The First Days of Man

CHAPTER XX

THE SEA ROVERS

Mor and his men at last made up their minds to sail out across the Great Water and see what was on the other side. The island people were very strong and brave, and thought it much better to fight and have adventures, than to stay at home in peace all the time. So they made ready a fleet of twenty large boats, each one big enough to hold forty men, and one bright morning, with the wind blowing straight across the water, they raised their coloured sails, red, and blue, and yellow, and set out.

Each man carried with him a wicker shield, covered with tough hide, which he hung over the side of the boat within easy reach of where he sat at his oar. Many wore rings of gold and copper and tin about their arms. Their caps were made of leather, with the wings of birds in them, one on each side. They carried bows and arrows, long spears with points of polished flint, or copper, and stone axes and knives. Some of the chiefs had axes with heads of copper.

They took water with them in great bottles made of the skins of animals, and plenty of smoked meat and fish. When they set sail, hundreds came down to the shore to see them off. Mor, a big strong man, almost a giant, waved his glittering copper axe in farewell, then turned his eyes toward the sea and led his little fleet out of the bay on its journey.

For a day and a night they sailed without seeing anything but a few birds. Some of the men, when they saw nothing but the ocean in every direction, as far as the eye could reach, were frightened and wanted to turn back, but Mor told them to wait, that they would soon reach land.

On the afternoon of the second day one of the men on watch gave a cry, and soon they saw stretching along the horizon a thin grey line of shore. A little later they could make out hills, and clumps of trees, and the smoke from a village.

It was evening and the people of the village were cooking supper about their fires. Mor led his boats into a little cove some distance away, and as soon as they grounded on the sand he and his men sprang ashore. Five men were left in each boat, to guard it, and the others, nearly seven hundred in all, with Mor at their head, went to attack the village.

The village men had sprung for their bows and spears as soon as they saw Mor's ships nearing the land, and were now drawn up in front of the village, ready to defend it. The two sides rushed at each other, shouting fierce cries. A shower of arrows and stones met Mor and his men, but the tough hides of their shields kept them from being much hurt, and not many were lost. The village people, who did not have any shields, suffered very much, and many of them fell.

Their chief, a huge man as big as Mor, came out, carrying a heavy spear, and he and Mor began a terrible fight. The village chief aimed a heavy blow at Mor with his spear, but Mor caught it on his shield. When the sharp stone point of the spear cut through the shield it got caught in the wicker-work, and would not come out. Then Mor jerked his shield back and pulled the spear clear out of his enemy's hand. The village chief drew a knife, but Mor rushed at him and killed him with his copper axe.

At this the village people were discouraged, and the men from the island set up a loud shout and rushing at them, killed many of them. The rest, seeing their leader killed, ran away. Then Mor and his men went into the village and captured the women, and took great stores of grain, and wine, and furs back to the ships. After that they set the village on fire.

By this time the village people had secured help, and were coming back to renew the fight, so Mor called his men together, and guided by the light from the blazing huts of the village, they pushed their boats off the sand, sprang aboard, and rowed swiftly away. In a little while they had vanished in the darkness.

When they got back home, Mor and his men had a feast, and all the people thought him a hero. After that, he made many voyages, and so did others of the island chiefs, and the people of the mainland were afraid of them.

These rovers of the sea were no more than pirates, of course, but they did a great deal of good. Year after year they would descend on the people of the coast, burning and robbing, carrying off their women and animals and taking them back to their island home, but sometimes they could not get back, but were driven by storms to other lands, where they settled and built new homes, taking with them all that they had learned about metals, about building boats, and many other things. In this way the knowledge they had gained was spread to other peoples. Sometimes they would land in peace and trade with the people on the mainland, giving them gold and copper and tin in exchange for grain and cattle and pottery. They sailed great distances in their stout ships and not only learned the things that other races knew, but at the same time brought to these other peoples their own knowledge of metal working, and carpentry, and the building of boats. Thus, through these sea rovers, the different arts spread from tribe to tribe, and from people to people, which was what Mother Nature intended.

