

DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 2 1 



little ones were, and most of the carcass was worthless when at 

 last he had obtained it. 



Primitive man was not long in discovering that his chief ad- 

 vantage lay in his wits. He was the only animal that knew 

 enough to pick up a club and use it as a weapon, either of 

 offense or defense. He was the only one that could manage 

 fire. 1 He was the only one that could hurl a stone or make a 

 machine to send a projectile of any sort. 2 



By aid of various devices, such as weapons and traps, the 

 savage continued to subsist by his wits, and he was hard on the 

 species he hunted. As a consequence game not only grew more 

 scarce but it gradually learned the methods of this dangerous 

 enemy, who struck where he was not, and became exceedingly 

 wary, till scarcity and starvation were inevitable, calling for a 

 fresh draft upon the wits. 



Need for help in the hunt. The hunting habits of the wolf 

 must have early attracted the attention of our barbarian ances- 

 tors. His ability to trail by the scent and his habit of hunting 

 in packs, as well as his fleetness and his relentless endurance, 

 could not have failed to impress themselves upon hungry hunters 

 in very early times, and to possess a pack of such helpers must 

 have been a primitive ambition. 



Fortunately the nature of the wolf is such that he is easily 

 tamed if taken young, and he succeeds well in captivity. His 

 intelligence is of an order that responds to that of man in his 

 hunting temper, and it is not strange that wherever primitive 



1 Monkeys and baboons will warm themselves by a fire, but do not know 

 enough to replenish it. Fire was almost certainly at first obtained from volca- 

 noes. Its production by friction and by flint and steel must have been much 

 later achievements. 



2 The ingenuity of primitive man in making projectiles is truly remarkable. 

 Bows and arrows, blowguns, and afterwards firearms, are progressive tributes 

 to increasing intelligence ; but of all projectiles, the boomerang is the most 

 wonderful, considering the grade of savage that produced it. The writer has 

 been told by travelers who have seen it done, that a skillful thrower could 

 strike a mark with the boomerang, which would then return and fall near the 

 thrower's foot. 



