Shame of Man by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online Page A

himself to the side, but the bull was not pursuing him. It walked on to rejoin its herd, having forgotten the three of them.
    Hu looked for Ss, to make sure she was safe. But she was gone. She had gotten away while the three of them distracted the bull, and now was back with the enemy band. She had shown no appreciation for their help, though they might have saved her life.
    Hu, Bl, and Jo walked back to their own band. Vk and It were standing guard, protecting the group while its dominant males were occupied. The women and children were staring at them. Then Hu realized what they had done: they had attacked and driven off a monster beast, out in the open. They had fought, using their sticks, and won. Just as they had fought and beaten the dominant male, acting together. It was a good feeling.
Indeed, this desperate band of chimps had taken the first step, perhaps literally, toward becoming human. They had used the chimp abilities of standing briefly erect, using crude tools, and coordinating with others of their kind to defend themselves against a menace. Unable to flee or hide, they had stood like men and fought. These were keys to survival on the treeless plain, where they could not otherwise oppose creatures who would attack them or prey upon them. At first such activities were haphazard, but they became routine with repetition. It was necessary to stand erect in order to use weapons effectively, and they had to use weapons because their own teeth and claws could not compare to those of more specialized animals. They stood to fight — and later to move, because it was hard to carry weapons when moving four-footed. Thus the bountiful but exposed garden was the crucible that forged early mankind.
    We shall call it the Garden of Eden.

CHAPTER 3
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    RIFT
Four million years ago the global climate had become warmer and wetter. The forests of central Africa were expanding again — but so were the lakes. The Nile River, perhaps occasionally blocked by lava flows to the north, backed up, and once-tiny Lake Victoria expanded, and the marshy region around it spread. The creatures who had lived in the Garden retreated as the climate changed and their habitat was squeezed. The Flood was not sudden, and neither developed nor retreated in forty days; in fact it was several million years before Lake Victoria achieved its present size. But its effect was nonetheless decisive: mankind had to move on, periodically. This was probably not the Biblical flood, but it is tempting to credit it as the first of a series of water movements that helped define the species. The plain and Garden had shaped mankind considerably, but water was destined to reshape him, in due course.
    Mankind's life-style had changed somewhat since he came to the Garden. At first men had to stand to defend themselves by wielding clubs with their hands. They had to keep their clubs with them, because if a lion or other predator came there was not necessarily time to hurry home for weapons. Thus it became easier simply to stay on two feet, and to develop the odd art of striding. In the course of two million years mutation and natural selection fashioned a creature who balanced habitually on his hind feet. Indeed, men grew proficient at this, and learned to extend their range so that they could stride for long distances without putting down their weapons or loads. This led to a crude but effective technique for hunting: They simply cut a wildebeest or other prey creature out of the herd and strode after it until it dropped from fatigue. Then they clubbed it to death. No science, no special skills, just endurance and single-minded pursuit. Thus mankind's legs grew big and strong, with distinctive buttocks, but not his brain. He was Australopithecus, or the Southern Ape, and . he resembled a furry chimp with long legs and short arms. His hands had become adapted to holding sticks rather than climbing trees, and he no longer knuckle walked.
    But with the expansion of the