Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/466

 CHAPTER XIII

The Probability is that the Human Race for a long period in the early history of mankind lived upon roots, fruits, raw fish, shell-fish, birds' eggs, small reptiles, and insects. When man acquired the art of fashioning weapons from the flints which he wrought into arrow-heads, spear-points, and axes, he was enabled to chase and slay the animals around him, and thus obtain raw meat. A survival of this custom is seen in the name of the Eskimo, from the appellation, or "raw-flesh-eaters," given to them by the native tribes of New England, and retained in the French form of the word. Bows and arrows have been found among the natives of all climates and latitudes, but their use indicates an advancement in civilization reached only during many centuries. The early period of man's existence is divided into four epochs or ages, not implying, however, that these epochs were simultaneously reached by all the inhabitants of the globe in their progress towards civilization, for there are still races in their stone age. The first epoch is the Paleolithic, or old stone age, when the implements fashioned by man were sharp chipped flints. To this succeeded the Neolithic, or new stone age, characterized by polished stone implements, and the domestication of animals. Next followed the Bronze age, with its weapons and articles of that metal, and lastly the Iron age, with its gradual development and progress in the arts and manufactures. The successive stages through which man has advanced to civilization may also be classified in three divisions: Savage, Barbarous, and Civilized. The first is represented by the savage of the South American forests, who lives on wild plants and animals; the second by the African, who tills the ground and domesticates animals for his use; the third by the civilized European, associated with all that the word civilization denotes, of moral, intellectual, social, and material development.

The duration of the Paleolithic Age cannot be determined. Unpolished stone implements, bone, and horn have been found associated with the bones and teeth of the mammoth, or woolly-haired elephant, 404