Adam s Conquests 293 



than the sparrow. Nothing on earth dared him in 

 open combat. 



Adam had abundant time for reflection. His 

 range of thought was narrow, but concentrated. 

 There were other musical trees, as he discovered, 

 in the forest, and he observed them closely. They 

 only sang when the wind blew and the trees swayed ; 

 and sometimes fire leaped out. It was his habit to 

 warm his hands when they were cold by rubbing 

 them together. He would warm himself by the fire 

 of a prostrate burning tree. His inquisitive eye 

 was fixed closely on the source of the music and 

 the fire, and at last the great scientific truth dawned 

 dimly in his mind. He had no word for friction, 

 but he had the thought. He had no name for a 

 scientific experiment, but he had the idea. Select- 

 ing two dry sticks, one of them resinous, he fixed 

 the one firmly, and grasping the other with a hand 

 at each end, he drew it with all his strength and 

 pressure back and forth across the other. They 

 smoked as he had seen the trees do, and a shining 

 spark fell from between them. 



Adam had now made the master discovery, had 

 won the crowning achievement. He had conquered 

 and enslaved the fire-god, and entered into posses- 

 sion of his resistless power. He soon observed that 

 while the rapacious animals fled from it, the grazing 

 and browsing animals were curious and inquisitive 

 in regard to it. The tiger and the wolf fled, while 

 the deer approached to gaze and wonder. Adam 



