128 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



And the strange, highly-evolved dramatic 

 art of that vanished race, — a drama in which 

 human beings took the parts of animals, — how 

 often had it not found expression there in days 

 of bygone plenty; days when the baskets of 

 dried-locust cakes crowded every ledge and 

 the children went pot-bellied and sleek. 



There was the stage; there the auditorium; 

 yonder the ledge along which, no doubt, the 

 actors made their exits and their entrances. Was 

 the audience a critical one ; did it generously ap- 

 plaud a nervous new actor of evident talent ; did 

 it hurl stones at one who bungled his part or tried 

 to make up in pretentiousness what he lacked in 

 ability? Did the author of a successful play ad- 

 vance to the proscenium and enjoy the tribute 

 of plaudits paid to a successful playwright? 



I fancy there must have been a chorus ; pos- 

 sibly a semi-chorus as well. Thespis and 

 Aeschylus probably adopted those obvious 

 aids to rudimentary drama from the shepherd, 

 — who is first-cousin to the savage. And the 

 more one sees of various savages, belong they 

 to Bushmanland or to the Bowery, the more 

 astonishing is the kinship revealed between 

 them. I could find no box-office — no gallery 

 from which the gods could have jibed. The 

 auditorium must have been all pit. 



