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Longhead: The Story of the First Fire

<h2>CHAPTER V DAWN OF INVENTION, ART, MARRIAGE, RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT</h2> Affairs at the settlement near the fire-cave now moved along smoothly. Their new weapons enabled the hunters to secure abundance of food in a country teeming with animal life, now that they dared attack the larger animals. Cooking made both the flesh and vegetables more nourishing as well as more appetizing, and soon the enormous stomachs, no longer continually distended with raw and indigestible food, became reduced in size and their bodies less unwieldy.[96] Made confident by the use of fire and superior weapons, the men now walked fully erect and wandered through the forest with little fear. As their supply of nourishing food increased, more children were born than before, and the mortality among infants was greatly reduced. All this tended toward a rapid increase of population in the settlement. This increase in the population necessitated more habitations, and this, at the time meant more caves, for this was the epoch of cave-men. After all the available caves in the ravine and vicinity had been appropriated, an enterprising young man of the group who, by reason of mutual attachment and because of the example, perhaps, of Longhead and Broken Tooth, had induced a young woman to establish[97] similar relations with him, being unable to find an unoccupied cave, concluded to establish housekeeping upon a horizontal ledge overhung by a projecting rocky cliff. This location, protected only in the rear, soon proved to be too exposed for comfort, and the couple concluded to improve it. They took several good sized sticks of different lengths which had been burned off by the fires and after leaning them up against the sloping rock, piled on brush and grass. This was much better than the open front, but a coal from their fire having blown into the grass after it had dried, caused a conflagration which reduced them to their former condition. The man proved to be quite intelligent, and he began to select logs of the same length, burning them off at the[98] proper place when necessary; and these they sloped up side by side at the front as before, but, mindful of the fire, they filled the interstices with sticks, stones and moss, finally plastering the whole front, except for a small opening for entrance, with mud. This was a great improvement over all former conditions; the rain and wind were excluded, to a considerable extent; indeed, it was preferable to a cave. It was lighter and better ventilated, and, when they had learned to construct movable frames which could be securely fastened in the doorways, to prevent incursions by wild animals, these lean-tos or rock-shelters, the remains of which have been found in many parts of Europe, became the favorite habitations of the people of the group. [99] The inhabitants of the caves and rock-shelters did not clean house every spring and fall, or, indeed, at any other time; the refuse and debris of the household were allowed to accumulate upon the floors of the caves and rock-shelters, and to this we owe nearly all the knowledge possessed by civilized man of the domestic arts, weapons, food, etc., and the general conditions under which the cave-men lived, as well as of the animals which were their contemporaries. The floors of these ancient dwellings, when excavated by scientists, show several feet of debris or accumulations, which are called "brecchia," being a conglomeration of dirt, bones of animals, bones of human beings, weapons, implements and other artifacts, which are frequently cemented[100] with limestone formations caused by the drippings of the rocks and caves, in the nature of stalactites and stalagmites. Not only have we learned from this "brecchia" what progress the cave-men had made in domestic art, but our knowledge of the animals which lived in the locality and were their contemporaries is almost wholly derived from rude pictures made by these cave people, who seem to have suddenly developed an artistic sense and made such pictures by etching or scratching them with sharp flints upon pieces of bone, ivory and slate. These drawings are by no means so crude and wanting in artistic skill as we would be inclined to expect. The animals depicted are readily recognizable; such drawings show groups of reindeer, now[101] found only in the arctic regions; the wild horse; the single horned rhinoceros; the giant elk; and on a smooth piece of his own tusk, we see the curved-tusked, hairy elephant of gigantic size—the mammoth, or elephas primigenius, whose bones have been found in many parts of Europe and Asia, and of which at least one specimen was found whole with the flesh intact, in the frozen tundra of Siberia. But for these drawings—the natural history of his time—left by cave-men, we would not know that immense animals, now long extinct in Europe, had contested with men of the cave period, the ownership of the forests, swamps, plains and mountains. In the "brecchia" of these caves, are often found long bones of animals which[102] have been split longitudinally to obtain the marrow, which was regarded as a great delicacy by primitive man; and as some long bones of the human body have been found split in the same manner, some scientists have concluded that cave men were cannibals, or at least occasionally made a feast upon the bodies of prisoners captured in war, or upon such sacrifices when offered to the gods. At the time when rock-shelters became favorite habitations of the