114 THE ORIGIN OF MAN 



reason or other a branch of the ape-like tree-climbers, 

 as active as gibbons but as intelligent as orangs, left 

 the trees. The busier and more vigilant life on land 

 sharpened their wit a little, and they entered upon 

 the long, slow road of evolution of intelligence. They 

 lived in small family groups, as the man-like apes 

 do; not social groups. At first they may have helped 

 themselves along with their knuckles, as gorillas do; 

 but, if they were already as nearly erect as gibbons, 

 they would be able to use the hands more and more 

 for grasping purposes. Sticks would be their natural 

 weapons; but throwing stones, and eventually hitting 

 their enemy with large stones, would not be a very 

 advanced step to take. Various kinds of monkeys do 

 this. The human touch began when this primitive 

 creature first knocked two flints together to give one of 

 them a sharper edge. The age of "Eoliths" opened. 

 It seems probable that the cradle of the race was 

 in the region of the south-west of Asia. A great deal 

 of land foundered about that time in what is now the 

 Indian Ocean. Probably the region of man's evolu- 

 tion was part of this lost continent, the last remnant 

 of the continent which, we saw, at one time connected 

 Asia with Africa and Australia. It is significant that 

 we find our earliest human remains in the island of 

 Java. In the collection of prehistoric remains at 

 South Kensington you will find a skull marked the 

 Pithecanthropus," found in Java. The name means 

 Ape-Man," and the specimen is so labelled in every 



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