Read Ebook: From Monkey to Man or Society in the Tertiary Age A Story of the Missing Link Showing the First Steps in Industry Commerce Government Religion and the Arts; With an Account of the Great Expedition From Cocoanut Hill and the Wars in Alligator Swamp by Bierbower Austin Heaton H R Illustrator

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Ebook has 977 lines and 51952 words, and 20 pages

Illustrator: H. R. Heaton

FROM MONKEY TO MAN OR Society in the Tertiary Age

A Story of the Missing Link

SHOWING THE FIRST STEPS IN INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, GOVERNMENT, RELIGION AND THE ARTS

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT EXPEDITION FROM COCOANUT HILL AND THE WARS IN ALLIGATOR SWAMP

Illustrated by H. R. HEATON

CHICAGO INGERSOLL BEACON CO 1906

COPYRIGHT 1906 BY WM. H. MAPLE CHICAGO

M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY PRINTERS AND BINDERS 407-429 DEARBORN STREET CHICAGO

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.

The extraordinary interest which this book has excited has induced the publisher to issue a new and revised edition at a reduced price, believing that, as it is the first attempt at a prehistoric novel, it will have a wide reading. The subject, the characters and the period are here for the first time introduced into fiction.

The scenes are laid in the Tertiary Age when, according to the Darwinian Theory, men were emerging from the Ape, and they portray the supposed exploits of our ancestors at that stage of development. The author has aimed to exhibit the features of the time--climate, foliage, animals, etc.--as understood by Geologists and Biologists, and to be scientifically accurate, with no more variations in proportion than are usual in historic fiction.

If Evolution is the true theory of man's origin there is a long period of forgotten history, covering thousands of centuries, during which men lived and fought and learned, and this book seeks to revivify it and make it realizable. In this period nearly all the arts and industries were started, and the author suggests their crude origin in a variety of episodes. The origin of arms, building, religion and government, the first use of fire and clothing and the primitive form of many social and business problems are indicated in the course of a simple story.

In addition to its valuable scientific hints, the work is rich in practical wisdom. It is also spiced throughout with a vein of quiet humor which provokes mirth and makes it highly entertaining as well as instructive.

PAGE

FRONTISPIECE

SOSEE'S MOTHER ENCOUNTERS THE SNAKE 10

SHAMBOO'S RIDE 20

THE ROBBERS OF THE AMMI 31

"SEE BELOVED HOW THE MIGHTY FALL AT THE WORD OF SIMLEE AND THE STROKE OF SHOOZOO" 36

"I HAVE BROUGHT ONE OF THE AMMI INSTEAD" 51

KOREE AND SOSEE ENCOUNTER A MONSTER 58

THE RESCUE OF ORLEE 69

THE BATTLE IN THE SWAMP 80

THE CATASTROPHE 97

THE FIGHT WITH THE FIRE-MONSTER 102

THE GREEDY OKO 120

POUNDER'S MISHAP 129

THE BATTLE BEGINS 139

KOREE'S CHALLENGE 149

THE RETREAT OF THE LALI 161

SOSEE WARNS THE AMMI 172

THE WOOD-EATING ANIMAL IN THE CAMP OF THE AMMI 191

THE AMMI BREAKING THROUGH THE ICE 198

SOSEE'S STRATEGY 212

RETURN OF THE AMMI TO COCOANUT HILL 225

About ninety years after the fight between the Monkeys and Snakes on Cocoanut Hill, which was five hundred thousand years before our era, and near the end of the Tertiary Age, Sosee was sitting on a limb sucking a mango, when Koree came up in great consternation.

"The fat baboon, from across the swamp," he said, "has carried off Orlee while her mother was hunting berries in the bushes."

"If you love me, Koree," replied Sosee, uttering a wild scream, "you will fetch her back, and bring me the tail of the baboon before night."

