The First Days of Man

The trees in those early forests grew very close together, and the little monkey animals found that they could swing from limb to limb with their arms, and thus travel for miles, from one tree to another, without going down to the ground at all. When they first took to living in the trees they had smooth skins like their parents the reptiles, but as thousands of years passed, hair grew out all over them, to protect them and keep them warm during the chilly rains.

For a long time the Sun watched these creatures, while Mother Nature was away, and he saw them slowly change. For one thing they grew larger and stronger all the time, and came to look more and more like the monkeys and apes we find in the jungle country even to-day. But still they were not apes, but from them, both the apes and Man, are descended.

From their habit of swinging from limb to limb, or from strong vines, like a trapeze performer in a circus, these ape-like animals got more and more in the habit of standing upright, balancing themselves on their hind feet on one limb, while they held on with their fore feet to another limb higher up. But still whenever they went down to the ground they ran about on all fours.

If these ape-like creatures had kept on living in the same sort of a place, where the food grew in high trees, and the forest beneath was filled with savage animals ready to eat them up, they would have kept right on being apes. Indeed, most of them have stayed that way, for we find their descendants living in the jungles of the tropics to-day, not very different from the way they were so many hundreds of thousands of years ago. But about that time Mother Nature stopped by to see how things on the Earth were getting along.

"What are those creatures doing that I spoke to you about?" she asked the Sun.

"Nothing, that I can see," the Sun replied, "except playing about in the tree tops, and eating nuts and fruit."

"That won't do at all," said Mother Nature. "We must get them up into the hills, where things will be different. I see some splendid big valleys over there on the mountain side, where there aren't many wild beasts to eat them, and where the trees and bushes are low, and full of nuts and fruit. It is the very place for them."

"How are you going to get them there?" asked the Sun.

"I think I will have Wind blow up a storm, and set the jungle on fire with Lightning. Then, when the fire drives them up the mountain side, some of them will surely wander into the valleys."

So the Wind blew up a great storm, and the Lightning flashed and set the jungle on fire, and all the beasts ran before the flames, afraid. Some went in one direction and some in another, but a few of the ape-like animals ran into the hills, and here they found a wide, peaceful valley, with a stream running through it, and plenty of food about for them to eat, so they took refuge there.

It was not so warm in the mountain country as it had been in the jungle below, because the higher up in the air we go, the cooler it gets, and we often see snow on the tops of high mountains, even in the middle of summer. And where it is cooler, the trees do not grow so thick and tall and close together as they do in the hot jungle. So the trees and bushes in the valley which the ape-like creatures had found were smaller, and easier to climb than the ones they had been used to, and on many of them the fruit and nuts hung so close to the ground that they could easily be picked without climbing at all. There were no savage animals in the valley, either, for the fierce flesh-eating beasts preferred to stay down in the jungle, where there was always plenty for them to eat.

The ape creatures had an easy time of it in their new home. When they saw that no enemies came to eat them up, and that there was plenty of food all about, fruit, and nuts, and sweet-tasting roots that grew underground, they began to get out of the habit of spending all their time in the trees. But they still ran about on all fours, like the other animals.

When Mother Nature came along she was very much pleased.

"They are beginning to change already," she said. "See how much larger and stronger they are. But I think I might as well take away their tails."

"Why?" said the Sun. "It seems to me their tails are very useful things. Some of the monkeys down in the jungle are beginning to use them to help themselves in climbing about in the trees."

"That is all very well for monkeys," smiled Mother Nature. "They need them, for they are going to be monkeys and live in trees all the rest of their lives. But these animals are different. They do not need to climb trees so much now, for there is plenty of food near the ground, and very few enemies about from whom they must escape."

"But," objected the Sun, "a time may come when there will not be any food near the ground, and who knows when some hungry beasts may wander into the valley and eat all your new creatures up?"