people at the fire-cave, marriage relations were still loose, and any idea of male parentage was yet to come, but in a few generations, instead of accepting the birth of children without thought, it was generally believed that the supernatural beings with whom their imaginations peopled the[103] hills, valleys, groves and ravines, were responsible for their advent. However, the more frequent and intimate association of the sexes around the fires and in preparing food by roasting, had a great effect, and it was noticeable that men and women began to pair off in the caves and rock-shelters; that such cohabitation continued for longer periods of time, and there were a number who appeared to have formed permanent unions. There was something about the fire—the social hearthstone—which tended to prolong such associations. The cheerful light of the fires; the measure of comfort they furnished, and the talkativeness promoted by companionship as the hunters related around the evening fires the adventures and experiences of that and former days,[104] all combined to make man more of a social being, and the same influences promoted more permanency of union between couples who found themselves at all congenial. Perhaps the example of Longhead and Broken Tooth, who had remained true to each other, had something to do with this gradual change in the relations of the sexes, but it was not until many generations after when the fact of male parentage became known to mankind, that anything at all like marriage was known or any man regarded any child or children as his own. There being no settled custom in this matter, many couples continued to unite and separate as they might feel inclined. The most that can be said is, that the use of fire[105] in some manner appeared to promote a longer union than was common before its discovery, and that, in the progress of ages, fire seems to have been one of the agencies which greatly assisted in bringing about the present sacredness of home and marriage. The hunters of the group still continued their coöperative search for food, and the fact that it was often impossible to determine who had killed a particular animal, while it was frequently certain that the weapons and efforts of several had a part in it, brought about a system for making an equitable distribution of all the animals taken in each expedition. First the share required by Longhead and Broken Tooth would be set apart, then the remainder was apportioned to[106] each member of the group or to each habitation in proportion to the number of persons to be supported. The women, too, whose task it was to find the roots and vegetables, eggs, berries and nuts which entered into their diet, began to imitate the actions of the men in this respect. They soon arranged to leave the older and more feeble women at the settlement to maintain the fires and look after the younger children, and to these was allotted a share of the food secured by the others. These customs were established gradually and without definite enactments, or even agreements, but by common consent; they were, however, greatly promoted by Longhead, who seemed to make coöperation a sort of a hobby. They seemed to[107] have just happened, but they were, in fact, the natural outgrowth of fire and the changed conditions due to its influence. In the course of years these customs crystallized into a communal organization in which all things, except perhaps, the weapons of a hunter and a very few personal belongings upon which the owner had expended thought and labor, were regarded as the property of the group or tribe. This communal organization of society continued for thousands of years and its vestiges still exist amid the highest enlightenment, as the foundation for business corporations, partnerships, and, indeed, all commercial and other coöperation,—communism—the greatest good to the greatest number, being the basis of all civilized laws. [108] While the hunters of the settlement at the fire-cave scoured the forest for animal food, and the women sought vegetables, nuts, berries and eggs, Longhead was by no means idle. True, he was, by the contributions exacted from the group, relieved from the necessity of daily effort to secure sustenance for himself, Broken Tooth and a bright-eyed little cave-boy who had been sent to the woman by the spirits, and he seldom joined in a hunting excursion; but, weapons were often broken or lost, and, as he still retained the secret of their manufacture, he was kept tolerably busy in replacing them. Continual experience in this work gave him greater skill and a truer eye for symmetry of form coupled with effectiveness for use, and he also learned to distinguish[109] the best materials of the vicinage. He invented no new weapons, for the bow and arrow and even the stone axe, were to be the products of a much later epoch; but he discovered that a javelin could be thrown with much greater accuracy if the two sides of the flint point were exactly alike and evenly balanced. Experience had also demonstrated to him that the weapon had greater penetrative force if the flake for the flint head was thin and the edges and point very sharp. He became more careful, therefore, in the selection of his flakes, and when he found one suitable for his use, except one side was larger than the other or the edges too thick, he found that he could batter off small pieces with light blows of a pebble, or flake them by pressure with a bone,[110] and thus bring it into shape. He discovered also that when the base of a flake had some notches near it, the fastenings remained