156 PHYSICAL BASIS OF CIVILIZATION 



coming from many different directions would tend 

 to meet at places where topographical difficulties 

 hindered further flight or forced them to make 

 changes in its direction, or where hunger, thirst, and 

 the occurrence of supplies of food or water caused 

 them to halt. 



Although these meetings, as above outlined, were 

 merely incidental, several circumstances make it 

 very probable that more or less coherent permanent 

 aggregates, such as groups or hordes, would result 

 from them. For when the fugitives met, they must 

 have been thoroughly exhausted, panicky, and in 

 consequence of their late fearful experiences, inclined 

 for slight cause to great extremes of apprehension 

 and timidity. Then upon meeting fellow-sufferers 

 with outward indications of being in similar mental 

 and physical plight, their fears must have been as- 

 suaged and their sympathy aroused. While they 

 were not free from terror of the ferocious men that 

 might come upon them from a distance, yet must 

 they have felt a sense of security and power of re- 

 sistance for defence in the presence of these large 

 assemblies of comrades in misfortune. Thus there 

 obviously arose a strong inclination to remain to- 

 gether. Successful efforts must have been made 

 frequently by the men whose absence from their 

 retreats had been the cause of these disasters to 

 find the whereabouts of their fugitive families, and 

 thus the meeting places of the latter would easily 

 become temporary points of concentration. 