"What you say is very true, Sun," replied Mother Nature. "Those things of which you speak are very likely to happen. But I am going to take away their tails just the same, for it would never do to have them turn into monkeys, like the creatures down in the jungles. These animals are going to be different. For one thing, they must learn to walk about on their hind feet, instead of running on all fours, like the other beasts. And to teach them that, I have got to keep them out of the tree-tops. If they haven't sense enough to find some way to get food, and protect themselves from their enemies, they will surely starve, or be eaten up. But I am certain they will get along."

So the ape creatures lived happily in their wide valley, picking the fruit and nuts from the low bushes and trees, and sleeping safely in grassy beds on the ground, and because Mother Nature did not think they needed tails, she took them away, just as her great laws had taken away the feet of the snake, and the eyes of the mole, when they were no longer needed. As the years went by, and new generations of apes were born, their tails were smaller and smaller, and finally, when a very long time indeed had passed, they were born without any tails at all.

The Sun watched, for hundreds and thousands of years, and he saw that after a while the whole valley came to be full of the new creatures without tails. At first they ran about on all fours, picking food, or climbing the trees, the way they had always done, but because there were so many of them to be fed, it often happened that food on the bushes became scarce near the ground, and the ape creatures had to stand up on their hind legs in order to reach it. After a while, from standing up on their hind legs so much, they got used to it, and came to like it, and walked about that way most of the time.

The Sun saw this strange sight of an animal walking about, upright, on its hind legs, instead of running about on all fours, as all the other animals did, and because he had never seen such a sight before, it surprised him very much indeed.

"Is he a Man, Mother Nature?" he asked.

"No," Mother Nature told him. "He is not a Man yet."

"Why not?" said the Sun.

"Because he has not yet learned to think. He is just like all the other animals so far. But I am going to make him think very soon, and when he does, he will begin to be a Man."

"How are you going to make him think?" the Sun asked.

"I am going to make him hungry."

"Will that make him think?"

"Yes. If he needs food to keep himself alive, and doesn't find it right at his hand, he will have to think of a way to get it, or starve. And I don't believe he will let himself starve. You see, Sun, I have tried the same thing over and over, on a great many other worlds, and the laws that God has made always work."

Then Mother Nature sent for Cold and had a talk with him.

"Cold," she said, "I want you to get to work and cool the Earth off a little more quickly. Those animals down there are much too comfortable."

"Very well," said Cold, flapping his great frosty wings. "Just watch me make them shiver and shake."

Then Mother Nature went away, but as she went, she gave the Earth a little push, very gently, so as not to disturb things too much. And the Earth, which had been spinning around perfectly straight and upright, like a huge top, now leaned over a little, as it went swinging around the Sun.

"What did you do that for, Mother Nature?" asked the Sun.

"I did it, Sun, to make the Seasons. From now on, instead of it being warm all the time, there will be Winter and Summer on the Earth."

"How will tipping the Earth over like that make Winter and Summer?" the Sun asked.

"It is very simple. As long as the Earth swung around you in an upright position, your rays struck upon it just the same way the whole year round. Now that I have pushed it over a little, so that it no longer stands upright, don't you see that for half the year you will shine more strongly on the lower part of the Earth, which is turned toward you, and less strongly on the upper part, which I have tilted away from you. That will make Summer on the lower part of the Earth, where you are shining brightest, and Winter on the upper part, where you are shining least."

"I see," said the Sun, looking down at the Earth. "I can't reach the part that is turned away from me so well."

"Exactly. But six months from now, when the Earth has swung halfway around you, and is on the opposite side of you, the part that is now turned away from you will be turned toward you, and it will be Summer there, while the part that is having Summer now, will then be having Winter."

"It is very interesting," said the Sun, "but I still don't see what you did it for."

"I did it to help make my Man think," said Mother Nature, as she went away.

CHAPTER IV

THE HUNGRY APE AND THE BUNCH OF WILD FRUIT

In the valley where the Ape-Men lived the weather began to get colder and colder, year after year, and they were having a hard time to find enough to eat. There were thousands and thousands of them, now, and there were not enough roots, and berries, and nuts, and birds' eggs to go around, so the Ape-Men were often hungry.

