世界小史 第15章:猎获品

Rather like when we say 'Talk of the devil!' when someone we've been talking about turns up unexpectedly.

就像我们说："说曹操, 曹操到。"的时候，当我们正在谈论的人意外出现。

After all, these animals were their prey, and without them they would starve.

毕竟，这些动物是他们的猎获品，没有它们他们就会饿死。

So they may have been trying to invent a magic spell.

所以他们可能想发明一种魔法咒语，

It would be nice to think that such things worked.

而如果魔法起效，那倒也真不赖。

But they never have yet. The Ice Age lasted for an unimaginably long time.

可是迄今它们还没起效。冰河时代延续得难以想象的长久。

Many tens of thousands of years, which was just as well, for otherwise these people would not have had time to invent all these things.

几十万年，这是一件好事，因为否则这些人就不会有什么时间去发明所有这些东西了。

But gradually the earth grew warmer and the ice retreated to the high mountains, and people – who by now were much like us – learnt,

但地球上的气候逐渐变暖，冰块在退回到高山上，而已经和我们非常相像的人则已经在温暖的气候中学会了种草，

with the warmth, to plant grasses and then grind the seeds to make a paste which they could bake in the fire, and this was bread.

搓磨它们的谷粒并用磨过的谷粒做成一种他们能够在火上烘烤的面团，这就是面包。

In the course of time they learnt to build tents and tame animals which until then had roamed freely around.

经过一段时间，他们学会了搭建帐篷和驯养动物，直到这些动物到处自由地游动。

And they followed their herds, as people in Lapland still do.

他们就跟着他们的畜群，比如今天的拉普人仍然这样。