This edited article about cavemen originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 698 published on 31 May 1975.

The discovery of the cave paintings at Lascaux by Clive Uptton

Before the great Ice Age came, about a million years ago, Early Man enjoyed a warm climate and did not need to build a home to protect himself against the cold.

But when the Ice Age passed, the continent of Europe was left with a bitterly cold climate. It was then that the hunters of the Old Stone Age were forced to find somewhere warm and dry in which to shelter from the weather. They chose caves and overhanging rocks for their dwelling places, knowing that these could not be destroyed by cold and storms.

The most famous dwelling places of these times are in a valley of the Dordogne River in France. It was here that the Neanderthalers lived. They made tools of short flint stone and hunted wild animals, many of which, like the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and the cave bear, are now extinct.

The Neanderthalers lit fires of brushwood in the mouth of the cave and cooked the meat they had caught.

For bedding they probably had pine twigs and dry grass or bracken. When they slept, they covered themselves with animal skins and made clothes from these to wear during the day.

After many thousands of years, another type of man came to the Dordogne. He was much more like we are today. The newcomers, called the Cromagnon people, were much better craftsmen than the Neanderthalers, and on the walls of their caves they often carved with flints pictures of the animals they had hunted. Nearly all the European decorated caves are found in France and Spain, and the finest of all, discovered in 1940, is at Lascaux, in the Dordogne region.

This edited article about the Zulus originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 691 published on 12 April 1975.

Massacre of the Zulu army at Ulundi by James E McConnell

It seemed as if a silence had fallen upon the South African battlefield of Isandhlwana. In fact, the intermittent popping of rifles and the groans of wounded men just seemed like silence after the roar of British volleys and the crash of cannon.

Suddenly the Zulu warriors realized that their red-coated foes were out of ammunition. All around lay heaps of dead and wounded Zulus, while further back hundreds of dark-skinned warriors crouched in the long grass, stunned by the ferocity of British rifle-fire.

All at once, a tall Zulu warrior leapt to his feet and cried out:

“Cetywayo has not ordered us to run away!” and with a single terrifying shout, the Zulus sprang forward.

This army of Zulus, these “impis” so feared and respected by the British, was no disorganized horde of savages. They were a disciplined army of experienced fighting men who learned fast. Though the British had field-guns at Isandhlwana on the 22nd January 1879, these were of little use against the quick-witted Africans. The Zulu impis immediately realized that when the British gunners stood to one side, the gun was about to fire. At that moment, they would throw themselves to the ground.

But now the British were out of ammunition and the Zulus could at last close with their broad-bladed assegai stabbing spears.

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This edited article about Easter Island originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 682 published on 8 February 1975.

A sun-worshipping ceremony on Easter Island by Andrew Howat

Easter Island was a mystery from the moment the look-out of a ship spotted it in 1722. And it has been a mystery ever since to the people who have explored it and tried to unravel its strange secrets.

People have long puzzled over the intriguing story which began to unfold when the observant sailor saw the green blob of land and reported it to the skipper of his ship, Admiral Roggeveen, a Dutchman. Bewildered, the admiral consulted his charts, but no land was marked at that point.

The admiral inked a blob of land on his map and wrote beside it “Easter Island”, for it was Easter Day. Little did he know that by this action he had given a name to the most puzzling island in the world.

After he and some of his men had explored the island, the admiral wrote a report to his superiors, saying, “The island contains about six thousand souls. All over the island stand huge idols of stone, representing the figure of a man with big ears and bearing a head covered with a red crown.”

One can imagine how that report intrigued other adventurers. Many made landings. They tramped the island and counted the statues. There were 230 standing all over the place. And apart from size – varying from five to twelve metres high – the statues were all identical.

Legless, they rose from the earth at hip level. The faces were expressionless, with receding foreheads, tight lips, prominent chins and a curious tilt at the end of the nose.

But more curious still were the ears. Long and thin, they hung down to the jaw. On each statue was a hat-like crown of red stone.

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This edited article about the Aztecs originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 663 published on 28 September 1974.

The Aztec city of Tenochtitlan in the time of Hernando Cortes

They set out at midnight, laden down with gold. It was cloudy and a steady drizzle was falling which helped conceal their progress across the great square of the city of Mexico, the mighty Aztec capital. The only signs of humanity were occasional corpses to remind the Spanish and their Indian allies of recent fighting.

They passed along lanes and alleys and stared down at the canals which divided the city into sections, like Venice. Where were the enemy? Were they hiding in ambush, waiting to pounce? Surely someone must hear the rumbling artillery and baggage trains?

