The First Use of Gold.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 222, 1 October 1887, Page 2

The First Use of Gold.

Tiik most interesting question about gold is, how did it came to be the root of all e\ il ? What has made this particular yellow metal, above all stones and minerals, the standard of value, the medium of exchange, and the object of all men's ardent devotion ? In order to solve that curious problem, we must look at the origin of its use among mankind, and the pradual evolution of its employment as money. Primitive man, hunting about in the rivers for fish and in the forests for venison, had other wants, philosophers tell us, than those of mere vulgar food and drink ; the noblest thirst for trinkets, the aesthetic desire for personal decoiation, which now gives rise to fashion plates, and drapers' shops, and jewellers' windows, was already vaguely alive within his swelling bosom. He adorned himself even then with necklets of bears' teeth and shining fossils and girdles of shell and belts of wampum, all of which things are found, in company with all white chalk and red ochre that made primitive women beautiful for ever, among the concreted floors of the Dordogne caravans. Primitive woman was not fair to outer view, as other maidens be ; on the contrary, she was no doubt distinctly dark, not to say dusky— somewhere about the precise complexion of the modern negress, lier nearest surviving representative. But already bhe knew how to keep in the fashion ; she loved gold, as Walpole long afterward romarked of her remote descendants, and, when she could get them, diamonds also. Ages before any other metals were smelted or manufactured into useful implements, gold and silver attracted the attention of our savage ancestors, and probably still more of savage ancestresses. There was every reason why this should be so. They are generally found in the native state, and they have glitter and brilliancy and beauty of colour ; they are soft and workable and easily pierced j they can be readily strung in ingots as beads for necklets, and at a somewhat higher grade of culture they can be hammered with ease into rude ornaments. Hence, it is not surprising that from a very early age primitive man should have prized nuggets of gold and ingots of silver • for personal trinkets, just as he prized the shell and the pebbles, tho garnet and carnelians,, the jade and crystal, the ivory ftnd feathers, from which he manufactured his rude ornaments.