One morning a young ape went out to try to find something for breakfast. He had not eaten a thing since the afternoon before, and then all he had was a handful of dry shrivelled berries, and he was almost starving.

He went all through the valley, hoping to find some of the sweet golden fruit that used to be so plentiful, but he could not find any, for the other apes had picked it all.

At last, climbing over the steep rocks at the upper end of the valley, he came across a tree which bore the kind of fruit he liked so much. At first he thought it was empty, but soon, to his delight, he discovered three large and beautiful bunches far out on the end of a slender limb.

His first impulse was to climb out on the limb and gather the fruit, but when he got about halfway out, the slender limb began to crack, and looking down he saw that it hung over the edge of a high, steep cliff, and that if he fell, he would be dashed to pieces. So he got back off the limb in a hurry, and came down to the ground.

The next thing he did was very stupid, but he had not yet begun to think. He took a stone and threw it at the fruit, as he had often done before, and knocked one of the bunches down. It fell over the edge of the cliff and was dashed to bits on the rocks below, far out of his reach.

By this time the ape had tried all the things he knew, and as he could not think of anything else to do, he sat down and gazed at the fruit for a long time in silence. There were tears in his eyes, for he was very hungry, but he could think of no way to get the fruit.

Mother Nature, who was watching the efforts of her Ape-Man, pointed him out to the Sun.

"You see, Sun," she said, "now that the cold has made food so scarce, my children in the valley are getting very hungry. That poor creature down there actually has tears in his eyes."

"He may be hungry," said the Sun, "but I don't see that it has made him think, the way you said it would."

"He is doing his best," said Mother Nature. "You see, he hasn't much of a brain to think with, but what little he has is trying very hard to find a way to get that bunch of fruit for his breakfast."

The Sun laughed.

"How stupid your Ape-Man is," he said. "There is a splendid big stick lying in the grass right under the tree, with a hook at the end of it where a limb has been broken off. All the foolish creature has to do is to take the stick in his hands, pull the bunch of fruit toward him with it, and he will have his breakfast. It is very simple and easy."

"It may seem easy to you, Sun," said Mother Nature, "but it isn't easy at all to a poor creature who has never thought before in all his life. It has taken millions of years to bring this Ape-Man from the mud and slime of the Ocean, to where he is now, but all that was not so hard, as it is to make him pick up that stick and gather that bunch of fruit. If he does it, he will have had an idea for the first time in his life; he will have begun to think, and from now on he will not be an animal any longer, but a Man."

"Couldn't we help him in some way?" asked the Sun.

Mother Nature looked down at the Ape-Man sitting beneath the tree.

"Suppose you shine very brightly on the stick, Sun," she said. "It may make him notice it."

So the Sun shone very brightly on the stick, but the Ape-Man did not move, but sat gazing at the fruit.

"Wait," said Mother Nature. "I will try something else. There is a snake lying among the roots of the tree. I will make him crawl over the stick and move it a little. Then perhaps the Ape-Man will notice it."

So Mother Nature called the Wind to her, and told him to blow gently against the tree and cause some dead limbs and twigs to fall. The Wind blew, and snapped off some little twigs, and one of them fell near the snake and woke it up. Then the snake squirmed off, and in doing so he moved the stick a little, so that the Ape-Man, whose eyes were very sharp, noticed it as it glistened in the sun. He got up from where he was sitting, and went over to the stick and gazed at it stupidly for quite a while.

"Goodness, how slow he is," said the Sun. "Hasn't the creature any brains at all?"

"Not much," replied Mother Nature, "but I think he has an idea at last – just a faint little idea moving about in his brain like a shadow. See, he is going to pick up the stick."

The Sun looked, and saw the Ape-Man take the stick from the ground. He held it in his hand for several moments, looking at it. Then he looked at the bunch of fruit, and after that, he looked back at the stick again. When he had done this two or three times, he took the stick, and going to the edge of the cliff, poked awkwardly at one of the remaining bunches of fruit.

