Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 5, 1914)
, ' ' " i ' mil iiiumi win i m.tmmum, wmwi wi inwn itn i ,!. i mm i - .- The Omaha Sunday-Bee Magazine Page rum - ... . . .- .-. . " -" " - 11 The Interesting Answer of Evolui ionary Science to the Perplexing Problem of Where Adam's Oldest Son Found His Mate By Rutledge Rutherford, The Distinguished American Ethnologist CAIN -was tlfe oldest son ol Adam and, Eve, according to tho Jehovlstlc ac count of the Creation tho flm born of the human race. His birth Is reported In the first vorso of the eventful fourth chap ter of Genesis: "Eve bare Cain and said I hayo gotten a man of tho Lord." The next verso tells of the birth of Abel, the second son. Cain was a tiller of tho ground and Abel a keeper of sheep. The rejection of Cain's offering, the "fruit of tho ground" ground, earth or dust betokening material ity and the acceptance of Abel's, the "firstlings of his flock" sheep, especially laiftbs, signifying meekness and spiritual ity so enraged Cain that ho Blow his, brother. Thereupon Cain was condemned to! bo a fugitive and a vagabond, and a marii was placed upon him, bo the fifteenth versdl declares, but straightway the sixteenth verse asserts, rather contrarily, that ho went and dwelt in tho Land of Nod, and the seventeenth that his wife "bare Enoch, and he builded a city and called tho name of tho city after tho namo of his son, Enoch." Now, who could have been the wife of Cain? "Whence tho people to popu late the city of Enoch? Who were tho Inhabitants of tho Land of Nod? Questions as old as civiliza tion, all, and varying have been the attempted answers, havo been tho attempted an swers. Cain's wlfo enters tho nar rative somewhat obstrusely, it Is noted. She is tho sec ond woman mentioned In tho Bible, tho first ofter Eve. The story Is explicit enough as to Eve's origin, but seems to leave us In tho dark as to when, where and how Cain's wlfo camo Into being. As Abel had been killed, the birth of Soth not yet re corded, and no mention so far made of other "sons and daughters," it would be supposed that there were only three people in the world up to this time Adam, Eve and Cain and that Eve was tho only wom an. Hence, unless there were other pro genitors of the human race, there could have been no woman for Cain to marry. After the mention of Cain's wlfo, the Land of Nod, and the founding of tho city of Enoch, this same salient fourth chapter, in the twenty-fifth verse, reports tho birth of Seth. And In the twenty-sixth and last verse we aro confronted with another prob lem in tho birth of a son to Seth. "To explain all this as literal history," one theologian avers, "were to attribute other perfection to tho Deity than Infinite power, spirituality and wlBdom." So great are the difficulties that the Church of England does not demand' a literal un derstanding. Yet Augustine and the Re formers hold out for the literal, as do many other authorities. Tlie style of the narra tive gives no indication that any other in terpretation was intended, but all efforts to this end fall wide the mark of consistency, making the text literal at times and then figurative as necessity demands. Coleridge argues that It Is an allegory. In tho same light it Is viewed by Ambrose, Origen, and the Greek Fathers of Alexan dria. Philo allegorizes it In a purely spirit ual sense. But, as Dr. Samuel Davidson asserts, there Is not tho slightest Indication that an allegory was Intended. "Had this been the case," ho says, "tho truths meant to be conveyed would have been easily discovered. The embarrassment and capriclousness of the allegorical Inter preters prove that they are following a wrong method." Caln-worshipplng religions In their vile Interpretations actually reversed the con ventional concept of morality. Such were the Calnltes who paid obeisance to all the evil characters of the Old Testament, In cluding Potlphar's wife, Esau, Korah, Jeze bel and Delilah; the Adamites who appeared naked at their assemblies and rejected the marriage form as an outgrowth of sin; the Ophites who Inculcated indifference to all actions and held that nothing was really evil by nature; and the followers of Car pocrates, Eplphanes and Cyranus. All iden tified the serpent with tho Redeeming World and tried to transform the Power of Evil into the Ideal of Good. Thus they have gone on interpreting the story in all manner of ways and making it the basis of all manner of beliefs. And with these and all the manifold explanations