IN HIGHER PEOPLES 135 



key. But as soon as man got the club or the spear 

 in his hand, the snake was nothing. Man, unarmed, 

 is a very feeble animal, and his supremacy in the 

 world is due solely to the fact that he had che in- 

 telligence to arm himself. 



Black things, and especially dark places such as 

 caves, and even darkness in general tend to cause 

 in us the feeling of fear. We are afraid of these 

 things even when we know they contain no ele- 

 ment of danger. But to the savage the cave was 

 a lair, and darkness was a great big abyss filled 

 with all sorts of things with teeth. When the sun 

 goes down with us, we turn on the lights and pro- 

 long the day, indoors and outdoors; but when the 

 sun went down on the savage, his eyes went out. 



The fear which comes upon us in being ^4ost'* 

 is largely vestigial. A lost savage was in real 

 danger. He was the legitimate prey of anybody 

 or anything that came upon him. But being 

 ^'losf in a city or in a wood is much less serious 

 than our feelings indicate. We feel much as we 

 used to feel when being *4ost" was dangerous. 

 In all animals that live in groups {gregarious ani- 

 mals) there is an aversion to being alone. A 

 writer says of the half -wild cattle of South Africa: 

 **Altho the ox has apparently little affection for 

 or interest in his fellows, he cannot endure separa- 

 tion from his herd. If he is separated from it by 

 force, he shows every sign of mental agony. He 

 strives with all his might to get back. And when 

 he succeeds, he plunges into the middle of the herd 



