Читать книгу From Monkey to Man, or, Society in the Tertiary Age онлайн

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But, though Shoozoo, who passed in one generation for a liar, and in the next for a God, left a questionable heritage to the Apes, they still retained out of his age something of substantial value. The use of implements was invented, and the arts of making and using them were handed down to Monkeys and Men.

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After the savage beasts had been driven from the region of Cocoanut Hill, and the Apes had come down from the trees, and were habitually on the ground, they found themselves encountering new dangers. The snakes were troublesome. The snakes had, indeed, been troublesome before, but it was mainly when they climbed the trees for birds’ nests or fruits. The Apes did not then encounter them so often, and amid the greater dangers from the four-footed beasts, did not find it necessary to make war against them. But now, when the Apes walked more on the ground, they met the snakes oftener, and under more disagreeable circumstances. The snakes, moreover, had greatly multiplied since the destruction of the savage beasts, many of which devoured, or fought with, snakes, or else lived on the same food. With the departure, accordingly, of the enemies of the serpents, and their increase of sustenance, the serpents became powerful, and at last threatened to drive the Apes from the region. It became dangerous to walk abroad, especially near the Swamp. At night they disturbed the slumbers of the Apes. Shoozoo declared that he once found two in his ear when he awoke, and that he had swallowed some big ones during the night, although Shamboo declared contemptuously that he only had worms.