more firm and the point was less likely to become detached from the shaft. He therefore began, by pecking and flaking, to form such notches where he did not find them to suit him, and soon his spear and javelin heads assumed a conventional form. There was a slow but continuous improvement in the weapons of the period, but eventually these spear and <ins title="Transcriber's Note: variant spelling from original text">knive</ins> heads became much like those still found upon the village sites of primitive man all over the world. The worst trouble Longhead had to overcome in the manufacture of weapons was the method of fastening the points to the shafts or handles. The small fibrous[111] roots he used at first would fray and break when they became dry, and the points would be lost or fail the hunter at a critical moment. The stringy bark he cut from trees with his knife was little better, but, one day when cutting up a large animal for cooking, he found its hide so tough he could hardly penetrate it with the knife, an idea occurred to him, and he cut off a long narrow strip of the skin for an experiment. This he hung up until he should have time to make the test he had in mind, and when he came to try it he found that he could not break it even by exerting all his strength. From the skin of the next animal that came into his larder, he secured a number of long strips, and, having dried these, he wet them to make them more pliable, and[112] used some of them in lashing a point to a javelin. This weapon he tested by frequent use, and was pleased to note that the new lashing did not fray or break when it became dry, nor did it loosen, but, on the contrary, the strings of rawhide shrank when drying and held the point the tighter. Thereafter the tough hides were removed, dried and prepared for strings for this and other purposes, and it was not long until he accidentally discovered that wet wood ashes placed on a skin for a few hours would loosen the hair and permit its removal, leaving the skin improved for making strings. About this time Broken Tooth made a discovery and, like the others, it was also accidental. In her cooking operations, pieces of food were continually falling[113] upon the ground or being laid upon it in course of preparation, and they became more or less covered with sand or fine particles of grit, which did not taste good, and, besides, they hurt her teeth. She had no idea of their uncleanliness; it was simply a matter of discomfort. One day she observed a long strip of bark hanging to a tree which had recently blown over, and the idea occurred to her that if she had some pieces of this bright, clean bark on which to place the food, the disagreeable sand might be avoided. She tried to break the bark, but it was too tough and stringy, so she went to the cave and returned with a flake of flint. It happened to have a sharp but very ragged edge, and she found that by drawing the edge back and[114] forth across the grain of the bark and at the same time putting on some pressure, she could cut it rapidly. That evening she surprised Longhead by presenting his supper on a set of clean bark dishes. The man examined them curiously and asked how she had cut them. She produced the flint and demonstrated on one of the plates how it would cut. She had invented, or at least, she had made the first application of the saw. The man examined the flake thoughtfully, and, picking up a piece of stick, tried it on that. He soon sawed it off, and was greatly pleased. To get the staves of his spears and handles of javelins the right length, he had been burning them off in the fire, but now he would use a saw. He soon found that the more[115] numerous and regular the notches the faster the implement would cut, and, as few, if any, of the flakes came off the nodules in this condition, he applied pecking and pressure, and soon had a saw with small and regular serrations or teeth, and found it very useful. Up to this time, all his knives had been made of long flakes with a wrapping of roots at one end to protect the hand, but he had found it difficult to secure many flakes long enough for both blade and handle. One day he had the misfortune to break the shaft of his favorite spear. It had a thin blade which was very long and sharp, and the rawhide strings held it firmly. He attempted to untie the lashings, that he might use the blade for another shaft, but they had become so[116] hard and dry that he could not succeed in untying them. He picked up his saw to cut them, but first began idly to draw it across the shaft. At once he noticed that if cut off at the point where he was sawing, the spear would become a knife with a wooden handle. The operation was quickly completed, and he found the new style of knife much superior to the old. Flakes of this size were much more frequently produced in breaking a nodule with fire and water, and all his knives were thereafter furnished with wooden handles. The saw thus became one of the most useful of his few tools. Thus the flint saw, discovered by accident by a primitive woman, was the germ from which has been elaborated, with little change[117] except for material, one of the most useful tools known to civilized man. When the little cave-boy of their family was something over a year old, a small girl was brought by the spirits, and as the children grew and thrived, Broken Tooth began to suggest that their present home was becoming crowded. The cave was indeed a small one for two, three made it uncomfortable, and now four was certainly a crowd. Longhead first proposed searching for a cave