When man discovered metals, and how to use them, the Stone Age began to draw to a close. There was of course no exact time when the use of stone stopped, and the use of metals began, for in some parts of the world men were using metals for hundreds and even thousands of years, while others, in other countries were still using stone. When Columbus came to America, only a few hundred years ago, the Indians in North America knew nothing of tools or weapons of metal, they were still living in the Stone Age.

Another discovery which came about the same time as the use of metals was the art of making glass. Just when men began to use glass we do not of course know, but in some of the most ancient tombs, along with weapons of copper, and ornaments of gold, we find beads and other small objects made of glass.

How it came to be discovered is another thing we do not know, or by what race. It is very likely that it was made by many different peoples, at different times in the world's history. Over and over we find that some race which had gone far along the road to civilisation, would be swept away by savage tribes and its discoveries lost for many centuries. We know this, because sometimes we find, when digging in the earth, the remains of savage peoples, with thick skulls and rude weapons, and under these are the skulls and polished weapons and ornaments of a much more highly civilised race. The road which man followed in his progress toward the civilisation we have to-day did not run smoothly upward, like a path up a hill, but dipped up and down and around in many circles, always rising a little higher, however, as the ages went by.

It is thought that the sea people first discovered glass. Ordinary glass is made of lime, soda-ash and sand, three very common substances. Because sand is the thing most needed in making glass, we think it must have been discovered by a people living on the seashore. It must have been first made by accident, because man could not have set out to discover something he did not know anything about.

The most common story about the first glass is that it was made by some sailors belonging to the Phœnicians, one of the early sea-going tribes living on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is supposed that these sailors, building a fire on the seashore to cook food, may have propped their pots up on pieces of limestone, which furnished the lime, just as the beach furnished the sand, and the fire, the ash and the heat. Probably they found in the ashes of their fire a hard, greenish lump of glass. They did not know what it was, of course, but carried it away because it was clear and bright and pretty in colour, like a jewel. Wiser men, hearing their story, may have learned in this way how to mix sand, lime and soda-ash together and by heating it form glass.

The earliest things made of glass were coarse beads, and little bottles and vases. Later on, man came to make very beautiful glass vases and bowls and drinking cups, such as those found in ancient tombs in Egypt, and in the ruins at Troy, and on the Island of Cyprus. These cups and bowls and other objects are tinted the most wonderful colours, blue and green and gold, like the feathers of a peacock. It is said that the ancient Egyptians knew how to make glass that would not break, so that a vase, dropped to the floor, instead of being shivered to pieces, would be only bent out of shape. This secret, like the way the Egyptians had of hardening and tempering copper, has been lost, and the most skilful glass makers to-day could not make glass like that.

CHAPTER XXI

THE END OF THE STONE AGE

During all these long centuries, many, many thousands of years, the people from the valley where Adh and his wife first lived had been spreading far out over the surface of the earth. Many boats and canoes, carried by storms from the country of the sea people, were driven to other countries, and all around the shores of the sea new tribes were springing up. Century after century, as these tribes became larger, and game grew scarce, new bands of adventurers wandered off into the wilderness inland, and from the tribes they formed still other bands wandered away. Some crossed great lakes and seas in boats, others drifted down mighty rivers for hundreds, and even thousands, of miles, on rafts. Mountain ranges were crossed to find new hunting grounds, and new tribes were formed, which in their turn sent out other bands of adventurers. During all this time the face of the earth was changing. Great glaciers from the frozen north crept southward century after century, grinding the surface of the rocks like giant ploughs. Earthquakes and floods caused new continents to rise where before there had been only seas, or made seas, in places where there had been dry land. Mother Nature's new race of men had to fight the heat and the cold, the storms and the sea, as well as the fierce animals which were always ready to attack them, but in spite of all these things, they spread and grew, year after year, until the earth began to be covered with them.

