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OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS

我们最早的祖宗

WE know very little about the first “true” men. We have never seen their pictures. In the deepest layer of clay of an ancient soil we have sometimes found pieces of their bones. These lay buried amidst the broken skeletons of other animals that have long since disappeared from the face of the earth. Anthropologists (learned scientists who devote their lives to the study of man as a member of the animal kingdom) have taken these bones and they have been able to reconstruct our earliest ancestors with a fair degree of accuracy.

The great-great-grandfather of the human race was a very ugly and unattractive mammal. He was quite small, much smaller than the people of today. The heat of the sun and the biting wind of the cold winter had coloured his skin a dark brown. His head and most of his body, his arms and legs too, were covered with long, coarse hair. He had very thin but strong fingers which made his hands look like those of a monkey. His forehead was low and his jaw was like the jaw of a wild animal which uses its teeth both as fork and knife. He wore no clothes. He had seen no fire except the flames of the rumbling volcanoes which filled the earth with their smoke and their lava.

He lived in the damp blackness of vast forests, as the pygmies of Africa do to this very day. When he felt the pangs of hunger he ate raw leaves and the roots of plants or he took the eggs away from an angry bird and fed them to his own young. Once in a while, after a long and patient chase, he would catch a sparrow or a small wild dog or perhaps a rabbit. These he would eat raw for he had never discovered that food tasted better when it was cooked.

During the hours of day, this primitive human being prowled about looking for things to eat.

When night descended upon hidandtheearth,hehishiswifechildren in a hollow tree or behind some heavy boulders, for he was surroundedallsidesbferociousonyanimals and when it was these darkanimals began to prowl about, lookingsomethingforfortoeat young, andtheirtheirmatesownand they liked the taste o humanf you beings.worldwhereItwasa eat or be eaten, an dlifeeithermustwas very unhappy because it was fullandoffearmisery.

In summer, man was exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, and during the winter his children would freeze to death in his arms. When such a creature hurt itself, (and hunting animals are forever breaking their bones or spraining their ankles)

he had no one to take care of him and he must die a horrible death.

Like many of the animals who fill the Zoo with their strange noises, early man liked to jabber. That is to say, he endlessly repeated the same unintelligible gibberish because it pleased him to hear the sound of his voice. In due time he learned that he could use this guttural noise to warn his fellow beings whenever danger threatened and he gave certain little shrieks which came to mean “there is a tiger!” or “here come five elephants.” Then the others grunted something back at him and their growl meant, “I see them,” or “let us run away and hide.” And this was probably the origin of all language.

But, as I have said before, of these beginnings we know so very little. Early man had no tools and he built himself no houses. He lived and died and left no trace of his existence except a few collar-bones and a few pieces of his skull. These tell us that many thousands of years ago the world was inhabited by certain mammals who were quite different from all the other animal—who had probably developed from another unknown ape-like animal which had learned to walk on its hind-legs and use its fore-paws as hands—and who were most probably connected with the creatures who happen to be our own immediate ancestors.

It is little enough we know and the rest is darkness.

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我们关于原始的“真”人知道的很少。我们从不曾见过他们的图像。有时我们在最深的地层里，寻出几片他们的枯骨来。这些枯骨大概都混杂在早已绝种的动物的碎骨中。人类学者（那些有学问的科学家把人当作动物界中的分子，去作终身的研究）居然将它们极精细的构成我们最早的祖宗。

人类最早的祖宗是一种寒伧，不讨人喜欢的哺乳动物。他的体格很小，比较现在的人小得多。他的皮肤因为风吹日曝，染成棕褐色。他的头部，身体的大部分，以及两腿两臂都长满了粗长的毛发。他有细而有力的手指，使他的手颇像猴子的。他的前额是低的，他的颚像那些用牙齿代刀叉的野兽的颚。他不穿衣服。除去火山的火焰，他没有见过火。

他同现在非洲的矮人一样，住在潮湿黑暗的森林里。他饿了，就以树叶和树根来充饥，或从一只发怒的鸟身旁抢蛋来喂他自己的小孩。有时他耐着性子追逐许久，也会猎得只把麻雀和野狗或野兔。这些他都拿来生吃。因为他还不知熟食会比生食的味美。

这种原始人白天专是出来寻食吃。

夜来了，便把他的家小藏在树洞里或一块大石的背后；因为他的周围尽是凶猛的喜欢吃人肉的野兽，天一黑，这些野兽都要出来劫取食物给它们的老伴和儿女。这是一个你不吃人便被人吃的世界，生命很苦，充满着恐怖和艰难。

在夏天，大人们须受烈日的熏炙；在冬天，小孩们又得冻死在他的怀抱里。那时候的人须受如此的折磨（又有野兽时常会来咬断他的骨，扭伤他的踝）而没有一个人来保护他，焉得不死于非命呢？

原始的人像动物园内那些做无数怪声的动物一样，嘴里爱哆。他永远反复调弄那个不能了解的声音，因为他喜欢听自己的声音。在相当的时期内，他知道用喉音警告他的将要遇险的同伴们了，他做某种小小的叫声，表示“老虎来了！”或“来了五只大象。”于是他的同伴们回答他一个叫声，表示“我们看见了。”或是“我们逃罢，藏起来罢。”这种叫声，大概就是各种言语的起源。

但是，我在前面已经声明过，关于这些起源我们知道的很少。原始人没有器具，不盖房子。他在世一生，除去几根锁骨与头盖骨之外，并未遗留别的关于他生存的痕迹。这些枯骨告诉我们在许多万年之前，这世界曾有一种与别的动物完全不同的哺乳动物生存过，——他们大概是从一种为我们不知道的，能用后足走，前足拿东西的，类似猴子的动物变成——这一种大概与直接做我们祖宗的动物有关系。

我们所知道的极有限，其余的还是漆黑的一团。 Z00YtDO7/BnfvF3bv2IYsRZfEsqqOYtGyN3AKsfvY3GXFzbQoJTm+YdsFPWeVAaN