They reached the causeway that was to take them to safety across the lake, carrying with them rapidly made prefabricated bridges which were to be laid across the eight open canals that broke the line of the causeway.

There were Aztec sentinels on guard at the start of the causeway, but an Aztec woman gave the first alarm, calling “Mexicans, come running! They are crossing the canal! Our enemies are fleeing!”

Suddenly, there were shouts from all directions, and from the temple at the top of the great pyramid in the heart of the city the huge war drum began to sound, as it only did in times of extreme crisis.

The enemy held back until the Spaniards were approaching the second gap in the causeway, then the air was filled with a sound like a forest shaken by the wind which grew steadily louder. It was the war cry of the Aztecs, and above the sound could be heard the splashing of thousands of oars as war canoes headed for the causeway. The Night of Sorrows (La Noche Triste), as the Spaniards call what happened next, had begun.

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This edited article about great explorers originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 625 published on 5 January 1974.

Several thousand spear-carrying warriors stood on the shore little expecting that they were about to be fired upon by Stanley and his men, by C L Doughty

“The savage only respects force, power, boldness and decision,” wrote Henry Morton Stanley, one of the greatest of all the white explorers of Africa.

He was recalling a day on Lake Victoria in 1875 when he decided to deal with some “troublesome” natives who had dared to attack him on an earlier expedition. Now, in his 40 foot steel boat, the “Lady Alice,” built in eight sections so that it could be carried overland, he led a fleet of canoes towards the island of Bumbire where his enemies were unaware of his approach.

Just as he was nearing the island, he was joined by war canoes sent by a friendly chief. Meanwhile, several thousand Bumbire spear-carrying warriors appeared on the shore, little suspecting that fire power was about to be loosed upon them by Stanley and his men, black as well as white.

Those that survived Stanley’s first broadside fled, having learnt their lesson. And Stanley sailed on, smugly confident that he knew how to deal with these people.

That was Stanley’s way: a quick, daring march, fighting any Africans who opposed him, suffering heavy casualties among his own men from disease and exhaustion, but reaching his objective and winning. Stanley was a winner in nearly everything he set out to accomplish. When he stood for Parliament years later, shouts of “Man of blood” rang around the halls and the streets in which he spoke, but he got elected just the same. He made a habit of success.

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This edited article about Hawaii originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 621 published on 8 December 1973.

Hula! – Hawaiian dancers by Robert Brook

Hawaii, the largest of the eight major islands in the Hawaiian group, is a land of waterfalls, orchids and active volcanos. It is known as the ‘big island’ and is said to be dominated by the spirit of Pele, the fire goddess who causes the volcanos Mauna Loa, one of the largest in the world, and Kilauea to erupt. Mauna Loa is highly active, and every few years molten lava runs down the mountain covering several square miles. Although it is very spectacular, it is considered harmless.

Another harmless, but even more spectacular sight is the unbelievable sunsets that all the Hawaiian islands glory in. Passengers on aircraft flying in to land at any of the airports in the late afternoon have a grandstand view of one of nature’s most magnificent sunsets. The sun, a great ball of fire, sinks very fast and appears to fall into the sea and be extinguished. There is hardly any twilight over the Pacific; one minute it is light and the next it is dark. As the sun disappears, a brilliant red glow covers the whole of the horizon, making it seem as if the world was on fire. No wonder the early Hawaiians worshipped their sun god.

Surrounded as they are by the blue waters of the immense Pacific ocean, the biggest and deepest in the world, occupying a third of the Earth’s surface and larger than all the land masses put together, the Hawaiians have, of necessity, been men of the sea. Before the epic voyages of the Phoenicians and the Vikings, the Polynesians colonised islands more than 7,500 miles apart. Over 2,000 years ago these people made their long sea voyages through the vast and often stormy Pacific in frail outrigger canoes, and they are considered to be the greatest ocean pathfinders the world has ever known. During the course of the centuries they have scoured this gigantic expanse of water, navigating by the stars. For their voyages two canoes were often lashed together to support a makeshift platform for their women folk, children, plants and animals to travel on. Their major voyages ceased 150 years before the Europeans’ began.

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This edited article about the West Indies and the Caribbean originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 613 published on 13 October 1973.

Behind the gaiety and music of the West Indian peoples lies the terrible narrative of slavery and the sugar trade

If you study a map of the world, you will find no such country as the West Indies, yet there are around twenty million West Indians. In reality, the West Indies is a series of beautiful tropical islands set in the Caribbean Sea, and although geographically a part of the Americas, they are historically a part of Africa and Europe – the Dutch, French, Spanish and English all established colonies. Over fifty of the islands are inhabited, and they range in size from Cube, with an area of over 44 thousand square miles, to Bequia, which is a tiny island lying next to St Vincent, with an area of only 7 square miles.