by scholars and creeds, the perpetual crux of the Story of Cain, beginning with the Crea tion and made the topic of the newest opera to entertain society, comes down to us through the ages. And shallwe say it is no nearer solution to-day tlian at the beginning? No! For this is the age of science. Since science has worked out so many other puz zles, we have turned Its light on the Story of Cain, and, lo! we find a solution. There are two accounts of the creation, "Cain and His Family" Tho Remarkable Painting by F. Cormou, tho Famous French ArtiBt, in Which tho Pain tor 'a Inspiration Has Nearly Touohed the Conclusions of Science as to the Appearance of Oain and His Wife. As Oain Himself Probably Looked. A Reconstruction of the Earliest Earth Man. bo it rememborod one handed down to us in the immortal pages of tho floly Writ, the other gleaned from the strata of tho earth, the chemist's retort 'and the observa tion of life about us. Onco we believed them opposed to each other, but with tho passing of prejudice and the broadening of men's minds, they are appearing In closer and closer agreement. In fact, each Is prov ing an aid to tho other. May wo not 6ome day find them but two ways of telling the same story, each confirming the other? In evolution yes, tho once ecclesiastical ly condemned Darwinian theory wo havo found the only rational explanation of the Story of Cain that over has been offered. Evolution teaches that all existing higher forms of life have been developed by uni form laws from lower forms, that material man through many and varied stages, cov ering a period of mayhap four hundred mill ion years, has evolved from some single celled amoeba-like creature In which both sexes were combined. At some remote time the Miocene period, perhaps the highest form of life on earth was a kind of Anthro poid or Near-Man with thirteen pairs of ribs, as the apes have, but far advanced above apes In other respects. Ho was a gregariouB being, wandering about in largo hordes and building temporary habitats in the treesy His houses were of leaves and branches bound together with long and slender parasitic plants and lined inside qulto cozily with the dried fronds of palms and long grasses. Immense settlements of tho kind they were the first cities ex isted in certain tropical localities where tho food was most plentiful. In time this An thropoid lost one pair of his ribs, became more erect and dwelt more on the ground. Formerly he was tho "Tree Man," we might say, and latterly the "Earth Man." The Tree Man concerns us mainly now, for It Is to his kind we must look for solu tion of the earth-old problem of Cain's wife. But let us disabuse our minds of the impression that our Miocene progenitors were the ungainly looking, hairy creatures that were formerly pictured. Skulls and skeletons recently unearthed have success fully controverted this view, and revealed them to us as beings of far more pleasing appearance. Then it Is known that we find some of tho most shapely physical forms among certain savage races. Nevertheless, the Tree Men were not quite far enough advanced to be classed as human beings. They were somewhat smaller than people of to-day, but their principal shortcoming was in mentality. They were of aesthetic tastes, for we have unmistakable proof of their penchant for art and music, and they preferred to dwell amid beautiful environments. Their lan guage was extremely rude, but they could sing sweetly; anthropologists assuro us that our progenitors could sing even beforo they could talk. In- song or chanting they expressed most of .their emotions of love, desire, regrot and victory. But tho true song was oxpresslvo oi love and courtship even from tho beginning. In these re spects at least, the progenitors of man dif fered radically from tho apes. Now, at somo stage In evolution there oc curred a change which advanced tho then dominant form from anthropoid to man. Very small tho change might have been to mark tho Great Transition tho most re markable step in all time. Somewhere In Tropical Africa, Darwin boHaves, and Sir William "Wlllcocks recently discovered In Egypt a strip of land which many be lieve to havo been tho Garden of Eden there existed a tribe further advanced than any in the world at that time. And in that tribe there appeared some one or two in dividuals superior to all tho rest of tho tribe. There wero two, according to tho Biblical account, a male and a female. On tho principle of sexual selection the domi nant male of