122 



The Journal of Heredity 



self and roast it in some smouldering 

 tree, but he could only do this when a 

 fire had appeared naturally. "For the 

 next stage in the development of the use 

 of fire by man, we must go back to the 

 chance fire brand brought home. One 

 day such a one was carried back. 

 Hitherto all had died out in a brief space 

 of time, and that same evening saw 

 them cold and black. On one occasion 

 one was still glowing next day. A faint 

 breeze fanned the place where it lay, or 

 it lay close to another stick, and the 

 spark did not die out. This was a 

 phenomenon and a source of wonder, 

 It was a new discovery and, many inven- 

 tions being due to accidents, we may 

 even imagine a fire-stick setting light to 

 the heaps of dry leaves on which they 

 slept, causing a hasty and alamied 

 retreat. 



'Tt was the fire-stick burning until 

 next day that undoubtedly made the 

 impression on the mind of some one 

 individual of the race of earliest man 

 that there were ulterior possibilities. It 

 was he who first discerned that some 

 sticks burned longer than others. Per- 

 haps it was on some other individual 

 that the perception dawned that with a 

 faint breeze to fan it, it held fire longer 

 than another stick less favorably placed. 



"Even with these phases duly recog- 

 nized, a strong mental impulse is still 

 necessary for such individuals to make 

 use of them, and so secure the life of the 

 fire. This can only be effected by add- 

 ing more fuel; and it would further 

 require an individual advanced yet a 

 little beyond the others to think that if 

 one stick unkindled be joined to another 

 alight, it will catch the fire and can pass 

 it on to yet another stick. All these 

 processes are simj^lc and obvious to us at 

 the i)resent day, but we may be sure 

 that in the early stages of mankind they 

 were reached only after long successive 

 periods. This means that man |)layed 

 with fire long before he possessed it not 



to lose it again. We should still be 

 without fire at the present day had not 

 one of our progenitors succeeded, more 

 by accident than by design, in keeping a 

 fire smouldering for a lengthy period. 

 It may be a heap of leaves was set 

 alight and continued smouldering; or a 

 wind-driven or water-borne accumula- 

 tion of gases ; or a tree-stump which held 

 the germ of fire and lasted out for days, 

 if not weeks. Any one of these would 

 serve as a source from which fresh 

 supplies of fire would be drawn as 

 needed. 



POWER OF IMIT.VTIONT STROXG 



"With the power of imitation that is 

 almost an instinct with primitive man. 

 either at the present day or when all 

 mankind was primitive, some one indi- 

 vidual would do what nature had done, 

 and once done and a repetition of the 

 act being accomplished, the power to 

 do so again would forthwith become 

 common property, at least in a restricted 

 circle or in a particular locality. They 

 would cherish it carefully and hand it 

 down to their descendants, and any 

 hirman beings outside their own home 

 or tribal circle would only acquire the 

 same with difficulty from the owners, 

 probably by force or theft. It would 

 scarcely be by favor, for at this early 

 age we may presvime that the moral idea 

 of favor would be unknown. The pos- 

 sessors of such a valuable acquisition as 

 fire, keeping it to themselves, w'ould 

 soon advance rapidly beyond their 

 neighbors. The latter, unless united 

 with them or absorbed into what has 

 become practically a superior race, 

 would remain behind in the general 

 intellectual advance of at least a portion 

 of mankind; and, if they did not die out, 

 would only sur\4ve as an indication to 

 later ages of how their j^rogcnitors 

 existed in prehistoric times. 



"The duration of the stone age covers 

 by far the greater ]X)rtion of the time of 



and this bird at once dcvelojied carnivorous instincts, and of a nature distinctly surprising. 

 At first it began to feed on the o.Tal of sheep from the slaughterhouses, but later turned to the 

 living animals, chiefly the lambs, attacking them on the back to get at and devour the kidney- 

 fat, the death of the animal attacked being of course the result. The whole of the parrots 

 of New Zealand could not have, in a single day as it were, decided on a new line of feeding, and 

 have all set out together on a new career of flesh-eating. One single bird, driven by the stress 

 of hunger, must have made the first attempt, and have communicated to otliers that sheep- 

 flesh was agreeable; so that the rest of the parrots of this species lost no time in becoming 

 meat-eaters, and meat-eaters of a very reHni'd und spcLnalized order. 



