3　火！火！火！

凡屬“第一”的東西，通常都是最有意思的，比如第一個寶寶、第一顆牙齒、邁出的第一步、第一次說話、第一次打屁股，等等。這本書，主要講述的就是這種屬于“第一”的事物的歷史。至于那些屬于第二、第三、第四或者第五位的東西，你們可以日后再去閱讀和學習。

原始人起初并不知道火是什么東西。他們沒有火柴，也沒有其他什么辦法點燈或者生火。他們晚上沒有燈火。他們沒有火來給自己取暖。他們沒有火來燒飯。但在某個地點、在某個時間，雖說我們并不確切地知道究竟是什么時候、用的是什么方式，他們還是發現了生火和用火的辦法。

假如你們合攏雙掌，迅速摩擦，雙手就會暖和起來。試一試吧。假如摩擦得更快，你們的雙手便會變熱。同樣，如果將兩根棍子挨在一起迅速摩擦的話，它們也會變暖。如果將兩根棍子摩擦得更快的話，它們就會變熱。倘若你們將兩根棍子摩擦得非常、非常、非常快，它們就會變得很熱；而倘若摩擦的時間夠久、速度夠快的話，它們最終便會著火。美洲的印第安人和童子軍就是這樣，用一根棍子對著另一根棍子旋轉來生火的。

這就是人類最初的發明之一，并且這一發明對當時的人類意義極其重大，就像發明電燈對我們這個時代意義非凡那樣。

People of the Stone Age had hair and beards that were never cut,because they had nothing to cut them with,even had they wanted them short,which they probably didn't.

They had no clothes made of cloth,for they had no cloth and nothing with which to cut and sew cloth if they had.

They had no saws to cut boards,no hammer or nails to fasten them together to make houses or furniture.

They had no forks nor spoons；no pots nor pans；no buckets nor shovels,no needles nor pins.

The people of the Stone Age had never seen or heard of such a thing as iron or steel or tin or brass or anything made of these metals. For thousands and thousands of years primitive people got along without any of the things that are made of metal.

Then one day a Stone Age man found out something by accident；a discovery we call it.

He was making a fire；and a fire,which is to us such a common,everyday thing,was still to him very wonderful.Round his fire he placed some rocks to make a sort of campfire stove.Now,it happened that this particular rock was not ordinary rock but what we now call“ore”，

石器時代的人類，頭發和胡須從來都是不剃的；因為即便是想要剃短一點兒，他們也沒有理發工具，更何況他們很可能也并不想將頭發和胡須剃短呢。

他們沒有用布料制成的衣物，因為他們根本就沒有布料；而就算有了布料，他們也沒有裁剪和縫紉布料的工具啊。

他們沒有鋸子來鋸開木板，沒有錘子或釘子將木板釘合在一起來建造房屋或者制作家具。

他們沒有叉子和湯匙之類的餐具，沒有壺、鍋等炊具，沒有水桶、鏟子，也沒有針線或者別針這樣的東西。

石器時代的人類，根本就沒有見過或者聽說過鐵、鋼、錫、黃銅之類的東西，也沒有見過或聽說過由這些金屬制成的物品。幾千年里，原始人一直都過著沒有任何金屬制品的生活。

接下來，有一天，一名石器時代的男子無意中找到了某種東西；我們將這種過程稱之為“發現”。

當時，這名男子正在生火；對于我們來說，火已經是一種司空見慣、每天都會見到的東西，但對他來說，卻仍然顯得非常神奇。他在火堆周圍堆了一些石頭，想做成一個有點兒像是營火那樣的爐灶。注意，他所用的那種石頭，恰巧并不是普通

for it had copper in it. The heat of the fire melted some of the copper out of the rock,and it ran out on the ground.

What were those bright,shining drops?

He examined them.

How pretty they were！

He heated some more of the same rock and got some more copper.

Thus was the first metal discovered.

At first people used the copper for beads and ornaments,for it was so bright and shiny. But they soon found out that copper could be pounded into sharp blades and points,which were much better than the stone knives and arrow-heads they had used before.

Notice that it was not iron they discovered first；it was copper.

We think people next discovered tin in somewhat the same way. Then,after that,they found out that tin when mixed with copper made a still harder and better metal than either alone.This metal,made of tin and copper together,we now call bronze；and for two or three thousand years people made their tools and weapons out of bronze.We call the time when men used bronze tools,and bronze weapons for hunting and fighting the Bronze Age.

At last somebody discovered iron,and soon people saw that iron was better for most useful things than either copper or bronze. The Iron Age lasted three thousand years.

People who lived in the Bronze and Iron Ages were able,after the discovery of metal，

的石頭，而是我們所稱的“礦石”，因為其中含有銅。火堆的溫度很高，讓石頭中的一部分銅熔化出來，流淌到了地上。

那些亮晶晶、一滴一滴地閃爍著光澤的東西是什么呢？

他仔細地研究了一會兒。

它們看上去是多么的漂亮啊！

他又多燒了一些這樣的石頭，得到了更多的熔化的銅。

這樣，人類就發現了第一種金屬。

起初，人們用銅來做小珠子和裝飾品，因為銅亮晶晶的，閃閃發光。不過，他們很快就發現，銅可以被錘打成鋒利的刀片和箭頭，比他們原來所用的石刀和石制箭頭要好得多呢。

但我們要注意，他們首先發現的不是鐵，而是銅。

我們認為，人類接著又用差不多相同的方式發現了錫。此后他們又發現，將錫和銅混合起來制成的金屬，要比單用錫或者單用銅制成的金屬更硬，質量也更好。由錫和銅混合而成的這種金屬，我們如今稱之為“青銅”；在兩三千年的時間里，人類都是用這種青銅來制造工具和武器的。因此，我們將人類用青銅工具和青銅武器來狩獵、打仗的這一時期，稱為青銅器時代。

最后，又有人發現了鐵；而人們很快就發現，鐵比銅或青銅都要更適合于制造大部分用具。這個鐵器時代，持續了三千年的時間。

發現金屬之后，生活在青銅器時代和鐵器時代里的人類，便能夠做到以前只用

to do many things they could not possibly have done before with only stone.

You may have heard in your mythology or fairy tales of a Golden Age also,but by this is meant something quite different. The Golden Age means a time when everything was beautiful and lovely and everybody wise and good.There have been times in the world's history which have been called the Golden Age for this reason.

But I am afraid there never has been really a Golden Age—only in fairy tales.

石器時不可能做到的許多事情了。

你們可能在神話故事中還聽到過“黃金時代”的說法；但這種說法的意思卻與字面完全不同。所謂的“黃金時代”，是指一切事物都非常美好、可愛，所有的人都很聰明且心地善良的一個時期。正是出于這個原因，世界歷史上才有多個被稱為“黃金時代”的時期。

可我卻覺得，歷史上恐怕并沒有什么真正的“黃金時代”，只是神話故事里才有哩。