COURTSHIP IN ANIMALS AND MAN 



astounding) " costumes." The males of the ; 

 and primitive races of men are like the big- 

 devoid of natural "charms"; they do not allure I 

 odours, by brilliant colours, nor by caressing musical 

 voices. They have not these possessions as natural 

 growths of their own bodies, and they have not yet 

 learned — probably not yet desired — to "make" or to 

 "procure" them. There is consequently a great gulf in 

 kind between many of the details of animal and human 

 courtship. We have no knowledge of how the extinct 

 creatures between ape and man stood In this respect. 



In the matter of forcible seizure the conduct of the 

 primitive man is on precisely the same footing as that 

 of the fur-seal. As to when he began to learn from the 

 birds and to do consciously what they do unconsciously 

 — no one knows. In regard to the fighting with other 

 males — man appears at a very early period to have- 

 given up the use of his natural weapons, the teeth, and 

 to have discovered the greater utility of sharp stones 

 and heavy clubs, and thus to have again placed himself 

 apart from male animals, which depend on and develop 

 automatically their tusks, horns, and claws in conse- 

 quence of their value in fighting. The great interest of 

 the jaw of the man-like Eoanthropus from Piltdown is 

 that it was still fitted with a large canine tooth like that 

 of a gorilla, big enough to be useful in a fight with another 

 Piltdowner (see p. 287). But it dwindled, and in the 

 course of time very early man-like extinct creatures were 

 developed who had ceased to have big canines. They 

 made use of chipped flints instead. 



This substitution by man of "extraneous" wreaj 



decorations, and alluring appeals to the senses in place 

 of those "intrinsic" to the animal body is all the more 



