The Story of Mankind [8]
face of the earth.
In the first place it was necessary that man clothe himself
lest he freeze to death. He learned how to dig holes and cover
them with branches and leaves and in these traps he caught
bears and hyenas, which he then killed with heavy stones and
whose skins he used as coats for himself and his family.
Next came the housing problem. This was simple. Many
animals were in the habit of sleeping in dark caves. Man now
followed their example, drove the animals out of their warm
homes and claimed them for his own.
Even so, the climate was too severe for most people and
the old and the young died at a terrible rate. Then a genius
bethought himself of the use of fire. Once, while out hunting,
he had been caught in a forest-fire. He remembered that he
had been almost roasted to death by the flames. Thus far fire
had been an enemy. Now it became a friend. A dead tree
was dragged into the cave and lighted by means of smouldering
branches from a burning wood. This turned the cave into
a cozy little room.
And then one evening a dead chicken fell into the fire. It
was not rescued until it had been well roasted. Man discovered
that meat tasted better when cooked and he then and there
discarded one of the old habits which he had shared with the
other animals and began to prepare his food.
In this way thousands of years passed. Only the people
with the cleverest brains survived. They had to struggle day
and night against cold and hunger. They were forced to invent
tools. They learned how to sharpen stones into axes and how
to make hammers. They were obliged to put up large stores
of food for the endless days of the winter and they found that
clay could be made into bowls and jars and hardened in the
rays of the sun. And so the glacial period, which had threatened
to destroy the human race, became its greatest teacher
because it forced man to use his brain.
HIEROGLYPHICS
THE EGYPTIANS INVENT THE ART OF
WRITING AND THE RECORD OF
HISTORY BEGINS
THESE earliest ancestors of ours who lived in the great
European wilderness were rapidly learning many new things.
It is safe to say that in due course of time they would have
given up the ways of savages and would have developed a
civilisation of their own. But suddenly there came an end to
their isolation. They were discovered.
A traveller from an unknown southland who had dared to
cross the sea and the high mountain passes had found his way
to the wild people of the European continent. He came from
Africa. His home was in Egypt.
The valley of the Nile had developed a high stage of civilisation
thousands of years before the people of the west had
dreamed of the possibilities of a fork or a wheel or a house.
And we shall therefore leave our great-great-grandfathers in
their caves, while we visit the southern and eastern shores of
the Mediterranean, where stood the earliest school of the
human race.
The Egyptians have taught us many things. They were
excellent farmers. They knew all about irrigation. They built
temples which were afterwards copied by the Greeks and which
served as the earliest models for the churches in which we worship
nowadays. They had invented a calendar which proved
such a useful instrument for the purpose of measuring time
that it has survived with a few changes until today. But most
important of all, the Egyptians had learned how to preserve
speech for the benefit of future generations. They had invented
the art of writing.
We are so accustomed to newspapers and books and magazines
that we take it for granted that the world has always been
able to read and write. As a matter of fact, writing, the most
important of all inventions, is quite new. Without written
documents we would be like cats and dogs, who can only teach
their kittens and their puppies a few simple things and who,
because they cannot
In the first place it was necessary that man clothe himself
lest he freeze to death. He learned how to dig holes and cover
them with branches and leaves and in these traps he caught
bears and hyenas, which he then killed with heavy stones and
whose skins he used as coats for himself and his family.
Next came the housing problem. This was simple. Many
animals were in the habit of sleeping in dark caves. Man now
followed their example, drove the animals out of their warm
homes and claimed them for his own.
Even so, the climate was too severe for most people and
the old and the young died at a terrible rate. Then a genius
bethought himself of the use of fire. Once, while out hunting,
he had been caught in a forest-fire. He remembered that he
had been almost roasted to death by the flames. Thus far fire
had been an enemy. Now it became a friend. A dead tree
was dragged into the cave and lighted by means of smouldering
branches from a burning wood. This turned the cave into
a cozy little room.
And then one evening a dead chicken fell into the fire. It
was not rescued until it had been well roasted. Man discovered
that meat tasted better when cooked and he then and there
discarded one of the old habits which he had shared with the
other animals and began to prepare his food.
In this way thousands of years passed. Only the people
with the cleverest brains survived. They had to struggle day
and night against cold and hunger. They were forced to invent
tools. They learned how to sharpen stones into axes and how
to make hammers. They were obliged to put up large stores
of food for the endless days of the winter and they found that
clay could be made into bowls and jars and hardened in the
rays of the sun. And so the glacial period, which had threatened
to destroy the human race, became its greatest teacher
because it forced man to use his brain.
HIEROGLYPHICS
THE EGYPTIANS INVENT THE ART OF
WRITING AND THE RECORD OF
HISTORY BEGINS
THESE earliest ancestors of ours who lived in the great
European wilderness were rapidly learning many new things.
It is safe to say that in due course of time they would have
given up the ways of savages and would have developed a
civilisation of their own. But suddenly there came an end to
their isolation. They were discovered.
A traveller from an unknown southland who had dared to
cross the sea and the high mountain passes had found his way
to the wild people of the European continent. He came from
Africa. His home was in Egypt.
The valley of the Nile had developed a high stage of civilisation
thousands of years before the people of the west had
dreamed of the possibilities of a fork or a wheel or a house.
And we shall therefore leave our great-great-grandfathers in
their caves, while we visit the southern and eastern shores of
the Mediterranean, where stood the earliest school of the
human race.
The Egyptians have taught us many things. They were
excellent farmers. They knew all about irrigation. They built
temples which were afterwards copied by the Greeks and which
served as the earliest models for the churches in which we worship
nowadays. They had invented a calendar which proved
such a useful instrument for the purpose of measuring time
that it has survived with a few changes until today. But most
important of all, the Egyptians had learned how to preserve
speech for the benefit of future generations. They had invented
the art of writing.
We are so accustomed to newspapers and books and magazines
that we take it for granted that the world has always been
able to read and write. As a matter of fact, writing, the most
important of all inventions, is quite new. Without written
documents we would be like cats and dogs, who can only teach
their kittens and their puppies a few simple things and who,
because they cannot