Sosee, who spoke these words, was a comely girl of twelve years, one of the new race which had recently separated from the Apes, and would no longer recognize them as equals. There was a hostility between the Apes and these upstarts, and frequent incursions were made from the territory of one on that of the other.

The Apes had mostly retreated to the swamps and forests beyond, while the new race were occupying the region about Cocoanut Hill, which their ancestors of two generations before had taken, after many conflicts, from the Apes, and from which they had driven the savage beasts. Here the parents of Sosee were living, and here Sosee had grown to womanhood.

The Cocoanut Hill region was a large tract, in what is now Southern France, stretching from Alligator Swamp toward the mountains in the distance. This section was plentifully covered with fruit trees--mangos, palms, figs and limes; the under brush furnished berries and succulent herbs; the waters of the swamp, which bordered this land, abounded in fish, frogs, turtles, snakes and alligators; while great flocks of ducks, geese and other water fowl frequented it at seasons. The forests abounded in Uri, Woolly Oxen, Musk-Deer and other game. This abundance of vegetable and animal life supplied food for the Ammi, as the new race was called, and they would have lived in comfort but for the attacks of the Apes beyond the water, who, keeping an envious eye on these fruits, often came over the Swamp for food.

Shortly before the event of which we speak, some apes in one of these predatory incursions, were met by a larger number of the Ammi, when several of the former were killed, and one, a small boy, taken prisoner. The Ammi, expecting the Apes to attempt reprisals for this, kept a watch at night, while during the day they guarded their children.

Several times on the day mentioned signs of approaching Apes had been seen. Gimbo, the grandfather of Sosee, who still persisted in walking on four feet, , said he could scent the trail of the Apes, and had noticed the marks of one walking on four feet. But Gimbo was deemed a garrulous old man, somewhat unreliable, who claimed exceptional wisdom about the animals lower than men, so that little attention was given to his warning.

The mother of Orlee, however, had observed a sudden starting up of geese from the swamp; but this also raised little suspicion, as they might have been startled by a fox. Later, however, her keen sense of hearing detected successive splashings in the water, as if made by plunging alligators or turtles on the approach of an enemy. She was, accordingly, slow to leave the spot where her child was playing--a girl of three years, the sister of Sosee.

Gaining confidence, however, with the restored silence of the swamp, she took a club with which she usually warded off reptiles when hunting berries, or killed them when requiring them for food; and, armed in this way, she waded into the swamp, still keeping, however, in sight of her child.

As the berries were plentiful, she had soon eaten all she wanted, making thereof her morning meal, when she was attracted by some luscious ones farther in the swamp, which she hurried to get for the child. Having filled her hands she was next startled by a huge snake of the Boa species, which swung suddenly down from a tree, like a great vine and sought to fasten its coils around her.

Dropping the berries and uttering a wild scream, she seized the serpent, and, sinking her nails and teeth in its flesh, began a fatal struggle with it. The snake, which had fastened one coil about her leg, swung round violently with the intention of encircling her waist. Her screams startled the child, which began crying, and the two noises attracted the attention of Koree, the lover of Sosee, who was sporting in a puddle near by.

Koree started to the rescue of the woman, but, in the tangled underbrush could not find her; but, instead, he ran against a gigantic ape, which had also been startled by the cries, and, in his fright, was running about in confusion. This ape gave Koree a powerful blow with his fist, and then ran out of the swamp to where the child was playing. Seizing the child he next ran with it into the bushes and was out of sight.

Too weak, or too frightened, to follow, Koree now hurried back to give the alarm, when he encountered Sosee on the tree, as we have related. Sosee's screams and calls to Koree to rescue the child roused some men near by, who now all rushed for the swamp.

As they approached they saw the mother of the child emerging from the bushes carrying the huge snake in triumph about her neck, part of which was hanging down in long folds, pending from her arms. Never was a woman prouder over a necklace of diamonds or pearls. Her bloody face and arms added to the terror inspired by her Amazonian air, as, with a proud step, she advanced to the men and threw down her trophy.

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