Sketches New and Old


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MAN.' Some of these seemed to be rude weapons chipped out of flint, and  
in a secret place was found some more in process of construction, with  
this untranslatable legend, on a thin, flimsy material, lying by:  
"'Jones, if you don't want to be discharged from the Musseum, make  
the next primeaveal weppons more careful--you couldn't even fool one  
of these sleepy old syentific grannys from the Coledge with the last  
ones. And mind you the animles you carved on some of the Bone  
Ornaments is a blame sight too good for any primeaveal man that was  
ever fooled.--Varnum, Manager.'  
"Back of the burial place was a mass of ashes, showing that Man always  
had a feast at a funeral--else why the ashes in such a place; and  
showing, also, that he believed in God and the immortality of the soul  
--else why these solemn ceremonies?  
"To, sum up. We believe that Man had a written language. We know that  
he indeed existed at one time, and is not a myth; also, that he was the  
companion of the cave-bear, the mastodon, and other extinct species; that  
he cooked and ate them and likewise the young of his own kind; also, that  
he bore rude weapons, and knew something of art; that he imagined he had  
a soul, and pleased himself with the fancy that it was immortal. But let  
us not laugh; there may be creatures in existence to whom we and our  
vanities and profundities may seem as ludicrous."  
END OF PART SECOND  
171  


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169 170 171 172 173

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