THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



had to fight the wild dogs as 

 he doubtless had to fight all 

 the other wild animals he came 

 in contact with, 



And no mean foes would 

 these wild dogs prove them- 

 selves. Their speed, strength, 

 courage, and ferocity, coupled 

 with their probable habit of 

 fighting in packs, must have 

 made them very formidable 

 enemies to unarmed men, no 

 matter how strong the latter 

 may have been. Doubtless in 

 those early days the encount- 

 ers would often end in favor 

 of the dogs, and the man 

 would go down and be torn to 

 pieces by the overwhelming 

 pack. 



But the man had two arms 

 and prehensile fingers and toes, 

 and so could climb trees which 

 the dogs could not, and prob- 

 ably he often escaped his ca- 

 nine enemies in this way. We 

 can imagine him, out of breath 

 and badly bitten, perhaps, sit- 

 ting up in a tree gazing fear- 

 fully at the leaping dogs below, 

 and wondering when he would 

 be able to descend to get some 

 food. 



Perhaps it was while sitting 

 thus that some great prehis- 

 toric genius conceived the idea 

 that by means of a branch 

 broken from the tree he sat in 

 he could strike the dogs with- 

 out descending to the ground. 

 And perhaps he carried out 

 this idea, drove the dogs away 

 yelping, and the next day 

 leaped into fame as the in- 

 ventor of the club, the original 

 "big stick." 



HOW TI-I]5 dog's RUSPEICT 3?OR 

 MAN GREW 



And somewhat later, when 

 the dogs had learned to dodge 

 the blows of the club, to snatch 

 it out of the hands of the man, 

 perhaps, we can believe that 

 another great genius came 

 along and proved that by 



