要約問題/1986年

次の文を読み、その要旨を８０字から１００字の日本文で書け。ただし、句読点も字数に数える。

　Our early ancestors had little conception of the difference between human beings and the animal creation. To them all that had life was animated by a spirit, and the form of the enclosing body made little difference. Primitive man sees nothing impossible in the story that his tribe is descended from a beast or a bird; the lady in the fairy-tale who married a bear or a snake was doing nothing particularly improbable. As knowledge advanced, these animal husbands became enchanted men who regained their true shape at last, but this is a later modification to suit later ideas. The conception of "lower animals" is a modern notion based on the gradual recognition of the essential difference between man and the other inhabitants of this world. Early man saw them as creatures endowed with special gifts and obeying their own laws; often they appeared to him not less but more intelligent than himself. Our fairy-tales, with their helpful animals, talking-birds and wise reptiles, are fossilized remains of a period when animals took equal place with man and were sometimes messengers or servants of the hidden gods. So today it may be seen that a great many of our superstitions about birds and animals are based on their supposed wisdom, cunning or magical powers rather than their inferiority in the scheme of things.