Part 2
At sunset the children were nodding their heads and soon were fast asleep.
The women tended the fire while the men sat around and talked.
All the beasts of prey were out for the night.
Sometimes the fire clan could see their shadows in the open spaces near the cave.
Then they were glad that they had fire.
But they knew that they would have trouble as long as Sabre-tooth was near.
So they began to plan ways of getting rid of him.
They did not dare risk an open fight with such weapons as they had, so they tried to invent a new way.
They planned a long time, but they could not decide what to do.
At length all but Firekeeper crept into the cave, where they were soon asleep upon the rough floor.
Firekeeper stayed beside the fire and kept watch all alone.
She was the oldest woman of the clan, and people said that she was the daughter of the fire.
She always kept it burning.
As she tended the fire through the long night she heard all sorts of sounds.
Once a big cave-bear passed close to the cave, but he sniffed and ran when he saw the fire.
Then a pack of hyenas crept up toward the cave.
They seemed to be looking for a safe place to rest.
But as soon as they saw the fire they ran.
Other animals, too, ran when they saw the fire.
Firekeeper was not afraid when she was near the fire, but it seemed that the long night would never end.
When at last the sky became red in the east, she knew that morning was coming again.
At the break of day all the people awoke.
It was only a few minutes before they were ready to take up the work of another day.
THINGS TO DO
_Show how the children fell asleep. Draw a picture of them._
_Show how the cave-bear acted when he saw the fire. Draw the picture._
_Show how Firekeeper kept watch during the night. Draw a picture of her as she was keeping watch._
_Get up early some morning and watch the sun rise. Paint a picture of a sunrise._
IV
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
Do you know what kind of weapons the fire clan had at this time?
Why would it not be safe for the fire clan to attack Sabre-tooth with such weapons?
What kinds of weapons can you make of stones and sticks?
What do you think the fire clan will do to get rid of Sabre-tooth?
Do you think that the fire clan ate three meals together each day as we do?
_How the Fire Clan Got Rid of Sabre-tooth_
As soon as the sun was up, messengers started from the cave to ask the people on the hills for help.
Nobody stopped to eat breakfast.
The Cave-men never ate breakfast together.
Each ate by himself such food as he could find.
Everybody was watching for Sabre-tooth.
Soon Sharpeyes saw him crawl into a thicket, where he laid himself down and went to sleep.
Then the messengers returned with the people from the hills.
They went to the thicket to see Sabre-tooth, but they did not dare attack him.
They had learned to put handles on their flint points, so as to make good hunting-knives.
But the handles were short, and it was not safe to attack Sabre-tooth with such weapons.
Their axes and hammers were larger and stronger, but they were afraid to use them now.
While they were all wondering what to do, Strongarm went to look at Sabre-tooth again.
The creature had feasted all night long and was sleeping heavily.
He was lying just under a strong spreading branch of an old oak.
When Strongarm noticed this his eyes brightened.
He motioned to an old man to come to him.
After a few minutes they went back to the other men.
All crowded around, for they felt sure that Strongarm had thought of a new plan.
Then Strongarm showed the people what he wanted them to do.
Everybody was eager to help.
The women brought out all the skins that they had.
Strongarm laid the strongest skin aside and told the women to cut the others into straps.
Some of the men began to work upon large flint points.
Others cut a tough branch of oak and made it into a large shaft.
When all had finished their work, they brought what they had to Strongarm.
He selected the largest and strongest flint point and bound it to the end of the shaft.
He folded the skin so as to make a bag.
Then he tied the skin bag to the shaft.
The boys brought stones to fill the bag and laid them on the ground.
Everything was now ready, so Strongarm took the new weapon over his shoulder and climbed into the oak tree.
Others followed with stones and straps.
Strongarm quickly fastened the upper end of the shaft to the spreading branch of the oak.
Then he carefully filled the skin bag with stones and let the weighted spear hang over Sabre-tooth.
He motioned to the men to go back to the cave, and was soon all alone with Sabre-tooth.
He did not stop to think what might happen.
He grasped his stone knife and began to cut the heavy strap.
When he had cut almost through the strap, it snapped.
The spear fell with its heavy weight and pinned Sabre-tooth to the ground.
Sabre-tooth made one desperate effort to escape.
Then he lay perfectly still on the ground.
How thankful the Cave-men were!
They had one less creature to fear.
They now felt that they would be able to keep the cave for a home.
THINGS TO DO
_Notice how gracefully the cat moves. Notice how it gets ready to spring.
Think of an animal many times larger than the cat and see if you can model Sabre-tooth in clay.
See if you can find good stones for hunting-knives and spears.
Name a tool or a machine that you have seen in which a weight is used.
