P711:1, 63:0.1 Earth was registered as an inhabited world when
the first two human beings -- the twins -- were eleven years old, and before
they had become the parents of the first-born of the second generation of actual
human beings. And the message from Salvington, on this occasion of formal
planetary recognition, closed with these words:
P711:2, 63:0.2 " Man-mind has appeared and these parents
of the new race shall be called Andon and
Eva. And we pray that these creatures may speedily be endowed with the
personal indwelling of the gift of the spirit of the Universal Father."
P711:3, 63:0.3 Andon is the Nebadon name which signifies
"the first Fatherlike creature to exhibit human perfection. Eva signifies
"loved by mother." Andon and Eva never knew these names until they
were bestowed upon them at the time of fusion with their Thought Adjusters.
Throughout their mortal sojourn on Earth they called each other Andon and Eva.
They gave themselves these names, and the meanings are significant of
their mutual regard and affection.
P711:4, 63:1.1 In many respects, Andon and Eva were the most
remarkable pair of human beings that have ever lived on the face of the earth.
This wonderful pair, the actual parents of all mankind, was in every way
superior to many of their immediate descendants, and they were radically
different from all of their ancestors, both immediate and remote.
P711:5, 63:1.2 The parents of this first human couple were
apparently little different from the average of their tribe, though they were
among its more intelligent members, that group which first learned to throw
stones and to use clubs in fighting. They also made use of sharp spicules of
stone, flint, and bone.
P711:6, 63:1.3 While still living with his parents, Andon had
fastened a sharp piece of flint on the end of a club, using animal tendons for
this purpose, and on no less than a dozen occasions he made good use of such a
weapon in saving both his own life and that of his equally adventurous and
inquisitive sister, who unfailingly accompanied him on all of his tours of
exploration.
P711:7, 63:1.4 The decision of Andon and Eva to flee from the
Primates tribes implies a quality of mind far above the baser intelligence which
characterized so many of their later descendants who stooped to mate with their
retarded cousins of the simian tribes. But their vague feeling of being
something more than mere animals was due to the possession of personality and
was augmented by the indwelling presence of the Thought Adjusters.
P712:1, 63:2.1 After Andon and Eva had decided to flee
northward, they succumbed to their fears for a time, especially the fear of
displeasing their father and immediate family. They envisaged being set upon by
hostile relatives and thus recognized the possibility of meeting death at the
hands of their already jealous tribesmen. As youngsters, the twins had spent
most of their time in each other's company and for this reason had never been
overly popular with their animal cousins of the Primates tribe. Nor had they
improved their standing in the tribe by building a separate, and a very
superior, tree home.
P712:2, 63:2.2 And it was in this new home among the treetops,
one night after they had been awakened by a violent storm, and as they held each
other in fearful and fond embrace, that they finally and fully made up their
minds to flee from the tribal habitat and the home treetops.
P712:3, 63:2.3 They had already prepared a crude treetop
retreat some half-day's journey to the north. This was their secret and safe
hiding place for the first day away from the home forests. Notwithstanding that
the twins shared the Primates' deathly fear of being on the ground at nighttime,
they sallied forth shortly before nightfall on their northern trek. While it
required unusual courage for them to undertake this night journey, even with a
full moon, they correctly concluded that they were less likely to be missed and
pursued by their tribesmen and relatives. And they safely made their previously
prepared rendezvous shortly after midnight.
P712:4, 63:2.4 On their northward journey they discovered an
exposed flint deposit and, finding many stones suitably shaped for various uses,
gathered up a supply for the future. In attempting to chip these flints so that
they would be better adapted for certain purposes, Adam discovered their
sparking quality and conceived the idea of building fire. But the notion did not
take firm hold of him at the time as the climate was still salubrious and there
was little need of fire.
P712:5, 63:2.5 But the autumn sun was getting lower in the sky,
and as they journeyed northward, the nights grew cooler and cooler. Already they
had been forced to make use of animal skins for warmth. Before they had been
away from home one moon, Andon signified to his mate that he thought he could
make fire with the flint. They tried for two months to utilize the flint spark
for kindling a fire but only met with failure. Each day this couple would strike
the flints and endeavor to ignite the wood. Finally, one evening about the time
of the setting of the sun, the secret of the technique was unraveled when it
occurred to Eva to climb a near-by tree to secure an abandoned bird's nest. The
nest was dry and highly inflammable and consequently flared right up into a full
blaze the moment the spark fell upon it. They were so surprised and startled at
their success that they almost lost the fire, but they saved it by the addition
of suitable fuel, and then began the first search for firewood by the parents of
all mankind.
P712:6, 63:2.6 This was one of the most joyous moments in their
short but eventful lives. All night long they sat up watching their fire burn,
vaguely realizing that they had made a discovery which would make it possible
for them to defy climate and thus forever to be independent of their animal
relatives of the southern lands. After three days' rest and enjoyment of the
fire, they journeyed on.