The British West Indies consisted of about one eleventh of the land area, and about one sixth of the population; even though Britain did not discover these islands, they did eventually conquer and colonise them. Negroes, who were forcibly taken from Africa, were used as slaves to work the sugar plantations and, because of this, they are English speaking and their social and political institutions have been adapted from the British system.

The Caribbean became the first permanent point of contact between the Indian of old America, the black man from Africa and the white man from Europe.

Some of the West Indian islands had been occupied by Indians since the 9th century. These were Arawaks who came over from South America. They lived mainly by hunting and fishing, and were a peaceable people. Four hundred years later, the Carib Indians, who came originally from the humid forests surrounding the Amazon, set out in their long dugout canoes from the mouth of the River Orinoco in Venezuela and invaded the islands.

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This edited article about gypsies originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 611 published on 29 September 1973.

Gypsy horse dealers in an eighteenth-century market (left) and a gypsy caravan (right) by Pat Nicolle

To be a Gypsy sounds great fun, but in fact it is not an easy life.

Gypsies live much of their lives on the road, and may visit many countries. But all too often they are made to feel unwanted by the local people, and if they stay more than a day or two in one place there is often trouble, trouble with farmers shopkeepers (who sometimes refuse to serve them) or even with the police.

Where do the Gypsies come from? Nobody knows for certain. They do not readily talk about themselves to strangers, and have their own secret signs, customs, and language. In the last few years there have been many books about them, but in spite of what we can learn from these, the Gypsies still guard many of their secrets.

The true Gypsy rarely calls himself by that name. To his own people he is a “Rom,” which in Gypsy language means just “Man.” That is why Gypsies are often called “Romanies.” All other people they call “Gadjes” or “Gorgios.” But not everyone who leads a wandering life is a true Gypsy and in some countries – especially in southern Spain – even the genuine Rom no longer travels around, but lives in a house, or perhaps a comfortably furnished cave!

In Britain there are about fifty thousand people who are described as Gypsies, but of these, only about one in every five is a true Rom, and it is about this mysterious people that we are now concerned. The names given to them by others show how little is known of their true history. For “Gypsy” is a short form of “Egyptian” and for a long time it was believed that it was from Egypt that they came to Europe. In Turkey they are known as “Fawrani” (Pharaoh’s people) – another way of saying that they came from Egypt! The Dutch call them “Heiden” (Heathen), the Spanish, “Gitanos” suggesting Egypt again as their first homeland.

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This edited article about Hinduism originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 606 published on 25 August 1973.

The Fakir of the immovable foot

Solemnly an old man lay full-length on sun-baked dusty ground and stared for a while at the sky. He gave no indication of his intentions to the few bystanders, but they remained there patiently, waiting to see what he might do.

At last their curiosity was rewarded. Deliberately he reached out for a handful of earth, moistened it and placed it on his lower lip. Once more his hand reached out, to his other, from which he took a few mustard seeds. And these he planted in the thin strip of earth.

Four days passed before anything else happened to arouse attention. For those four days the man lay absolutely motionless, burned by the fierce sun and chilled by the night cold, taking neither food nor drink – until at last he achieved his wish. A tiny plant sprang from his lower lip.

Yet among the people who witnessed the fulfilment of this remarkable feat, few showed much surprise, To them such acts of self control, although admirable, were fairly commonplace.

What they had seen was another unusual exercise of penance by a Hindu Fakir – a holy man who chooses to perform the seemingly impossible.

Such bizarre sights astonish Western people, but they are part and parcel of life in India; even today, when this land is making gallant efforts to adjust to the 20th century. Though admittedly there are not fakirs to be found on every street corner, if you ask and search long enough, you will still find them.

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This edited article about sculpture originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 897 published on 31 March 1979.

Sun-worshipping rituals among the huge statues on Easter Island by Andrew Howat

Scattered all the way round the perimeter of Easter Island in the South Pacific Ocean are stone statues which resemble human beings. Some of them are enormous and are as tall as 10 metres high.

No one knows who carved them or why they were built. One explanation is that they were erected by ancestors of the present inhabitants as memorials for their dead. But no one has ever deciphered the strange inscriptions on the back of the statues, which remain there to this day, gazing out to sea from this tiny speck in the ocean, a mystery that refuses to be explained.