"He had better look out," said the Sun, "or he will knock that one down and lose it too."

He had no sooner spoken, than the heavy bunch of fruit fell from the limb and dashed to the rocks far below. The Ape-Man gave a long cry of anger and disappointment. Then he began poking at the third and last bunch. But this time he was more careful. After a few moments the hook at the end of the stick caught around the limb, and when the Ape-Man pulled on it, he saw that the fruit began to move toward him. He chattered with joy, at this, and pulled harder and harder, and at last the slender branch bent until the bunch of fruit was right in his hands. Then the Ape-Man dropped the stick, and sitting down on the grass ate the fruit as quickly as he could. After that he threw himself down in the grass and went to sleep.

The Sun, who had been watching him carefully, laughed.

"Such a little thing, to make so much fuss about," he said.

"It may seem a little thing to you, Sun," said Mother Nature, "but it is really the biggest thing you have ever seen in your life. For the first time, you have seen the birth of a Man. He is very slow and clumsy and stupid, now, but after a while his children and his children's children are going to become so strong and cunning and powerful by means of their little brains, that they will rule the Earth, and all the other animals will be afraid of them, and bow down to them. And they will harness the Wind, and the Rivers, and the Lightning, and cause Heat and Cold to do their bidding, and they will defy the Ocean, and conquer the Air, and make even you, Sun, work for them and serve them."

"Ha-Ha!" laughed the Sun. "Those little Ape-Men make me work for them! I don't believe it."

"Wait and see," said Mother Nature. "I know what I am talking about, for I have seen the same thing happen, many times, in other worlds that you know nothing about. And Man will do all these things I tell you of, because God has given him a brain and taught him to think.

"How has God taught him to think?" said the Sun. "It was the fruit, and the snake, and the Wind, and you and I who taught him."

Mother Nature looked at the Sun and frowned.

"Don't you know, you foolish Sun, that God made the fruit, and the snake, and the Wind, and the Earth, and you, and everything else in the Universe, and that if it were not for His laws, you wouldn't be here at all. You had better go on shining, and not make foolish remarks about things you do not understand." Then Mother Nature went away.

The Ape-Man, asleep in the sun, woke up after a time, and feeling thirsty he went down to the stream in the valley to get a drink. But he took the stick he had used to get the fruit, with him. It was a nice stick, straight and strong, like a spear, except for the short hooked limb at the end of it, and the Ape-Man liked it, because it had helped him get something to eat.

When he went back that night to the place in the grass where he usually slept, some of the other Ape-People crowded about him, chattering in surprise at seeing him carrying the stick, for this was something none of them had ever done before. One of the crowd tried to take the stick away from him, but he drew back and hit the other over the head with it and knocked him down. After that the others were afraid of him, and let him alone. And although the Ape-People had no language, and did not know how to speak as we do, they used different kinds of cries and grunts, when they were angry, or cold, or afraid. When anything frightened them, they uttered a cry that sounded like "Adh!", and because they said this whenever the Ape-Man with the club came among them, it grew to be a sort of name for him, and he shouted it out to terrify them, when he made his way through the woods.

After a while, others of the apes got clubs too, and used them to fight with, but except the stones they sometimes threw, Adh's stick was the very first weapon used by Man.

Mother Nature was satisfied with her new Man, so far as he had gone, but she knew that he would have to suffer, if he was to learn, and although she did not like to make him suffer, she had to do it.

"You can blow all you like, Cold," she said. "I want my people to suffer. Pain is not a pleasant thing, but it is only through pain that they will ever learn."

CHAPTER V

THE CAVE AND THE FISH

A cold wind blew through the valley where the Ape-Men lived, and the trees and bushes were brown and bare of fruit. The rays of the Sun, which used to come down straight and hot all day, now shone slantwise, because the Earth had been tipped over, and they seemed to have very little warmth. The days, too, were shorter, and the nights were longer, and cold. All the Ape-Men were obliged to huddle together in their beds of grass to keep warm. They did not know that Mother Nature had tipped over the Earth to make Winter and Summer, but they were very uncomfortable, and they did not like it.

