Page 130 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

xuvwnw, in inc inuuniams ui aninm, ancl they meet as
well, farther south, settlements of the passage-grave builders
larger in size than any on the coasts of Great Britain. Some of the

more adventurous spirits certainly come even farther afield, tak­
ing advantage of being among the passage-grave people to sign

on in the coastwise ships that call there from Spain and the seas
of the south. So that men of the northern lands could not im­

possibly be met on the quays of Crete, be cheated by Egyptian
guides to the Pyramids, and even meet the younger grandsons of

Abraham on the Canaan coast. For (though there is no proof
of such contact at this period) travel is in the blood of these

descendants of the nomad hunters. Home has always been where
they are at the moment, and they feel no compulsion to return to
their point of departure.

For those remaining in Britain time passes—not unevent­
fully, for no life is uneventful, but without cataclysmic change.

The rhythm of the seasons and the rhythm of the years plays on.
The generation of i860 b.c. are grown men now, the fathers of

families, settled in their ways. We may speculate—it is an in­
structive exercise—to what degree they are in touch with what is

happening elsewhere in their world, while bearing in mind the
danger of generalizing on the word “they.” There would exist all

degrees of intellectual—and commercial—curiosity, from the
farmer who never raises his eyes from the furrows scratched by

his straight wooden plowshare to his neighbor who will
eagerly devour and embroider every rumor from distant lands.

They know more than we bargain with. Even the most
sedentary peasant of the Downs or the remotest hunter of the

Caledonian forest is in periodic touch with wanderers, not only
traders but storytellers and mercenaries looking for a paymaster

and men looking up second cousins and just plain tramps, who
had covered the length of the country and the nearer parts of the

continent—and who had there met other wanderers from at least
as far afield in the other direction. Fishermen cross the North Sea

regularly to and from the Low Countries and Scandinavia. The
builders of the great stone graves along the west coast, who are
in close touch with the people of the hinterland, have still their