MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
In the Mesolithic we begin to find the earliest crude ex- 
amples of pottery. Men, or perhaps women, apparently 
already knew how to weave baskets, and it has been sug- 
gested that the coating of these with clay, to render them 
water-tight, may have led to the molding of the first rough 
Fic. 67. Wooden fire-drill, Madagascar. A step in advance of this 
was to attach the ends of the cord to a bow. After Frobenius 
pot. A stubborn, unreasoning conservatism, deeply im- 
bued with superstition, formed one of early man’s leading 
characteristics. Thus we find on fragments of ancient 
pottery, in many parts of the world, the marks of matting 
or basketry, made while the clay was still soft. To the 
primitive potter, a pot must bear basketry marks, or it 
would be unlucky. Later, these marks came to be re- 
garded simply as decorations, and in time dispensed with 
entirely. 
During this same transitional period man seems to have 
taken the first steps toward the domestication of the animals 
which have contributed so much to his progress. For it 
is then that the dog, by far the earliest of all domestic 
animals, first clearly appears associated with man. 
We must not suppose, however, that early man caught 
and tamed the dog because he had reasoned out beforehand 
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