* MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
this process of self-education was, the very long duration 
of the earlier stages of man’s existence shows. When it 
was completed, however, man had at last attained to the 
Eolithic or Dawn Stone Age. He had become not merely 
a tool user, but actually a tool maker as well, even though 
on the humblest imaginable scale. 
Sometime during this same early period that other 
epoch-making discovery, the use of fire, took place. How 
long ago this happened we do not exactly know as yet. 
In the Acheulian epoch, during the third interglacial 
stage, fire was certainly already known and used, as we 
know from layers of burnt wood and charred bones un- 
covered on Acheulian sites. But the practice appears to 
go very much further back still. At Foxhall, near Ipswich, 
in the east of England, burnt flints, along with bones, 
flint implements, etc., have 
come to light, which may be- 
long to the Eolithic Period. If 
so, it carries us back, not merely 
into but actually defore the Ice 
Age itself. 
All authorities seem agreed 
that man knew fire and under- 
stood how to utilize it and keep 
it going long before he learned 
how to kindle it. Many. natu- 
ral phenomena may start a fire, 
lightning, for example, or vol- 
Fic. 31. Primitive method of - 3 = = 
starting a fire by twirling a  Canic eruptions with their ac- 
stick between the palms of the companiment of white-hot lava 
hands. Northeast Australia. Pp i 
After Frobenius Sometimes, during long dry 
spells, two interlocking branches 
rubbed together by the wind may burst into flame. But 
how man found that fire, hitherto only a source of danger 
and superstitious awe, could be made useful, we can but 
guess. In any case he knew this ages before he learned to 
make it. In fact, a quick and easy way of starting a fire 
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