Draw a picture of it._
V
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
What do you think the Cave-men will do with Sabre-tooth’s skin?
What will they do with his teeth and claws?
What will they do with his flesh?
Can you think of what they might do with the bones?
How do you think they learned to cook food?
_Preparations for the Feast_
How excited all the people on the hills were when they knew that Sabre-tooth had been killed!
Everybody wanted to see him.
Young and old crowded around to see the monster as he lay stretched out on the ground.
They gazed at the creature in silence.
They admired his rich tawny stripes.
Not a man on the hills had ever before been able to get such a skin.
They all wished that they might have it, but they knew that it belonged to Strongarm.
They examined the two large sabre teeth.
They felt of the smaller teeth and claws.
At length the men began to quarrel about the trophies, but Strongarm waved them back.
He claimed one sabre tooth for himself and allowed the other to go to the brave old man.
When Strongarm spoke the men kept silent, for they knew that the trophies belonged to the bravest men.
But they were given a share in the smaller teeth and claws.
While they were loosening them with stone hammers, the women were hunting for their stone knives.
They were soon busy taking off Sabre-tooth’s beautiful skin.
When the heavy skin was off, they began to get ready for the feast.
They ate pieces of raw flesh as they worked, and tossed pieces to the men and boys.
They were all too hungry to wait for the feast.
Besides, they were used to eating raw meat.
But they had learned how to cook meat at this time.
They had learned to roast meat in hot ashes.
At first they roasted the animal in its skin, but now they knew a better way.
They skinned the animal and cut out the ribs; then they buried them in the hot ashes.
They covered the ashes with hot coals.
They cut slices of meat with their stone knives and put them on roasting sticks.
Then they held these sticks over the hot coals just as we sometimes do to-day.
THINGS TO DO
_Make believe that you are doing some of the work that the Cave-men did, and see if any one can guess what it is._
_See if you can cook something over the coals._
_Ask some one to read you a story that Charles Lamb wrote about roast pig._
VI
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
How do you think the Cave-men would act at a feast?
What would they use for dishes?
What would they do to entertain themselves and their neighbors?
When would the neighbors go home?
_The Feast_
Nobody knew just when the feast began.
Nobody set the table, for there was no table to set.
But the women brought bowls they had made out of hollow gourds.
Before the meat was half cooked everybody was eating.
Some ate thick slices that had been partly roasted on the sharp sticks.
Others chewed raw meat from bones which they tore from the carcass.
The children sucked strips of raw meat and picked the scraps from the ground.
When the women lifted the ribs out of the hot ashes, they found a nice gravy.
They dipped up the gravy in their gourd bowls and gave it to the men.
Strongarm dipped some up with a bone dipper that had been made from the skull of a cave-bear.
Then he tore out a rib from the carcass and gnawed the meat from the bone.
They all held what they ate in their hands.
They all ate very fast, and they ate a long time.
At last their hunger was satisfied, and they began to crack the marrow bones and scrape the marrow out with sharp sticks and bones.
When the men became tired of sucking the bones, they tossed them to the women and children.
Then the men joined in a hunting-dance while the women beat time with the bones.
The women chanted, too, as they beat time.
They danced until all became tired and the visitors were ready to go.
Then Firekeeper loaded pieces of meat upon the backs of the women, and all gathered around to see the neighbors start home.
As soon as they were gone the Cave-men prepared to rest for the night.
THINGS TO DO
_Take turns in doing something that the Cave-men did at the feast, and let the children guess what it is._
_Find some good marrow bones and crack them._
_Find out whether we use marrow bones for anything to-day._
_If you think that you can, make something of the marrow bones._
_Can you think why bones are filled with marrow?_
_See if you can beat time with marrow bones so as to help some one do his work._
_See if you can make dishes of pumpkins, squashes, melons, cucumbers, or anything else that you can find._
VII
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
If you were going to live in a cave that had been taken from a wild animal, what would you do to make it comfortable?
What do you think the Cave-men did?
What do you think the Cave-men found in the cave?
What kind of beds do you think they made?
If they built a fire inside the cave do you think that the smoke would pass out?
Where do you think that they would make their fireplace? Where do we make our fireplaces?
How do we keep the smoke from getting into our rooms?
_How the Cave Was Made Ready for a Winter Home_
The morning after the feast Firekeeper built a fire inside the cave.
Then all went in to look at the cave, but the smoke soon drove them out.
So Firekeeper raked out the fire with a branch of spruce wood and waited for the smoke to go out.
Then the Cave-men took firebrands and crept inside, and stood up and walked around.
Bones of animals were strewn upon the rough rocky floor.
