from this primitive function has arisen , unquestionably , all the forms and ceremonials of modern church and state , for through all the countless ages , back beyond the uttermost ramparts of a dawning humanity our fierce , hairy forebears danced out the rites of the dum-dum to the sound of their earthen drums , beneath the bright light of a tropical moon in the depth of a mighty jungle which stands unchanged today as it stood on that long forgotten night in the dim , unthinkable vistas of the long dead past when our first shaggy ancestor swung from a swaying bough and dropped lightly upon the soft turf of the first meeting place .