tho tribe naturally would have chosen for his mate the most ad vanced female, and she would have pre ferred this man. It was a mental change that produced their advancement, a mero spark of tho human knowledge which has grown into a brighter and brighter light with succeeding ages. They were the first man and woman, the parents of Cain and the human race. The word Adam in tho Johovistlc text is from the Hebrew "eth-ha-adam," mean ing tho Earth Man. Eve is from the He brew, "Havvah," derived from "hayoh," "to live," and was applied to the first woman as "tho mother of all living." The names are equally applicable to the evolutionary account, therofore. Through the combined advantages of heredity and superior paren tal training, it would seem, from the stand point of Bcience, that the children of this first couple might have advanced beyond their parents. Very rapid progression naturally would have followed the attain ment of human knowledge, a point where mind counted for most in the struggle for existence. It Is also probable that these first human beings especially the chil dren, Cain, Abel and Seth were more pow erful physically than any other of their tribesmen, and that they were the heads of the tribe. Now tho tribe which possessed theso dominant individuals must havo been in close proximilty to the wandering tribes of Tree Men and their habitats. Being conscience-stricken after the mur. der of his brother, it is reasonable to sup pose that Cain might have Joined one of these roving hordes and from among, them chosen his wife. In this, then, we have a simple solution of the problem which has been bothering the world for so long. The tribes dwelling near the Earth Men must have been nearly as far advanced as they; and Cain, by the same principle of sexual selection, would have chosen a wife from among tho handsomest and most hu man like of them. This being so, his chil dren, at least some of them, would have Inherited bis human characteristics and continued to advance. And thus tho race begun by Adam and Eve would have been perpetuated and constantly Improved. The Land of Nod mentioned in the Fourth Chapter of Genesis, was probably inhabited by a colony of these Tree Men. The. City of Enoch that Cain founded was perhaps only a very large community of Tree Men and tree houses, the only kind of city known to the Miocene world. Very likely It was one of several such communities in the Land of Nod, which, we are told, was to the east of Eden. These tribes wandered about and estab lished temporary abodes wherever food could bo obtained with least effort. This explanation further romedlen the apparent contradiction between tho condemnation of Cain to lead a nomadic Hfo and IiIb subse quent settlement In a city. Wo havo shown that at some stage the Tree Man lost one pair of his ribs. Tho sub-conscious knowledgo of this and of the Tact that In a former stago tho earth was inhabited exclusively by androgynous forms whlph .later wero divided into tho two sexes male and female may havo manifested itself, in the Biblical narratlvo that Evo. was made out of the rib of Adam. Like wise, many savage tribes havo traditions that they sprung from beasts, thlB being the significance of tho totem pole. And among most ancient Egyptian myths there was a belief that the oldest human being had been of animal nature, capable only of Inarticulate sounds until tho god Thot had taught them both languago and writing. Darwinism thus had its precursor in tho very child ago of civilization. Just at what stage In evolution the pro genitor of the human race was entitled to rank as man must forever remain a matter of conjecture. There aro many races of men, and some of them differ as widely as tho blue-eyed Caucasians from the black-sklnnod Ethiopians. In Mloceno times the flora of tropica' Africa had reached a pinnacle of luxuriance unknown before or since, and the first man's abode there must have been a Garden of Eden In truth. They remained in this earthly paradise un til tho Increased population forced them from the favored locality, and they were compelled to till tho soil and domesticate animals as a moans of subsistence. Hence wo find Cain a tiller of the soil and Abel a keeper ot sheep. The dog and sboep aro known to have been among the earliest animals do mesticated. Cain's occupation would Indi cate that he had a fixed habitation until ha committed tho murder end Joined one ot the nomadic Tree tribes, bringing to them their first knowledge of agriculture perhaps. Be