But the worst thing of all was, that there was almost nothing to eat. Always before there had been some kind of fruit, or berries, all the year round. Now they were able to find only a few nuts, and the sweet bulbs which grew at the roots of certain plants, and the smaller animals got most of these. Even the nesting birds they sometimes caught and ate had gone where it was warmer. Pretty soon there was nothing to eat at all, and the Ape-Men were starving.

Adh, who had begun to think a little, puzzled about this for a long time, but could not understand it. Of course, if the Ape-People had stored up food, during the Summer, they would have had something to eat, when the cold weather came, but they had never thought of doing such a thing, because there had usually been enough to eat, before. Now they did not know what to do, and as they could no longer find any food in the valley, they gradually wandered off, down toward the low, hot jungle-lands from which they had come. Here they found things to eat, but they also found lions and great sabre-toothed tigers and other fierce beasts to eat them, and as they had long ago forgotten their old trick of living and sleeping and seeking safety from their enemies in the tree-tops, it was not long before they were all eaten up.

When the Sun saw this, he was very much surprised.

"Look, Mother Nature," he said. "Your Ape-People have all been eaten up."

"You are wrong, Sun," replied Mother Nature. "Adh and the ape woman he has taken for his wife are still in the valley. He was the only one who had learned to think, so the others were of no use and I had to get rid of them. Before long the children of Adh and his wife will fill the valley with a race of Men, and from there they will spread all over the Earth."

Adh did not go with the others for two reasons. The first was that they did not like him, because he made them afraid of him, and so they went away without him. The second reason was, that Adh's wife had a tiny baby boy to nurse and take care of, and it was easier, to stay where they were, than to wander off through the jungles. Now that all the others had gone, Adh managed to find enough roots and nuts to keep himself and his little family alive.

Soon after the others had left, it began to rain, and every day the cold rain beat down on Adh and his family and drenched them. Even their grass nest under the boughs of a thick tree, was turned into a pool of mud and water, on which the sun never shone to dry it and keep it warm. Cold and Rain were making the new Ape-Man suffer, as Mother Nature had told them to do. Adh, as he wandered about the valley hunting for a little food, tried very hard to think of a way to keep himself and his family comfortable, but no new ideas came to him. Occasionally he managed to catch a young bird, which he greedily devoured, but they were very scarce and hard to find.

"Look at the stupid creature," laughed the Sun, peeping for a moment through the heavy rain-clouds. "He hasn't sense enough to find a hole in the rocks, where he would be dry and warm."

Mother Nature did not answer. Instead, she waited until she saw Adh climbing over the rocks at the upper end of the valley, searching for the nests of wild birds he sometimes found there. Then she called Cold to her.

"Blow your hardest for a few moments, Cold," she said.

Cold puffed out his cheeks and blew a freezing blast down the valley, and all the falling drops of Rain turned to bits of ice, like hail, which cut Adh's shoulders and arms and back, and hurt him, in spite of his thick coat of hair. To escape from the storm, he ran beneath some overhanging rocks, and suddenly found himself in a little cave, its floor covered with soft dry moss. Here he was quite safe from the hail and rain, and he was very much pleased.

While he was standing in the cave, Adh suddenly had another thought. He wished that his wife and child were with him. And no sooner had he thought of them than he dashed out of the cave, and forgetting all about the hail and rain, he ran to the nest in the grass where they lay trying to keep warm, and brought them as fast as he could back to the nice dry cave. And this cave was Man's very first home.

"You see," said Mother Nature to the Sun, "whenever I want my new Man to think, I send him some kind of trouble. If I hadn't made him hungry, he would never have got the idea of pulling the bunch of fruit out of the tree with his stick, and now, because I made him cold and wet, he has found himself a home."

"What are you going to make him do next?" asked the Sun.

"Wait and see," said Mother Nature. "But don't forget that I have given him a wife and child to think about, now, and he will do more, on their account, than he would ever do, alone, for in his simple way, he loves them."