344 THE HUMAN SPECIES 



for tilling their fields and gardens. A pointed and hardened 

 pole was all that served to break up the earth. More useful was 

 the pole with a hook, from which later the primitive hooked 

 plough was evolved ; or a pole to which a stag's horn, or a 

 stone, had been fastened, of which many examples have been 

 found. And when the fruits of the earth had been gathered in, 

 they could either be eaten in the form of roasted grain, or they 

 might be ground, by means of a sandstone grinder, either on a 

 flat stone or on one with a trough cut in it. The ground 

 grains would then be made into a paste with water, and baked 

 to make a sort of loaf. 



The transition from the nomadic life of the hunter to the 

 settled state of the agriculturist is the most remarkable epoch 



FIG. 171. Bronze sickle from Dachingen 

 FIG. 170. Cereals of the pile- (Wurtemburg). (Swabian Explora- 



builders. tion, IV.) 



in the history of mankind. This step alone made the subse- 

 quent development of human civilisation possible. But as \vith 

 the keeping of domestic animals, so it is in the case of agri- 

 culture. Man has no absolute monopoly, for the same remark- 

 able little hymenoptera which employ aphides as cows, are also 

 clever enough to plant certain grass seeds which are useful to 

 themselves. An agricultural ant (Aphaenogaster) lives in a 

 kind of cemented town, and takes certain measures accord- 

 ing to the time of year. Within a smoothly laid yard they 

 suffer nothing but a. single kind of grass to grow, which bears a 

 sort of grain. These grains are removed, carefully hoarded, 

 and yield a rich crop of small, hard, white seeds. When ripe 

 they are harvested, carried into the corn-loft by the workers 