of larger proportions, but to this Broken Tooth raised several objections. All the larger caves in the vicinity were already occupied, and, while they might no doubt use the authority of the spirits to compel the present occupants to vacate a cave for their use, this course was sure to create[118] ill feeling which, sooner or later, might work to their disadvantage; and, besides, where could they find one with so large a platform in front and so well protected by overhanging rock. Could not some plan be devised to enlarge this one? and she called Longhead's attention to the fact that the rock inside was soft and friable, and that small pieces were continually falling down, which she carried out and threw over the edges of the platform. The man undertook to make the cavity larger by pulling down and removing all the loose pieces, but, when this was done, little increase in the size of their home was apparent. On one side the man noticed that the rock was full of small cracks and seams, but these were so[119] tightly fitted and irregular that he could remove but few of the stones with his hands. One piece that was quite loose he tried for a long time to pull out, but it pinched too tightly at one corner. In a rage, he picked up a large, sharp cornered piece of flint with both hands and struck it with all his might into the crack which held the tightest. The piece that bound it was broken and the stone fell out, followed by a number of others. Another discovery of the value of flint pieces had been made—a pick had been found, and daily both Longhead and Broken Tooth spent some hours digging at the loosened rocks until, in the course of time, they had a cave sufficiently large for their needs, and in succeeding years this was extended, as the growth of the[120] family and their ideas of comfort demanded. By the same means Longhead removed the irregularities of the floor and side walls, and finally he somewhat enlarged the doorway, gave it a more regular shape, and substituted strong wooden bars, held in place by notches cut in the stone, for the large stones they had formerly rolled into the opening at night to prevent the entrance of dangerous animals. The curious inhabitants of the settlement watched these operations, and it was not long until many other caves were thus enlarged and more comfort secured. During the remainder of Longhead's life, little further progress was made in the manufacture of weapons and implements, other domestic arts or the conditions[121] of the group; but the flint saw became a common implement and was applied to various uses; many of the families used bark dishes, and a sort of rude basket had been evolved from naturally curled cylinders of bark into which a bottom of bark or interlacing of rawhide strings had been inserted. These were used to transport nuts, berries, wild fruit, eggs, etc., to the caves and as receptacles in which to retain the same afterwards. No basketry or other weaving process had been thought of, nor had there been any attempt made to manufacture or use any kind of clothing, the skins of animals being used only for strings, or occasionally to carry food products. Social conditions also remained practically the same, but food was more easily[122] procured in consequence of slowly extending coöperation, and the method of its preparation by cooking made it more nourishing, consequently more of the children grew to manhood and womanhood, and the average of life was longer. The possession of effective weapons continued to render men less fearful, they became more and more erect and grew to a taller stature. The inventions and improvement in conditions already described were the necessary and almost immediate results of the control and use of fire, and when this point was reached, further progress for many generations can scarcely have been considerable. Primitive man was not fertile in original ideas, nor inventive, except from accident aided by necessity,[123] and the use of the bow and arrow, stone axe, baskets, weaving and pottery were to come many generations after the death of Longhead, Broken Tooth and their fellows of the fire-cave settlement. A method for producing fire by friction of wood upon wood, after the method of the fire-drill, which has been common to nearly all primitive peoples who have come under the observation of civilized men, probably came with the other later discoveries, but it was doubtless still longer before any clothing was used, and then, at first, it was most likely more for ornament than for comfort or any feeling of modesty. However, the succeeding generations of the group described never lost the inventions of Longhead, and in after ages,[124] when the idea of a Supreme Being or beings had been elaborated as a religion, he was deified and worshipped as a god and the founder of the tribe or people. The descendants of Broken Tooth—for descent for many ages was still reckoned only in the female line—continued to be the weapon-makers and rulers of the tribe, and from them were the fire-priests always selected, when the worship of fire, with a consecrated priesthood and a more or less elaborate ritual, had been developed. Many ages were to pass with a slow but continued upward progress before this group of fire-people entered even the lowest stages of barbarism, but certainly the discovery of the use and control of fire had much to do with the early[125] progress of the rude people described, and whose individuals, we have assumed for the purposes of the story, were our own far away ancestors. 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