They did wonderful things with their tools of stone. Remains of their work are found in many places, tens of thousands of years old. On the Island of Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea, there has been found an underground temple of great size, with many arched and vaulted rooms, beautifully carved, all of which were cut out of the solid rock with axes and chisels of flint. In other places wonderful temples, tombs and buildings of various sorts have been discovered, built of great cut stones, and we wonder how such huge rocks could ever have been squared and polished so beautifully with nothing but tools of stone.

Mother Nature had been away for quite a long time now, for she did not have to bother so much about her children as she had at first. In every direction she saw them following her great laws, conquering the winds, the sea, the rivers, the mountains, the plains, using the woods of the forest, the fruits and grains of the fields, the metals, the clay and the rocks to suit their needs. North and South and East and West they spread out, increasing year after year in accordance with God's great laws.

When Mother Nature came back she looked at the Sun and smiled.

"They have made a good beginning," she said.

"Is that only a beginning?" asked the Sun.

"Yes. So far they have hardly done anything at all. But they are on the right track. With every thousand years that go by they will learn a little more, and some day, far in the future, they will begin to be really civilised. That time will come when they have conquered everything else in the world, and begin to conquer themselves."

"Why is it," asked the Sun, "that some of them, like the ones on the island, are going ahead so fast, while others are still just savages?"

"It is because of the climate, and the kind of country they live in. Look at those savages down there in the hot jungle. All they have to do is stretch out their hands and pick some nice juicy fruit. There is always plenty for them to eat, and it is so warm all the time they don't need any clothes, or houses to live in, but can sleep in the trees, or in little bamboo huts. They will never learn to grow things, or to hunt animals to eat. Life is so easy for them that they will keep right on being savages for thousands of years."

"They are getting brown and black," said the Sun. "Why is that?"

"It is because they do not wear any clothes, and the hot rays you are shining down on them are turning their skins darker. Just look at those people up there in the north, where your rays are not so hot. They are getting lighter and lighter all the time, their hair is getting yellow and their eyes blue. They are stronger and quicker, too, and they know much more. In their cold country there is no food ready to be eaten all the year round. They have to fight very hard for a living, and this has made them strong and brave and cunning."

"It is very wonderful," said the Sun.

"Look at those people by the seashore," Mother Nature went on. "See what splendid fishermen and sailors they are getting to be. And those strong hunters, who live in the mountains, and those farmers, beginning to raise grain and other things for food. Each tribe is learning different things, depending on its surroundings. Soon those tribes on the plains will have great herds of buffalo, and sheep and other animals, and later on they will teach them to work, and to carry them on their backs, and pull heavy loads. They will use their milk for food, too, and the wool and hair from their backs they will weave into warm, strong cloth from which to make clothing. After a while you will see these tribes wandering thousands of miles with their flocks and herds, going north in summer and south in winter to find fresh grass for their animals. The people will live in tents, and ride horses and camels, and they will be called nomads."

"How are they going to catch these animals?" asked the Sun.

"Some they will capture while very young. For others they will make traps by digging pits in the ground and covering them over with thin rushes and grass. The animals will walk on the rushes, thinking they are on solid ground, and so fall into the pits, and be caught."

"These different peoples don't like each other," the Sun said. "They fight whenever they meet."

"Yes," Mother Nature told him, with a sigh. "The tribes that are strongest and know the most must overcome those that are weak and lazy and ignorant. It may seem to you a cruel law, but it is a wise one, or God would never have made it. He wants His people to grow stronger and wiser and better all the time, and so you can see that He has to let the ones that are wiser and stronger go ahead, or the race would not make any progress at all. It would never do to have those splendid island people destroyed by those lazy savages in the jungles. For a long time Man will have to live by the law of force. It cannot be helped. But some day, as I have already told you, he will throw this law aside, and live by the law of love. It will take a long time, Sun, but it will come. Meanwhile, watch my little people carefully and you will see many more wonderful things."