MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
Later, man came to employ strips of fibrous bark, the 
sinews of animals, and thongs cut from skins. These made 
it possible to lash stone axes and spearheads to their han- 
dles, and to sew together fitted garments. In time some 
genius also found that lines of almost any length and 
strength might be made by twisting fibers together, thus 
providing cords for fishhooks of shell or bone and har- 
Fic. 34. Central Australian churinga or sacred object, decorated with totemic 
devices. It is unlawful for women and uninitiated males even to look on these. 
After Spencer and Gillen 
poons of deer antler, as well as ropes for towing canoes up- 
stream against currents too swift for the pole or paddle. 
Without the knowledge of string, too, the invention of that 
most important appliance, the bow and arrow, would have 
been impossible. The varied uses of cords, ropes, cables, 
and hawsers in the rigging of ships, or of thread, yarn, and 
twine in connection with the weaving of cloth, will occur 
to everyone. Consideration of these things will, perhaps, 
indicate the vast though often hardly recognized impor- 
tance of string in the history of human progress. 
On these bases man’s later achievements rest; what were 
some of the obstacles which he had to overcome? Among 
these, perhaps, disease and the fears, beliefs, and prac- 
tices to which disease gave rise stand first. We make a 
great mistake if we suppose that perfect health blessed the 
primeval savage. His fossil remains show that in many 
cases he suffered severely from pyorrhea and other ail- 
ments that affect the bone. He was a prey to bacterial 
and zymotic diseases. Epidemics doubtless occurred; and 
changes for the worse in diet, caused by alterations in 
climate, perhaps helped to bring about the extinction of 
some of the early species of man. 
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