190 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. 



existing in the world to-day these different stages in 

 Evolution may still be seen. 



After weapons of offence came weapons of defence. 

 At first the fighting savage sheltered himself at the 

 back of a tree. Then when he wished to pass to 

 another tree he tore off part of the bark, took it with 

 him, and made the first shield. Where the trees were 

 without suitable bark, he would plait his shield from 

 canes, grasses, and the midribs of the leaves, or con- 

 struct them from frameworks of wood and skins. In 

 times of peace these hollow shields, lying idly about 

 the huts, would find new uses — baskets, cradles, and, 

 in an evolved form, coracles or boats. In leisure 

 hours also, new virtues discovered themselves in the 

 earlier implements of war and of the chase. The 

 twang of his bow suggested memories that were 

 pleasant to his ear; he kept on twanging it, and so 

 made music. Because two bows twanged better than 

 one, he twanged two bows ; then he made himself a 

 two-stringed bow from the first, and ended with a 

 " ten-stringed, instrument." By and bye came the 

 harp ; later, the violin. The whistling of the wind in 

 a hollow reed prepared the way for the flute ; a conch- 

 shell, broken at the helix, gave him the trumpet. 

 Two flints struck together yielded fire. 



Trifling, almose puerile, as these beginnings look to 

 us now, remember they were once the serious realities 

 of life. The club and spear of the savage are toys to 

 us to-day ; but we forget that the rude shafts of wood 

 which adorn our halls were all the world to early Man 

 and represented the highest expression and daily in- 

 strument of his evolution. These primitive weapons 

 are the pathetic expression of the world's first Strug- 



