54 ^H£ COMING OF MAN 



mer in a Swiss lake-dwelling, we should have found our- 

 selves comparatively at home, with much to enjoy and admire. 



During the later part of the period in northern and western 

 Europe we find m.arked progress in the care of the dead.^ 

 Dolmens consisting at first of five or six great stones are 

 erected. In the doorv/ay a hole is left open, apparently for 

 the ingress and egress of the soul. The dead seem not to be 

 feared, as they are by most very primitive peoples. The 

 dolmens are enlarged and improved until they become dwell- 

 ing places for a large company of the departed. Often they 

 are surrounded by circles and radiating alignm.ents of tall 

 menhirs or standing-stones. At the very end of the period we 

 find the dead deposited in small, completely subterranean 

 vaults, or sometimes cremated; while the great stone circles 

 are becoming temples rather than burial places. People are 

 evidently thinking, clarifying and changing their views and 

 opinions. 



The key and explanation of all this progress seems to lie 

 fundamentally in the introduction of agriculture and in im- 

 provement in cultivating the ground. This change took place 

 earlier to the southward and eastward than in northern Europe. 

 The beginning of the Neolithic period in Crete is set by Evans 

 at about 12,000 b. c, de Morgan seems to have discovered still 

 older Neolithic remains at Susa. 



The rise of agriculture, the real basis of civilization, is a 

 long process, we can sketch its history only in rude outline 

 basing our description largely upon observation of savage 

 or half-civilized tribes to-day.* 



The savage is as much collector as hunter, accepting gladly 

 whatever Nature gives him. The man hunts large game with 

 good or bad success. Meanwhile his wife and children range 

 and scour the surrounding area for berries and fruits, bulbs 

 and tubers; frogs, fish, reptiles and large insects; all sorts of 

 " greens/' and whatever is edible. If she finds any ripened 



^55- 123. 



* 56-58. 



35. 102. 223. 