Pieces of rock shaped like icicles hung from the roof and stood up from some parts of the floor.
Drops of water trickled down from the roof.
Layers of rock jutted out from the walls like shelves.
The Cave-men walked through the large dry cavern until they came to a narrow passage.
Then they stopped to see where it led.
They peered into the darkness, but saw nothing.
They listened, but heard no sound.
Since no one wanted to creep through the passage, they turned back toward the mouth.
The dry cavern near the mouth was large enough for a home, so the Cave-men thought no more of the narrow passage.
Before the men went out of the cave they picked up armfuls of bones for weapons.
They carried them out by the fire and sat down and worked upon them.
The women cleared away piles of bones, so as to make a smooth place to sleep.
Then they went out among the trees to find something to cover the floor.
They broke off small branches of evergreens and carried them into the cave.
The children brought armfuls of moss and leaves, and scattered them over the hard rocky floor.
When the beds were finished they made a fireplace.
They dug a shallow hole just outside the cave and walled it around with stones.
Perhaps you would not call this a good fireplace, but it was the best fireplace any one had at that time.
THINGS TO DO
_Visit a cave when you have a chance to do so._
_Collect pictures of caves._
_Model a cave in clay or make one in the ground._
_Find out what caves are used for nowadays._
_Make a fireplace out of doors and cook something in the hot ashes._
VIII
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
What do you think the beads you wear are made of?
Can you think how they were made?
What do you think the Cave-men used for beads?
What did they wear for ornaments besides beads?
Can you think how they bored holes through their ornaments?
What does the carpenter use to bore holes with?
How does the woodpecker bore holes?
_How the Cave-men Bored Holes Through Their Trophies_
For several days after the feast the Cave-men did not hunt.
As long as they had meat they stayed near the cave and worked upon their trophies.
They were trying to bore holes through the teeth and claws, so as to string them and wear them for ornaments.
Strongarm was working upon the big sabre tooth.
When he had worked for some time, the Cave-men gathered around to see how deep a hole he had made.
Some of the men said that he never could do it, but others thought that it could be done.
Strongarm was tired, so he rested a while and talked to the people about boring holes.
He told what he had heard when he was a boy.
All the grown people had heard what he said many times, but they were always ready to hear it again.
Besides, they wished their children to hear it.
So old and young gathered around to hear what Strongarm said.
They all looked and listened as Strongarm showed the children how to make holes with awls.
As he spoke, the people picked up thorns or sharp bones and punched them through some object.
Then Strongarm showed them a bone awl that he had made to punch holes through seeds and thin shells.
But they could not punch holes through teeth and claws, so they learned to twirl the awls in their hands.
Strongarm did not know how people learned to do this, but he thought that they learned it when at play.
He took a round stick that had a sharp point and twirled it back and forth on his thigh.
The other Cave-men twirled, too, for they wanted to show the children how to bore holes.
The children soon learned how to do it.
Then Strongarm told them of a kind of wood whose surface was coated with sand.
He told of awls and spindles that were made of this wood and used to bore holes through teeth and claws.
Such wood as this could not always be found, so people used other stems.
They tried to find something that was hard enough to bore the teeth and claws.
Sometimes they used sand with a spindle of wood.
At other times they fastened a hard flint point at the end of a wooden spindle.
When they used the sand in boring, they no longer twirled the spindle on their thighs.
They could not use the sand unless they held the spindle upright.
Strongarm showed them how it was done, and all the people tried it.
It was hard work for one person to twirl the spindle steadily.
So they began to twirl in an easier way which they had learned when they were young.
Strongarm and Sharpeyes worked together, and the others worked in the same way.
When Strongarm’s hands were near the foot of the spindle, Sharpeyes’ hands were near the top.
As Sharpeyes’ hands began to move down the spindle, Strongarm began again to twirl at the top.
Sometimes they were awkward in moving their hands.
Then the spindle did not work so well, so they tried to keep the same time with their hands.
They worked together best when they sang as they worked, and the singing kept them from getting tired.
Once when they stopped to look at their work, Strongarm picked up a strap that was on the ground.
He carelessly wound it once around the spindle, keeping hold of one end of the strap.
Then Sharpeyes picked up the other end of the strap, and Strongarm jerked the end that he held.
They did this a few minutes just in play, but at last they began to do it in earnest.
Strongarm placed the end of the spindle in the shallow hole that he had made in the sabre tooth.
Then he and Sharpeyes began to twirl the spindle with the strap.
But there was nothing to keep the spindle from falling.
So they tried to hold it with a piece of wood.
They made a shallow hole in the wood to fit the top of the spindle.
Then while Strongarm and Sharpeyes pulled the strap, a boy held the spindle in place.
