THE BEGINNINGS OF KNOWLEDGE 3 



meat again, for fires could only start in the dry season 

 from lightning or from a volcanic eruption. 



In the next dry season our man may have remembered 

 his first taste of cooked meat. More probably he did 

 not remember at all. Certainly his brain did not 

 permit of his looking ahead and saying, "Next dry 

 season, if there is a fire, I may find some roasted meat." 

 His mind developed slowly, and the first experiment 

 had to be performed many times by different members 

 of the race before he was ready for his second step in 

 the domestication of fire. History 1 incompletely de- 

 picts these slow ages, the dark nights, the cold and 

 rainy days, and the uncooked food. 



How man learned to keep a fire alive is also a matter 

 of surmise. Perhaps he noted that it lasted longest 

 in large heaps of damp brush or in the trunks of rotten 

 trees. At some such remains of a fire given by lightning 

 from the heavens he may have cooked meats and 

 noticed that the fire flared up under the breeze. An- 

 other discoverer may have carried home to his cave 

 a glowing brand, which when thrown aside into the 

 dry branches started a larger fire. By such a series 

 of accidents the discovery may have been made that 

 fire could be kept by furnishing it with fuel, and that 

 it burned less fiercely and lasted longer if covered from 

 the wind. 



As yet no way was known of kindling a fire. If the 

 fire died, the tribe had to beg or steal from another 

 tribe or wait until a dry season when nature again 

 provided fire. To-day we little realize the situation of 



1 An interesting sketch of this evolution is that of Migeod, 

 " Earliest Man," Kegan Paul, London, 1916. 



