Chapter XIX: The People of Our Time Who Were Most Like the Cave Men

Up to a short time ago, on the island of Tasmania, near Australia, there lived a people more nearly like the cave men than any people we know about. Their weapons were made of limestone and were without handles, because they did not know how to fix handles to them. Their boat was a raft of bark bundles and was pushed by a pole. They lived under shelters made of boughs, and made fire by twirling a stick on a piece of soft wood. They drew rude pictures on bark; and they were quick and cunning about hunting, but knew little more. They believed that the shadow of a thing was its other self--the self that traveled in dreams and that lived after the body died; and that the echo was the talking shadow. Like the cave men these people were hunters, without any tamed animal to help them.

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS

The teacher who wishes to make the most of this work will take her class to visit a museum, if a museum is available; or, if not, she will do what she can to show her class actual specimens of the things described in the story.

In a museum primitive implements should be observed, and specimens of animals and birds. Pictures of caves, pieces of stalactites, stalagmites, of limestone, quartz, and flint would be of value, either seen in the museum or, better still, looked at and handled in the classroom as the story is read. A tendon procured from the butcher and dried for a few weeks and then pulled to pieces would show primitive thread.

Out of doors a limestone cliff showing stratification would be the best kind of illustration to explain both the formation of caves and the gradual burying and preservation of animal bones and other primitive relics.

In the schoolroom, again, on a large stand might be made a model of a hilly country. A cave could be shown, shaped of two upright stones and a crosspiece, the whole covered with sods and earth; and animals and men might be made of paper or of clay.

Various scenes from the story are adapted to dramatization; for instance, the visit of the cave bear, the making of fire, work in the stone yard, or the feast of mammoth's meat.

For those who wish to read further in a subject so suggestive along the lines, not only of social life, but of history, geography, and nature study, the following books will be full of interest:

The Story of Primitive Man. _Clodd_. _D. Appleton & Company_, 50 cents. (If only one book on the subject is purchased, this is the most valuable for the price.)

Early Man in Britain. _Dawkins_.

Cave Hunting. _Dawkins_.

Ancient Stone Implements. _Evans_.

Primitive Man. _Figuier_.

The Origin of Inventions. _Mason_.

Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. _Mason_.

Some First Steps in Primitive Culture. _Starr_.

Myths and Dreams. _Clodd_.

Primitive Culture. _Tylor_.

Prehistoric Times. _Lubbock_.

Animals of the Past. _Lucas_.

The Beginnings of Art. _Grosse_.

Prehistoric Europe. _Geikie_.

Materiaux. _Massenet_.

Phases of Animal Life, Past and Present. _Lyddecker_.

Royal Natural History. _Lyddecker_.

Ancient Quarry Sites. _Holmes_.

The Language of Paleolithic Man. _Brinton_.

Ancient Society. _Morgan_.

The Descent of Man. _Darwin_.

The Voyage of the Vega. _Nordenskjöld_.

The History of America, Vol. I. _Payne_.

The Story of Ab. _Waterloo_.

THE AUTHOR