The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-02-14
THE rIRsr roYsrnR-EArERs.
iLondon Telexraph.I

W0GH AuG PtHuAAkIWG man NUU80 UtN138t4 with the first oysaer in his hand, the
 probabilities are that he vas puzsled
 what to do with it; for the thing was shut.
 Instinct told hirn that there vas some thing good b eat inside the sheA Be.
 sides lie had already robbed the cookie and the mussei of their contents, and thoroughly appreciated them 60 hY some
 rude process of reasoning from analysis he felt sure that if he could only Ret the oyster open he would find something nice
 within. But he creature had closed itself 90 tight that he could not even.gee
 his nails in betwees the edges. lss size
 ore tented him putting it into his mouth Co crack ie For miles and miles there
 was only mud and sand On either side of
 him, % that he had nothing hard enough to smash it upon. In half-hearted sort
 of way he endeavored to insinuafe splin- ter of coekie-sheli to prize the valves
 open. Then he trified with the thinner edge with his teeth. At last he thought
 of his own skull, and rapped the oyster
 on it but not very hard, for it hurt him.
 He did it in contemplasive sort of way
 just as a monkey bored to death vita
 Brsza nut which it cannot hEe *, and ye:
 is 10th to throw away, sits and taps it
 on the palm of its paw, looking all about
 him with an abstracted expression of face
 So sate the aboriginal man; now and
 again he would brighten up to q renewed
 assault upon the obstinate mollusc. He
 put it down on the sand, and hurt his
 foot by stamping on it; then he took it
 and threw 1t up as nigh as he could in
 the air to see if it would smash by the
 fall then he put it in frpnt of him and apostrophized it, spoke seriously to it,
 lectured 1t, scolded it, abused it. coaxed
 it, fiattered it, said nasty things about it,
 appealed to il, threw himself on its gen.
 erosity, taunted it, ridiculed it, xneered at it, invoked it, prayed to it, blessed it, cursed it. But the oyster vas not to be
 moved either by complaint or insult, it remained as obdurate as that "pebhle- hearted cur" Launce's dog. Not a word could he get out of it there was no more expression on its face than on slice of cold pudding. It remained stolidiy shut. Then our ancestor gave way to 2 gloomy despair he threw himself down on the sand and glared with impotent desire at the exasperating shell-6sh. Bad, wicked thoughts came into his mind. He saw his aged grandsire approaching, and, eeckoning to him with a fraudful smile, 1 induced the poor old man to s;s down on the sand and then suddenly, without any warning, he smote him on the crown of the head with tae oyster. Again and 1 again the molusc descended, till at length, in frenzy of determination, he l gathered up all his force into one decisive | blow. which split his grandsire's skull, l but broke the she'll Thcreupon regard | less of the corpse beside him, the assassin !! picked out the plump oyster and swal- lowed it. He closed his eyes, while | smile of ineffAble enjoyment stole over | his features, but only for moment. The oyster passed away like beautiful dream. He sighed aud ross. It was fearful ! price to pay for the delicious morsel. | Yet other thoughts perplexed him. His relatives were not numerous, and if he | must be obliged to use up one each time | time when he ate an oyster, he could not 1 look forward to moro than a couple of score at the most. Nevertheless, he gathered bushel or so and went home, pondering over the situation. He told his dreadful secret to friend, and that very evening, as he was asleep, his friend came and cracked an oyster on his skull. | The original savage did not die, but his intellect was permanently affected. This was not the worst, however, for somehow the knowledge of the fascinating bivalve spread, and men went about with sunep- Iitious oysters concealed upon their per- sons, on the chance of meeting with some ane on whose cranium they could era k them. t was dreadful time. But it is on such foundations that nature always builds, and her superstructures are raised apon ruins.
 By and by came the Stone Age, when .he soft sediments of river and sea had hardened into rock, and men then the oysters open with fragments ,f powders. They chose a smooth erag, md, putting the shell-fsh into sings. 'lung them from a very short distance against the hard rock. This was better han using each others heads, and the results of the change were soon apparent. Man, relieved from the per- 3etual suspicion of having oysters tracked on his skull, had the leisure to yive his sthoughts to the useful ats. Be ore long they discovered the secret of 'H.oA PSAihB hthsS AubO OySsCA AutvCS3 anu III went merrily. Wise men tell us that hese keen-edged slices of flint and ob- 'idian are hatchet-heads ard Barrow reads" But this is a I.ere conjecture 1t is true, but unreliable. It $ mcre probable that they are all oyster Enives in various stages of development. This mach, at any rate, is beyond all ioubt-that primitive man ate these de- icious thing in enormous quantities. The sites of many primesal settlements lre ncw only to he traced hy the heaps # empty oyster shells, which they were, D the dirty, unsanitary way of . remote lntiqnity. in the habit of throwing out of heir dooss into the street. s0 l.
 In the ancient < kitchen -middens of ,orthezn Enroue, and mixed with more lncient lava deposits, as ia Rents Hole Cavern, are heaps of the shells, the !, 'estiges of the repasts of the cavemen. h America these relics of primeval oys- er suppexs form someti;aes mounds of 4VAraI arroG in svfArf vvhila ShA seolaA~d