65 



V E 



he was there before Coronado 



ACCORDING TO AN ANCIENT AND ANONYMOUS JOCOSITY THE 



bravest man who ever lived must have been the first to 

 eat an oyster — ahve. 



A soberer judgment might want to make a case for that 

 equally forgotten hero of paleolithic times who first do- 

 mesticated fire. It must have been one of the first of his 

 home-building achievements, but no woK destined to turn 

 into a dog and no buffalo destined to become a cow can 

 possibly have seemed one-tenth so dangerous as devour- 

 ing flame. Early man, like every other animal, must have 

 long been accustomed to flee from it in abject terror. We 



