THE NEW WOMAN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1675, 15 February 1913, Page 11

THE NEW WOMAN.

200,000 TEARS AGO, '•" Through tho dark forests of our land \there roamed, many hundreds of thousands of years ago, a strange, hairy apelike oreature, a 'female member of a curirace, from whom all other animals shrank. She was a new type,'possessing n new cunning, and :an amazing power over tho other denizens of the forest, for she could do what they could not—Use implements, and clothe herself in skinsi She was the ancestress of tho English race of to-day, and her' skull, which was discovered in Sussex, was recently exhibited beforo the Geological Society. . Now scientists are endeavouring to formulate Borao idea of her appearance, and habits. What was sho like, and how did sho livof . This ancestress of the human race in England.had some resemblance to a chimpanzee, walking- with a shuffling gait. i Her body was probably covered with hair. She could not, speak, but as sho ambled . along she. uttered strange noises.. r .. . When she was hungry sho dug roots and ' vegetables from the ground aw) devoured them just as they were. Living among '• the rocks, the only protection she possess-, ed from tho cold was a skin, rudely fashioned In tho form of a cloak. When she j. hunted sho used no dogs to help her I ' track her prey; she and her companions followed their quarry, and killed it with a 6tone spear or hatchet. This was tho picture of the possessor of the Sussex - skull, drawn by Dr. Smith Woodward, of the South Kensington Natural History Museum, in conversation with an "Express" representative. "Sho lived?' said Dr. Smith Woodward, "in cither tho pleistocene or the early pliocene period. Ifshe lived in the former, most of tho existing topography of this part of Europe was already formed, the only difference, being that tho bed of the North Sea and English Channel I was dry land, through which rivers flowed; If sho lived in the pliocene period, her ago goes back so far that scarcely any of tho existing topographical features were then evident. : ;-•'.',, 'Tho skull is the oldest ever- yet seen, and belongs to the -lowest type of- human ,'■■':-, being yet foun-1.. In most respects she hadthe appearance of a; chimpanzee, yet certain features in her brain which characterise the human race were just beginning, to show... ;.-'.. - "According? to Professor Elliot Smith,' that part of the brain directly connected -. .. . ' '■; . . :.'. - I

with tho faculty of speech was' only just beginning to bo prominent, and jit is ouri : oils that the bTain should' prepare for this faculty before !the organs that are to exercise -it ate ready.' ■ ' ■•' i "Another curious point U that, although it has been shown, judging from tho discoveries, that : this 'croatui'o usnd tools<ond implements, the monkey raoi have not given any proof that'tliey have the intelligence to'.do: so. ".Recently an orang-outang 1 escaped at the Zoo, and I am told that when beaten with a stick it managed to snatch it away; but it simply placed the stick, out of (reach of'the keepers, and made no attempt to retaliate on them. . '"The brain of. our crcaturo i was not quite-twice as large as .that of an ape, but .was .as large as that of the lowest type of Australian aboriginal or the Tasmaniaas.-:-Tho latter are now extinct. . ' '■•■ -'

The brain of theso savages corresponds to.that of the'eartiest known cave men,' who came thousands of years after the owner of tho-skull. .

'The cave men < were different from the ordinary man in one or two respects. The slightly bent thigh : bone suggests that 'they did not walk *so upright as ourselves. They'had longer arms, tow-, more like thoso of an ape. "if-our creature belongs to a still earlier race, she was certainly more apeliko in gait, and if tho climato was the same bb it,is now, it is possiblo that tho body was covered with hair.

"The thickness of tho skull suggests outdoor life, and tho teeth are ground down In a way that human teeth are not usually ground; thoy indicate a root and vegetable-diet, mixed with dust and «and, accidentally introduced. The roots would be oaten just* as,'-they 1 , were: taken from the soil, without washing or cooking.. This race probably had no knowledge of fire. ■-.■'.- "The stone implements found by the skull were rude in design, and were employed in preparing skins, also in cutting wood. . "It is pretty certain that this was a race of wandoring hunters. They had no domestio animals,' for no bones of any have been found. "They" sheltered behind rooks, and, without having the power to articulate as we havo, could doubtless call to one another and make one another understand with strango noiso3, just na monkeys do. "She was not the missing link; she was a missing link botween (he monkeys and ourselves." • Expert opinions differ as to ths date when tho pliocene period becamo tho pleistocene. It may bo takon that tho sknll of tho Sussex "woman" is roughly about 200,000 years old.

don, was performed last month!at the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt for the first time in France. The audience was a very brilliant one, and the lavish manner in which the play was staged won unstinted admiration. ■■••.•'■ But, notwithstanding the gorgeous staging, it may bo doubted whether "Kismet" will repeal its triumph in London. Despite the splendid acting of M. Guitry as Hadji, the beggar,' the audience found the play somewhat monotonous and childish towards the end.