UNFOLDING OF MAN’S INTELLIGENCE 
is a very recent discovery, the invention of the first really 
practical matches dating only from 1827. 
The discovery of the usefulness of fire is one of man’s 
greatest achievements, without which progress would have 
been utterly impossible. But at first he must have put it 
to a very limited number of uses, probably to give warmth 
and protection against wild animals, and later to prepare 
food. The primitive camp fire was the first gathering point 
around which men could meet, so that it wielded enormous 
influence in encouraging social activities and the inter- 
play of ideas. For long man looked upon it as something 
mysterious and uncanny, as a living being with an in- 
satiable appetite. Even today we are voicing ideas handed 
down from our remote prehistoric ancestors when we 
speak of “feeding” the fire to “keep it alive.”” Nowadays 
such expressions are regarded only as figures of speech; 
but there was a time when they were meant literally. 
Because fire had to be tended constantly, while the men 
were often away hunting or on the warpath, its care fell 
naturally to the women. Out of this practice arose in 
later ages the institution of vestal virgins, keepers of the 
undying fire, found not only among the Romans but 
among many other peoples both ancient and modern. 
We have, then, the three basic inventions—speech, 
tools, and fire—by which man first raised himself definitely 
above the animals about him and which in time led to 
further advance. 
Along with these three basic inventions, although com- 
ing much later and possessing nothing like equal impor- 
tance, we may consider the origin of clothing. Funda- 
mentally this had for its motive the desire for protection, 
mainly from cold but partly, too, from injuries, whether 
real or imaginary, that is, of a magical sort. Thus its de- 
velopment has tended to vary with climatic conditions. 
In cold countries, the use of animal skins for warmth 
must date back pretty far. The natives of Tierra del 
Fuego, at the extreme lower tip of South America, appar- 
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