suggest. It would only be an 

 encumbrance, and to accept an encum- 

 brance with a view to future contin- 

 gencies becomes a sort of insurance, 

 implying an enormous advance in fore- 

 thought, and taking a measure of the 

 future. The use of a stick would, there- 

 fore, be on the spur of the moment, and 

 chiefly to throw. In the ordinary 

 course of life he certainly would not be 

 bothered with a walking-stick. It would, 

 besides, imply ownership, and we have 

 not shown him as owning anything yet. 



OWNERSHIP AN LMPORTANT FACTOR 



"As ownership is an important factor 

 in man's development, being the begin- 

 ning of capitalization, without which 

 there can be no progress, we may here 

 stop to consider what nature of things 

 man was first likely to collect or desire 

 to have by him, once used to be used 

 again. 



"It is possible that utility will not 

 have been the first consideration in this 

 respect. Rather it will have been things 

 that please the eye. 



' ' He has already the faculty of bring- 

 ing home things in the nature of food 

 supplies for his young. If he meets 

 some striking object, such as a brilliantly 

 colored pebble, it is likely that with his 

 dawning intelligence he will pick it up 

 and take it home as a matter of curiosity. 

 To pick it up, and look at it, or lick it, 



