DISCOVERY OF FIRE. 423 



his intelligence was developed. His first invention, 

 as might he supposed, was an improvement in the art 

 of murder. The lower animals sharpen their claws 

 and whet their tusks. It was merely an extension of 

 this instinct which taught the primeval men to give 

 point and edge to their sticks and stones ; and out of 

 this first invention the first great discovery was made. 

 While men were patiently rubbing sticks to point 

 them into arrows, a spark leapt fortb and ignited the 

 wood -dust which had been scraped from the sticks. 

 Thus Fire was found. By a series of accidents its 

 uses were revealed. Its possessors cooked their food, 

 and so were improved in health and vigour both of 

 body and of mind. They altered the face of nature 

 by burning down forests. By burning the withered 

 grass they favoured the growth of the young crop, 

 and thus attracted, in the prairie lands, thousands of 

 wild animals to their fresh green pastures. With the 

 assistance of fire they felled trees and hollowed logs 

 into canoes. They hardened the points of stakes in 

 the embers; and with their new weapons were able to 

 attack the Mammoth, thrusting their spears through 

 his colossal throat. They made pots. They em- 

 ployed their new servant in agriculture and in metal- 

 lurgy. They used it also as a weapon ; they shot 

 flaming arrows, or hurled fiery javelins against the foe. 

 Above all, they prepared, by means of fire, the vege- 

 table poison which they discovered in the woods ; and 

 this invention must have created a revolution in the 

 art of ancient war. There is a custom in East Africa 

 for the king to send fire to his vassals, who extinguish 

 all the fires on their hearths, and re-light them from 

 the brand which the envoy brings. It is possible that 

 this may be a relic of tribe subjection to the original 