Soon the spindle was working steadily, and the hole was becoming deeper and deeper.
When they had bored a hole halfway through the tooth, they began to bore from the opposite side.
All the Cave-men came up to see them work.
As soon as the hole was made, Strongarm took a cord of braided sinew and hung the sabre tooth at his side.
After that he always wore the trophy.
Sometimes he used it for a knife and sometimes for a saw.
Every one who saw this rare trophy knew that Strongarm was a brave man.
THINGS TO DO
_Make a collection of things that you can use for awls._
_Find something that will do for the spindle of a drill._
_Show how to drill a hole by twirling the spindle or awl on the thigh._
_Show how one person can twirl an upright spindle._
_Show how two persons can twirl an upright spindle with their hands._
_Show how they can do it with a strap. Can you think why stones are sometimes bound to the shaft of a drill?_
_Look at the picture of the bow drill and see if you can make one._
_Draw a picture of the Cave-men working upon their trophies._
IX
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
Think of as many tools and weapons as you can that the Cave-men found ready to use.
What could they find to make into tools and weapons? Why did they not use large boards and metals?
Why did they put handles on their tools and weapons?
Think of as many ways as you can of fastening handles to tools and weapons.
_Making New Weapons_
The Cave-men liked their new home.
They were able to work better when they were warm than when they were shivering with the cold.
They found more time to improve their tools and weapons.
One day they began to make weapons of the bones they found in the cave.
Many of the bones were good for clubs.
Others were good for handles of weapons.
After the Cave-men had sorted out the bones that they wanted, they went to hunt stones along the margin of the stream.
They wanted stones that were good for hammers.
So they hunted for smooth, round stones that were hard to break.
They wanted other stones for knives, spears, and axes.
So they hunted for stones that broke with a sharp edge.
They struck the sharp edges with hammer stones to see if they crumbled under a heavy blow.
When they found stones that crumbled they threw them away, but they kept the stones that were tough and strong.
When they had chipped off a few large flakes they carried the rough stones to the cave.
There they made them into weapons.
They did not chip the hammer stones, but fastened handles to them.
Some handles were long bones that were large at the joint.
Other handles were made of forked branches.
Sharpeyes found a hammer stone with a groove around the center and fastened a handle to it.
He cut a slender branch of a sapling and bent it around the groove.
Then he twisted the ends and held them close, while he bound them with rawhide.
The Cave-men liked this hammer so well that they made other hammers like it.
They made long handles for their knife points, so that they became real spears.
They put handles on the spearheads in many ways.
Sometimes they bound the spearhead between the split end of a long stick, and covered the binding with pitch.
Sometimes they drove the spearhead into the soft part of a large horn.
Sometimes they drove it into the pith of a branch.
They always tried to bind the handle so that it would stay, for they sometimes got hurt when a handle came off.
THINGS TO DO
_Find stones that will make good hammers. Tell why they are good for hammers._
_Find stones that are good for knives, axes, and spears. Tell why they are good for such weapons._
_Find bones, horns, or sticks that are good for handles. See if you can put handles on hammers or spears._
_Notice how handles are put on tools nowadays._
_Show as many ways as you can of fastening handles to tools and weapons._
_See if you can find a tool whose handle is fastened in a way that the Cave-men did not use._
_Tell where you can find the best stones for tools and weapons._
_Why do people not use stones for tools nowadays?_
_Find out what small stones are used for to-day._
_How do you use stones?_
X
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
What do you think the women were doing while the men were working on their weapons?
What tools and weapons did the women need? Do you think that they made them themselves?
_How the Women Dressed Sabre-tooth’s Skin_
While the men worked upon their trophies and weapons, the women, too, were working.
They had gone to the river banks to get stones to make into tools.
They were ready to dress old Sabre-tooth’s skin, so they hunted for stones that would make good scrapers.
They shaped the stones by chipping them with hammer stones, but they did not make handles for them.
If the rough edges hurt their hands, they wrapped the scraper in a piece of skin.
When the scrapers were ready, they found a smooth spot where they stretched out Sabre-tooth’s skin.
Then they made little slits all around the edge and drove little pegs through them.
They scraped off thin shavings from the inner side, but they were careful not to spoil the skin by cutting through it.
When they had a smooth surface, they rubbed it with fat so as to make it soft.
Sometimes they chewed the hard parts to make them soft.
When the skin was smooth and soft, they dried it in the sun.
Then they took it into the cave.
Sabre-tooth’s skin was too large to wear every day, but Strongarm wore it on feast days.
THINGS TO DO
_Show how the women stretched the skin upon the ground._
_Show how they scraped it and rubbed it with fat._
_Find a stone or a shell that will make a good scraper._