looking for something to eat for their mates and their own young, and they liked

the taste of human beings. It was a world where you must either eat or be eaten,

and life was very unhappy because it was full of fear and misery.

 

In summer, man was exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, and during the

winter his children would freeze to death in his arms. When such a creature hurt

itself, (and hunting animals are forever breaking their bones or spraining their

ankles) he had no one to take care of him and he must die a horrible death.

 

Like many of the animals who fill the Zoo with their strange noises, early man

liked to jabber. That is to say, he endlessly repeated the same unintelligible

gibberish because it pleased him to hear the sound of his voice. In due time he

learned that he could use this guttural noise to warn his fellow beings whenever

danger threatened and he gave certain little shrieks which came to mean "there

is a tiger!" or "here come five elephants." Then the others grunted something

back at him and their growl meant, "I see them," or "let us run away and hide."

And this was probably the origin of all language.

 

But, as I have said before, of these beginnings we know so very little.

 

Early man had no tools and he built himself no houses. He lived and died and

left no trace of his existence except a few collar-bones and a few pieces of his

skull. These tell us that many thousands of years ago the world was inhabited by

certain mammals who were quite different from all the other animals--who had

probably developed from another unknown ape-like animal which had learned to