CHAPTER XIX 



THE JACKAL 



"\\ 7 HAT yu ha Just told us, Uncle Paul," 

 V V Jules remarked, "is not unlike what navi- 

 gators tell us of the life of savages." 



"Nevertheless," rejoined his uncle, "it is our own 

 history, my friend; it is really a chapter of French 

 history. ' > 



"I never read anything like it in my history- 

 book." 



"Your schoolbooks generally begin with the 

 Frankish chief, Pharamond, at an epoch when civil- 

 ization had already made considerable progress, and 

 when agriculture and grazing had been known for 

 a long time. My story goes back to a much earlier 

 period, one almost lost in the darkness of the past, 

 and shows us man in his painful beginnings, un- 

 skilled and almost wholly dependent on hunting for 

 his food and clothing. 



"In that state of extreme destitution in which the 

 day's supply of food depended, above all, on fleet- 

 ness of foot and quickness of scent, the dog was the 

 most precious of acquisitions. With its aid, first 

 the game fell more abundantly under the stone 

 hatchet and flint-head arrow; then came the possi- 

 bility of the herd, which, furnishing a reserve of 



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