3*4 



THE HUMAN SPECIES 



been in a climate which made life under such conditions 

 possible. It is not necessary to suppose that there was no 

 frost, but there cannot have been enough frost to kill man, 

 or else his race would have come to a speedy ending. There 

 are many ancient accounts of how man first came to recognise 

 the value of fire and to learn the means of producing it. 

 The poet and philosopher Lucretius, in his didactic poem, sup- 

 poses that the idea of producing fire was suggested by the 

 conflagrations often set up by the rubbing together of the 

 branches and stems of trees. He thinks it still more probable 

 that the lightning first brought fire to man, and if we study the 



legends concerning 

 fire current among 

 different races, we 

 constantly find that 

 it was brought down 

 to man from heaven, 

 either by an animal, 

 or by a hero, or 

 demigod. But in 

 addition to its origin 

 from lightning, or 

 from friction be- 

 tween the branches 

 of trees, fire may 

 in primitive times 

 have been obtained by man from volcanoes, or the spontaneous 

 combustion of petroleum or naphtha. 



These, however, were but occasional sources of fire. As 

 soon as man had learnt the use of fire for warming and lighting 

 his dwelling, for cooking his food, for hunting beasts of prey, 

 and for driving in game, it became of paramount importance to 

 him to be able at any time to obtain and kindle fire at will. 

 Nature had revealed two methods for this, and by either one 

 or other of these were all the numerous fires kindled, the traces 

 of which may be found in all prehistoric settlements. (That 

 remains of charcoal have been found in tertiary strata is no ab- 

 solute proof that the fire which produced them was kindled by the 

 hand of man. They may just as easily have been caused by the 



FIG. 139. Crescentic clay structure from a barrow 

 near Oldenburg, natural size. (Homes.) 