ing the son of the first human beings', he probably became chief of the tribe of Near "Men with which he was allied, for he must have excelled all the otherB, both physically and mentally. The most human-like woman of the' tribe would have been the most in telligent and the prettiest. By the law of sexual selection she and Cain would Imme diately have fallen In love with each other, for at' that time lovers Judged each other solely by external appearance. It was the age ot applied practical eugenics. So we have every ground for concluding that Cain's wife was handsome, the most handsome creature In the world at that time, perhaps, with the possible exception of Eve. Her mother-in-law may have looked down on her somewhat because she was not quite good enough to be called a human being, but what else could Cain do when there was no other human beings In the world for him to marry? Cain's wife could dance, no doubt, for that was one of the earliest accomplish ments, we aro told, and the inherited bias for her wild and free kind of dancing is often displayed by her sex until this day. But she must have looked very different from our modern tango girl In other re spects than her entire absence of clothtng. I fancy her a creature very swift of foot, young, agile and playful. She could climb trees and swing from limb to limb In u manner that would have demanded for her the highest salary on any vaudeville cir cuit ot to-day. She was smaller ot statue than modern women. Her head was rather enlongated, or dolichocephalic as scientists say, and her toes were prehensile, enabling her to grasp objects with her feet as well as with her hands. Even to-day there are people in museums who can play the piano with their toes. Her complexion was ot a dark reddish brown; (t Is probable that she had blue eyes, though thero Is much doubt on this point, and her coarse hair was of very dark brown, nearly black. S3 S3 BBBBBslBBBBBBiiHBBBHBBlBflBBHIsMflrjinBl BBBBBBBSBBBsiBBBBBBBfliBHSBiHjBBHBBB A Scientific Reconstruction of a Tree Woman of the Miocen Period, One of Which Was, Perhaps, the Wife of Oain. The Stars' Promise for July THE lunation ruling July, which occurs near the close of Juno, JL. Is essentially a Mercurial one, with Virgo on the ascendant and Gemini culminating with Saturn the elevated planet In the scheme. Tho President, as well as Eastern executives, will need to safeguard health, as denoted by the position ot Saturn. It looks as it Bryan were nearlng his conge, with tho approach of Saturn to a Bquare of his Sun; a lack ot popularity is shown both In statesmanship and tho lecture field, as well as a general depletion ot ner vous and physical vitality. The markets aro unstable, no con fidence to bo placed In the upward spurtB that occur here and there; the money interests likewise Jeop ardized, though no serious failures are indicated. Crop reports will be doctored to suit tho industrial exi gencies, but results will not uphold the same. Specific Incidents on or near the following dates: July 2 A social scandal ot some prominence, looks like the airing of a family skeleton, Stocks very erratic on this and following day. The 3d shows high winds, with storm formations. July 16 A very active market on this and the follqwlng day, wide fluc tuations. Mercury as the ruler of of tho winds Is also to the front The State Department gains a van tage point in the Mexican situation, If the same does not go further afield; also looks like a protocol or a treaty consummated. July 20-21 Disturbing times in Congress. Tho probable failure of a Wall Street concern; suspicious ma nipulations in that quarter. The last week of the month is In the nature ot upheaval, turbulent times, more especially between the 24th and 28th atmospheric, eco nomic and in admlnlbtratlve chan nels. Tho last two days are Im proved. The Good Demon of Astrology, Jupiter, sheds his beneficent rays this month upon those born in the first nine months ot 1851, Spring of 1853, in 1855, Springs ot 1859 and 186S, Winters ot 1864 (changes), 1887 and 1809. Fall of 1870, Springs of 1871 and 1874, Summer of 1876, Winters of 1879 and 1883, Summer of 1884, Fall ot 1880. Winter of 1891. in 1894, and Fall ot 1898; or In the second week of February, April. Juno, near middle ot July or Decem ber of any year. Conversely, Saturn throws a low ering cloud over those born in the third week ot March, June, Septem ber or December ot any year,' Copyright, 1914, by the Star Company. Great Britain Illghts Reserved.