Early Man’s World

Abstract

Once, in northern British Columbia, I found an old log cabin, built obviously by some capable ancient craftsman. It stood on a nice large creek with rapids, remote from any highways and accessible only on foot by a narrow path. There was nicely piled dry poplar firewood under the cabin’s far extending roof. Inside, there was a large ‘front room’ with a stove, a table, a bench, a shelf, a few pots and a kerosene lamp. There was an adjoining room, a bedroom, with a ‘pioneer’ bed (a bed made of round poplar sticks with bark). That was all! On the table there was a note in an individual handwriting: “You are welcome to stay here. Please respect this meager property of a meager man, who comes here to live when days get hard, and who finds here shelter, heat, some cooked fish, and most of all, a holy quiet.” Perhaps this man—the owner of the cabin—came here periodically, forced by circumstances of being ‘meager’ moneywise. It is also possible that he was drawn this way by the ‘holy quiet’.