P712:7, 63:2.7 The Primates ancestors of Andon had often
replenished fire which had been kindled by lightning, but never before had the
creatures of earth possessed a method of starting fire at will. But it was a
long time before the twins learned that dry moss and other materials would
kindle fire just as well as birds' nests.
P713:1, 63:3.1 It was almost two years from the night of the
twins' departure from home before their first child was born. They named him
Sontad; and Sontad was the first creature to be born on Earth who was wrapped in
protective coverings at the time of birth. The human race had begun, and with
this new evolution there appeared the instinct properly to care for the
increasingly enfeebled infants which would characterize the progressive
development of mind of the intellectual order as contrasted with the more purely
animal type.
P713:2, 63:3.2 Andon and Eva had nineteen children in all, and
they lived to enjoy the association of almost half a hundred grandchildren and
half a dozen great-grandchildren. The family was domiciled in four adjoining
rock shelters, or semi-caves, three of which were interconnected by hallways
that had been excavated in the soft limestone with flint tools devised by
Andon's children.
P713:3, 63:3.3 These early Andonites evinced a very marked
clannish spirit; they hunted in groups and never strayed very far from the
homesite. They seemed to realize that they were an isolated and unique group of
living beings and should therefore avoid becoming separated. This feeling of
intimate kinship was undoubtedly due to the enhanced mind ministry of the
adjutant spirits.
P713:4, 63:3.4 Andon and Eva labored incessantly for the
nurture and uplift of the clan. They lived to the age of forty-two, when both
were killed at the time of an earthquake by the falling of an overhanging rock.
Five of their children and eleven grandchildren perished with them, and almost a
score of their descendants suffered serious injuries.
P713:5, 63:3.5 Upon the death of his parents, Sontad, despite a
seriously injured foot, immediately assumed the leadership of the clan and was
ably assisted by his wife, his eldest sister. Their first task was to roll up
stones to effectively entomb their dead parents, brothers, sisters, and
children. Undue significance should not attach to this act of burial. Their
ideas of survival after death were very vague and indefinite, being largely
derived from their fantastic and variegated dream life.
P713:6, 63:3.6 This family of Andon and Eva held together until the twentieth generation, when combined food competition and social friction brought about the beginning of dispersion.
P713:7, 63:4.1 Primitive man -- the Andonites -- had black eyes
and a swarthy complexion, something of a cross between yellow and red. Melanin
is a coloring substance that is found in the skins of all human beings. It is
the original Andonic skin pigment. In general appearance and skin color these
early Andonites more nearly resembled the present-day Eskimo than any other type
of living human beings. They were the first creatures to use the skins of
animals as a protection against cold; they had little more hair on their bodies
than present-day humans.
P713:8, 63:4.2 The tribal life of the animal ancestors of these
early men had foreshadowed the beginnings of numerous social conventions, and
with the expanding emotions and augmented brain powers of these beings, there
was an immediate development in social organization and a new division of clan
labor. They were exceedingly imitative, but the play instinct was only slightly
developed, and the sense of humor was almost entirely absent. Primitive man
smiled occasionally, but he never indulged in hearty laughter.
These early human beings were not so sensitive to pain or so reactive to
unpleasant situations as were many of the later evolving mortals. Childbirth was
not a painful or distressing ordeal to Eva and her immediate progeny.
P714:1, 63:4.3 They were a wonderful tribe. The males would
fight heroically for the safety of their mates and their offspring; the females
were affectionately devoted to their children. But their patriotism was wholly
limited to the immediate clan. They were very loyal to their families; they
would die without question in defense of their children, but they were not able
to grasp the idea of trying to make the world a better place for their
grandchildren. Altruism was as yet unborn in the human heart, notwithstanding
that all of the emotions essential to the birth of religion were already present
in these Earth aborigines.
P714:2, 63:4.4 These early men possessed a touching affection
for their comrades and certainly had a real, although crude, idea of friendship.
It was a common sight in later times, during their constantly recurring battles
with the inferior tribes, to see one of these primitive men valiantly fighting
with one hand while he struggled on, trying to protect and save an injured
fellow warrior. Many of the most noble and highly human traits of subsequent
evolutionary development were touchingly foreshadowed in these primitive
peoples.
P714:3, 63:4.5 The original Andonic clan maintained an unbroken
line of leadership until the twenty-seventh generation, when, no male offspring
appearing among Sontad's direct descendants, two rival would-be rulers of the
clan fell to fighting for supremacy.
P714:4, 63:4.6 Before the extensive dispersion of the Andonic
clans a well-developed language had evolved from their early efforts to
intercommunicate. This language continued to grow, and almost daily additions
were made to it because of the new inventions and adaptations to environment
that were developed by these active, restless, and curious people. And this
language became the word of Earth, the tongue of the early human family, until
the later appearance of the colored races.
P714:5, 63:4.7 As time passed, the Andonic clans grew in
number, and the contact of the expanding families developed friction and
misunderstandings. Only two things came to occupy the minds of these peoples:
hunting to obtain food and fighting to avenge themselves against some real or
supposed injustice or insult at the hands of the neighboring tribes.
P714:6, 63:4.8 Family feuds increased, tribal wars broke out,
and serious losses were sustained among the very best elements of the more able
and advanced groups. Some of these losses were irreparable; some of the most
valuable strains of ability and intelligence were forever lost to the world.
This early race and its primitive civilization were threatened with extinction
by this incessant warfare of the clans.
P714:7, 63:4.9 It is impossible to induce such primitive beings
long to live together in peace. Man is the descendant of fighting animals, and
when closely associated, uncultured people irritate and offend each other. The
Life Carriers know this tendency among evolutionary creatures and accordingly
make provision for the eventual separation of developing human beings into at
least three, and more often six, distinct and separate races.
P715:1, 63:5.1 The early Andon races did not penetrate very far
into Asia, and they did not at first enter Africa. The geography of those times
pointed them north, and farther and farther north these people journeyed until
the slowly advancing ice of the third glacier hindered them.
P715:2, 63:5.2 Before this extensive ice sheet reached France
and the British Isles, the descendants of Andon and Eva had pushed on westward
over Europe and had established more than one thousand separate settlements
along the great rivers leading to the then warm waters of the North Sea.
P715:3, 63:5.3 These Andonic tribes were the early river
dwellers of France; they lived along the river Somme for tens of thousands of
years. The Somme is the one river unchanged by the glaciers, running down to the
sea in those days much as it does today. And that explains why so much evidence
of the Andonic descendants is found along the course of this river valley.
P715:4, 63:5.4 These aborigines of Earth were not tree
dwellers, though in emergencies they still betook themselves to the treetops.
They regularly dwelt under the shelter of overhanging cliffs along the rivers
and in hillside grottoes that afforded a good view of the approaches and
sheltered them from the elements. They could thus enjoy the comfort of their
fires without being too much inconvenienced by the smoke. They were not really
cave dwellers either, though in subsequent times the later ice sheets came
farther south and drove their descendants to the caves. They preferred to camp
near the edge of a forest and beside a stream.
P715:5, 63:5.5 They very early became remarkably clever in
disguising their partially sheltered abodes and showed great skill in
constructing stone sleeping chambers, dome-shaped stone huts, into which they
crawled at night. The entrance to such a hut was closed by rolling a stone in
front of it, a large stone that had been placed inside for this purpose before
the roof stones were finally put in place.
P715:7, 63:5.7 And in many other ways these Andon tribes manifested a degree of intelligence which their retrogressing descendants did not attain in half a million years, though they did again and again rediscover various methods of kindling fire.
P715:8, 63:6.1 As the Andonic dispersion extended, the cultural and spiritual status of the clans retrogressed for nearly ten thousand years until the days of Onagar, who assumed the leadership of these tribes, brought peace among them, and for the first time, led all of them in the worship of the "Breath Giver to men and animals."
P716:1, 63:6.2 Andon's philosophy had been most confused; he
had barely escaped becoming a fire worshiper because of the great comfort
derived from his accidental discovery of fire. Reason, however, directed him
from his own discovery to the sun as a superior and more awe-inspiring source of
heat and light, but it was too remote, and so he failed to become a sun
worshiper.
P716:2, 63:6.3 The Andonites early developed a fear of the
elements -- thunder, lightning, rain, snow, hail, and ice. But hunger was the
constantly recurring urge of these early days, and since they largely subsisted
on animals, they eventually evolved a form of animal worship. To Andon, the
larger food animals were symbols of creative might and sustaining power. From
time to time it became the custom to designate several of these larger animals
as objects of worship. During the vogue of a particular animal, crude outlines
of it would be drawn on the walls of the caves, and later on, as continued
progress was made in the arts, such an animal god was engraved on various
ornaments.
P716:3, 63:6.4 Very early the Andonic peoples formed the habit
of refraining from eating the flesh of the animal of tribal veneration.
Presently, in order more suitably to impress the minds of their youths, they
evolved a ceremony of reverence that was carried out about the body of one of
these venerated animals; and still later on, this primitive performance
developed into the more elaborate sacrificial ceremonies of their descendants.
And this is the origin of sacrifices as a part of worship. This idea was
elaborated by Moses in the Hebrew ritual and was preserved, in principle, by the
Apostle Paul as the doctrine of atonement for sin by "the shedding of
blood."
P716:4, 63:6.5 That food was the all-important thing in the
lives of these primitive human beings is shown by the prayer taught these simple
folks by Onagar, their great teacher. And this prayer was:
P716:5, 63:6.6 "O Breath of Life, give us this day our
daily food, deliver us from the curse of the ice, save us from our forest
enemies, and with mercy receive us into the Great Beyond."