"Erect, in a row, were a sort of rigid great figures which struck us instantly as belonging to the long extinct species of reptile called MAN, described in our ancient records.This was a peculiarly gratifying discovery, because of late times it has become fashionable to regard this creature as a myth and a superstition, a work of the inventive imaginations of our remote ancestors.But here, indeed, was Man, perfectly preserved, in a fossil state.And this was his burial place, as already ascertained by the inscription.And now it began to be suspected that the caverns we had been inspecting had been his ancient haunts in that old time that he roamed the earth--for upon the breast of each of these tall fossils was an inscription in the character heretofore noticed.One read, 'CAPTAIN KIDD THE PIRATE'; another, 'QUEEN VICTORIA';another, 'ABE LINCOLN'; another, 'GEORGE WASHINGTON,' etc.
"With feverish interest we called for our ancient scientific records to discover if perchance the description of Man there set down would tally with the fossils before us.Professor Woodlouse read it aloud in its quaint and musty phraseology, to wit:
"'In ye time of our fathers Man still walked ye earth, as by tradition we know.It was a creature of exceeding great size, being compassed about with a loose skin, sometimes of one color, sometimes of many, the which it was able to cast at will; which being done, the hind legs were discovered to be armed with short claws like to a mole's but broader, and ye forelegs with fingers of a curious slimness and a length much more prodigious than a frog's, armed also with broad talons for scratching in ye earth for its food.It had a sort of feathers upon its head such as hath a rat, but longer, and a beak suitable for seeking its food by ye smell thereof.When it was stirred with happiness, it leaked water from its eyes; and when it suffered or was sad, it manifested it with a horrible hellish cackling clamor that was exceeding dreadful to hear and made one long that it might rend itself and perish, and so end its troubles.Two Mans being together, they uttered noises at each other like this: "Haw-haw-haw--dam good, dam good," together with other sounds of more or less likeness to these, wherefore ye poets conceived that they talked, but poets be always ready to catch at any frantic folly, God he knows.Sometimes this creature goeth about with a long stick ye which it putteth to its face and bloweth fire and smoke through ye same with a sudden and most damnable bruit and noise that doth fright its prey to death, and so seizeth it in its talons and walketh away to its habitat, consumed with a most fierce and devilish joy.'
"Now was the description set forth by our ancestors wonderfully indorsed and confirmed by the fossils before us, as shall be seen.The specimen marked 'Captain Kidd' was examined in detail.Upon its head and part of its face was a sort of fur like that upon the tail of a horse.With great labor its loose skin was removed, whereupon its body was discovered to be of a polished white texture, thoroughly petrified.The straw it had eaten, so many ages gone by, was still in its body, undigested--and even in its legs.
"Surrounding these fossils were objects that would mean nothing to the ignorant, but to the eye of science they were a revelation.They laid bare the secrets of dead ages.These musty Memorials told us when Man lived, and what were his habits.For here, side by side with Man, were the evidences that he had lived in the earliest ages of creation, the companion of the other low orders of life that belonged to that forgotten time.Here was the fossil nautilus that sailed the primeval seas; here was the skeleton of the mastodon, the ichthyosaurus, the cave-bear, the prodigious elk.Here, also, were the charred bones of some of these extinct animals and of the young of Man's own species, split lengthwise, showing that to his taste the marrow was a toothsome luxury.It was plain that Man had robbed those bones of their contents, since no tooth-mark of any beast was upon them albeit the Tumble-Bug intruded the remark that 'no beast could mark a bone with its teeth, anyway.' Here were proofs that Man had vague, groveling notions of art; for this fact was conveyed by certain things marked with the untranslatable words, 'FLINTHATCHETS, KNIVES, ARROW--HEADS, AND BONE ORNAMENTS OF PRIMEVAL 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 soil --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
SOME LEARNED FABLES FOR GOOD OLD BOYS AND GIRLSPART THIRD
Near the margin of the great river the scientists presently found a huge, shapely stone, with this inscription: