Chapter 3

To the child's questions Scarface replied, "While Nimble-finger was still a young man he went far away. For many years he lived far north in a cave beside the River of Stones. But years have come and gone since then. If he still lives, he is an old man; but of that I know not."

#THINGS TO DO#

_If you can find a piece of flint strike off a flake with a hammer-stone. Strike off a flake with an angular stone. Strike off a flake by using a hammer and punch._

_Sort out the flakes that are good for knives. Put handles on them. Sort out the flakes that are good for making into spearheads. See if you can strike off tiny flakes until the large flake looks like a spearhead._

_Find something which you can use as a flaker. When you have made one, see if you can use it._

_Make a collection of stones which you can chip or flake. Tell all you know about each of those stones._

_Think of Scarface as he was telling the story. Draw the picture._

VII

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

What do our horses and cattle eat? Where do we get their food? What do wild cattle and horses eat? See if you can find out whether wild cattle or horses have ever lived in a place where the ground is covered with snow part of the year.

Did you ever see cattle pawing the ground? Did you ever see horses pawing the ground? Did you ever see them paw the snow?

See if you can find out something about the great herds of bison that used to live in this country. What has become of them?

Can you think why bison live in herds? What officers does a herd of bison have? Can you think how the officers of a herd of bison are chosen?

_The Return of the Bison_

Ever since the reindeer went away the Cave-men had been looking for the return of the bison. Each summer the herds came up the valley to feed on green grass and tender shoots. Each winter they went to the forests of the lowlands where they found shelter from the cold.

The snow was now gone from the wooded hills and the days were warm again. The dingy brown coats of the hillsides were changing to the palest green. The buds were beginning to swell. Everything seemed to say that summer was coming.

Each day the Cave-men watched for signs of the coming of the great herd. Each night they danced the bison dance and tried to make the bison come.

One morning Straightshaft climbed the cliff and looked far up and down the valley. Looking north he could see the River of Stones with high cliffs on one or both banks. He could see dense forests of evergreen that grew on the low banks. He could see hills and valleys beyond the cliffs where many wild animals lived.

Looking south, near at hand, was the Fork of the River where Little River joined the River of Stones. Here the cliffs were not very high; farther down, they became lower, and at last there were no cliffs. The edge of the lowland forest where the bison wintered could be seen far away. Grassy lowlands near the forests stretched farther than the eye could see. It was here that the bison and cattle found the best winter pastures. It was in the lowland forests that they found shelter from the cold.

Straightshaft looked toward the lowlands, hoping to see a bison. Mammoths were feeding not far away, and beyond were woolly rhinoceroses. But there was not one bison.

As Straightshaft watched the second day, chamois and ibexes played on the hills. Herds of horses came from the grassy uplands and returned after drinking at the ford. But no sign of a bison yet appeared.

The third day Straightshaft saw a black spot in the distance. It was far down on the river trail. As he watched, it became larger and larger. And then Straightshaft knew that it was a bison coming in advance of the great herd.

The morning of the fourth day the great herd came. A powerful bison led the way. Strong sentinels guarded either side. The herd followed blindly, galloping eight or ten abreast.

Straightshaft saw the herd at sunrise and made a sign to the men. Those who saw it passed it along, and soon all the people had seen the sign. Then everybody climbed up a hill or a high cliff and watched the coming of the bison.

Nearer and nearer the great herd came, like a sea of tossing manes and horns. The earth trembled beneath their tread and the air was filled with their bellowing.

When the bison reached the ford, the foremost creatures stopped to drink. But the solid mass, pressing on from the rear, crowded them up the river. Soon the ford was packed with struggling beasts. Some tried to escape by swimming up the river. Others swam down the stream. And still the solid mass from the rear kept crowding on and on.

At length the herd divided. One part followed the river trail, while the other went up the narrow valley. Whenever a herd reached a branching valley, a big bison led off a small herd. This happened many a time. And at the close of the day there was not a little valley in the surrounding country that did not have a herd of two or three hundred bison.

#THINGS TO DO#

_Play you are a herd of bison, and show how the herd marched. Show how it divided. Show how you think it would come together again._

_Show in your sand-box where Straightshaft stood while he watched. Show the trails the bison followed._

_Think of the herd as it galloped up the river trail. Draw the picture._

_Make such a sign as you think Straightshaft made._

_Plan a bison dance._

VIII

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

If you were to hunt bison, what would you want to know about them?

In what ways can bison notice signs of danger? In what ways can they help one another?

Watch animals, and see if they give signs to one another.

What weapons do you think the Cave-men would take when they went to hunt the bison? How could the Cave-men help one another in hunting? How might one man hinder the others?

_The First Bison Hunt of the Season_

And now the great herd of bison had come, and the Cave-men were eager to hunt them. While they were getting ready to start they kept up this merry song:--

_The bison have come;_ _The bison have come;_ _Now for the chase!_ _Now for the chase!_ _Bring axes and spears;_ _Bring axes and spears;_ _Now for the chase!_ _Now for the chase!_

When Scarface climbed the cliff he saw three herds of bison. The first was feeding in an open space; the second was on a hillside, and the third was in a narrow valley close by a deep and hidden ravine. This was a place where the Cave-men liked to hunt. So they agreed to follow Scarface through the hidden ravine.

Scarface led the way, and all the men followed. Not a leaf rustled beneath their tread. Not a twig broke as they crept up the side of the deep ravine and looked out at the herd.

Everybody wanted to get the yearlings or young cows, for their flesh was tender and sweet. But the cows and young bison were in the center of the herd. They were guarded by the sentinels, whose flesh was hard and tough.

And so the Cave-men wondered how to get a young bison. They wondered if the vigilant leader was more than a match for them. They watched his signals, and saw fresh sentinels take the places of the hungry ones. They noticed how quickly the bison obeyed every signal the leader gave.

At last the Cave-men decided to attack the leader first. They waited till he was not more than a stone's throw away. Then Scarface gave the signal and the men made a bold attack.

Straightshaft hurled his spear with all his might, then turned to give place to the others. The leader was taken by surprise. The men had crept up so quietly that not till the spear whizzed through the air did he suspect danger.

With a quick snort he turned and charged. Straightshaft ran, but the others met the charge. They hurled their spears and dealt heavy blows with their stone axes.

Before the leader could give the alarm he lay stretched out on the ground. The sentinels looked for a signal. Meanwhile the cows and yearlings tried to make their escape.

Then each of several sentinels tried to lead. But the frightened herd did not know which one to follow. Some of the bison rushed one way and some rushed another. Then there was a general stampede. They gored one another with their sharp horns. They trampled one another under their feet. They were too frightened to know what they were doing.

It was then that the Cave-men singled out the young bison. When they had secured them for their prize, they started toward the cave, singing--

_To-day we went hunting._ _We crept up the ravine;_ _We surprised the leader of the bison._ _He made a charge upon us--_ _We have his horns for a headdress._ _We killed many a young bison;_ _We have plenty of tender meat._

Perhaps one of the sentinels became leader of the herd that very day. Perhaps several battles were fought to see which sentinel was the strongest. For bison never follow a leader that is not stronger and wiser than themselves.

#THINGS TO DO#

_Show in your sand-box where each of the three herds was feeding._

_Make a plan for hunting the herd that was feeding in an open space._

_Draw one of these pictures:_-- _The Cave-men creeping up the banks of the steep ravine._ _The charge of the leader._ _The stampede._ _Deciding which bison shall be leader of the herd._

_Make a song to sing in getting ready to hunt the way you have planned. Make a song to sing on your return._

_Model a large, strong bison._

IX

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Watch water when it is boiling, and see if you can tell what happens.

Why would it be harder for people to learn to boil than to roast?

What kind of dishes did the Cave-men have? What would happen to them if they were put over the fire?

What does your mother do, when she wants to find out whether the flatiron is hot enough to iron?

When the Cave-men first learned to boil water, do you think they would think of boiling food? What might make them think of boiling food?

_What Happened when the Children Played with Hot Stones_

Again the Cave-men went out to hunt. Again the women went out to gather roots and berries. Only Chew-chew and the children were left near the cave.

Chew-chew was curing the skins which the women had brought home. Some of them were stretched out on the ground. Others were stretched on frames. Many of these were ready to be rolled up and put away.

While the skins were drying, Chew-chew had time for other work. She wanted to finish her basket, and so the splints must be put to soak.

At a sign from Chew-chew, Fleetfoot went to the river for a bag of water. While he was gone, Chew-chew began to make a place to put it. She dug a shallow hole in the ground and lined it with a skin.

When Fleetfoot came back they patted down the skin. Then they poured the water into the skin-lined hole, and put the splints to soak.

While Chew-chew worked at her basket, Fleetfoot played near at hand. Often he came to his grandmother's side and talked about many things.

At length Chew-chew, holding up a skin, turned to Fleetfoot and said, "Do you know what animal wore this skin?"

"One of the reindeer we saw at the ford," quickly responded Fleetfoot.

"Where have all the reindeer gone?" was Chew-chew's next question.

"To the cave of the Big Bear of the mountains," came the prompt answer.

While Chew-chew and Fleetfoot talked the children played near the cave. Pigeon was playing with stones which she had gathered and tossed into the fire. In trying to get them out again she burned her fingers, and began to cry.

When Chew-chew saw what had happened, she told Fleetfoot to play with Pigeon. And Fleetfoot played with Pigeon, and he showed her how to lift hot stones without getting burned.

The children played and carried hot stones with tongs made of sticks. They ran back and forth between rows of skins until Pigeon dropped a hot stone into the hole.

No sooner had Pigeon dropped the stone than she screamed, "A snake! a snake!" And she ran to her grandmother and sobbed, while she hid her face in her chubby arm.

Chew-chew thought that a snake was crawling about. Fleetfoot helped her look under all the skins. They looked for some time, but they found no trace of a snake.

Then Chew-chew asked Pigeon to tell her all about it. And Pigeon said, "A big snake hissed and made me drop the stone."

Just then Fleetfoot dropped a hot stone and something went "s-s-s-s-s-s."

Pigeon screamed again, but a hearty laugh from Chew-chew showed there was nothing to fear. Chew-chew knew that the hissing sound was not the hiss of a snake. It was the sizzling of the water when it touched the hot stone.

And so Chew-chew tried to teach the children how to know the hissing sound. She picked up hot stones and dropped them into the water. Each time a stone was dropped, the hissing sound was heard; and the children learned to know the sound, and they were no longer afraid.

As Chew-chew kept on dropping the hot stones, she did not notice all that happened. She thought only of teaching the children, so that they would not be afraid. But at last such a strange thing happened, that even Chew-chew was afraid.

The water no longer was still. It kept moving like the angry water in the rapids of the river. A thin mist began to rise, and a strange voice came from the water, saying:--

"_Bubble, bubble, bubble; Bubble, bubble, bubble._"

At the sound Chew-chew was filled with fear. She was afraid the gods were angry. She looked about for an offering, and found a piece of bison meat. She dropped the meat into the water, hoping to appease the angry god.

The bubbling ceased, but Chew-chew was still afraid. So she called the children together, and took them into the cave.

When the men and women came home that night, Chew-chew told them what had happened. They went to the spot and saw the meat, which they thought the god had left. Then they listened in silence as Chew-chew told them the story again and again.

#THINGS TO DO#

_Choose some one for each of the parts and dramatize the story._

_Draw pictures which will show what happened._

_See if you can boil water by dropping hot stones into it._

_Show in your sand-box how the skins were stretched out, and how the skin-lined hole was made._

X

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

What do you think Chew-chew might learn by dropping the meat into the hot water?

What kind of boiling-pots did people first use?

Why didn't they hang their boiling-pots over the fire?

_Why the Children Began to Eat Boiled Meat_

The more Chew-chew thought about the bubbling sound, the more she wanted to hear it again. She wondered what the god wanted to say, and if he was asking for food. She wondered if she could make friends with him by giving him something to eat.

Chew-chew talked with Eagle-eye and at length they tried to make friends with the god. They prepared a place for the water by making a skin-lined hole. Eagle-eye poured the water into the hole, while Chew-chew dropped in a piece of meat. Then they looked and listened for a sign, but no sign was made. They tried it again and again, but still there was no sign.

At length Chew-chew thought of the hot stones she had dropped when she heard the voice. So she and Eagle-eye heated stones and dropped them into the water. As they did it they muttered prayers to the gods and asked them to protect the Cave-men.

Before the women had dropped many stones, the children crowded around. Nobody was frightened this time when the hissing sound was heard. But their eyes opened wide when the water began to bubble.

Chew-chew dropped the meat into the water as an offering to the god. Everybody watched as she dropped the meat. Everybody breathed more freely when the bubbling ceased. And Chew-chew said, "The god is pleased with the offering of meat."

Many times after that Chew-chew dropped hot stones into the water, and offered meat to the god. But when she did it she never thought that she was cooking meat. She thought she was helping the Cave-men by winning the favor of the god.

Sometimes when the children were hungry, Chew-chew let them tear off strips of partly boiled meat. Sometimes she let them drink the broth from bone dippers and horns.

The children liked to eat the boiled meat and to drink the rich broth. But they always thought the meat and broth were what the god had left.

#THINGS TO DO#

_Make tongs out of sticks and see if you can lift small objects with them._

_Watch water when it boils, and tell where the steam comes from._

_Where does it go? Hold a cold plate over the steam and see what happens. Where do the drops of water on the plate come from?_

_When water stands in the open air, what becomes of part of it?_

_Why do we hang clothes out on the clothes-line to dry?_

_What becomes of the water that was in the clothes?_

_Tell what you think happens just as clouds form. See if you can do something that will show what happens at the time._

_What happens to the clouds just as it begins to rain?_

XI

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Why would the grass-eating animals go from place to place during the summer? What do you think the Cave-men would do when the herds went away?

At what season of the year are nuts fit to gather? Is there any place near by where you have a right to go nutting?

What animals eat nuts? What animals store nuts? Do you think the Cave-men would gather many nuts?

_The Nutting Season_

Summer passed as summers had passed before. When the bison went to the higher lands, the Cave-men followed them. When they started toward their winter pastures, the Cave-men came home.

It was the nutting season when they returned. All the beech, walnut, and butternut trees were heavily laden that year. The ground underneath their branches was nearly covered with nuts. Slender hazel bushes bent under their heavy loads.

Wild hogs and bears had begun to harvest the nuts before the Cave-men returned. Each day they went to the trees and ate the nuts that had fallen. When Eagle-eye saw what they were doing, she said, "Bring your bags and baskets and come. If we do not look out the hogs will get the best of the nuts this year."

Then all the women and children went nutting. They gathered the nuts that lay upon the ground and put them in their baskets. Some climbed trees and shook the branches until they got a shower of nuts; others took their digging sticks and beat the heavily laden branches.

The children had a feast that day. They sat down under the trees and cracked all the nuts they could eat. They gathered handfuls and helped their mothers fill baskets and skin bags. They climbed the trees and they laughed and played all day long.

When the women first came to the trees, they heard the wild hogs in the distance. Once a big hog came up and tried to eat the nuts out of a basket. But Eagle-eye chased him with a big stick and drove him away from the spot.

When Eagle-eye was coming back from the chase, she saw other trees heavily laden. She called to the women, and they came to the spot and forgot all about the nuts they had gathered.

It was Chew-chew who first thought of the pile of nuts they had left on the ground. It was she who ran to the trees and found the wild hogs having a feast.

Chew-chew struck one of the hogs with her digging stick. He was munching the nuts she had gathered. He turned away and she struck another; then the first hog came back.

Chew-chew soon found that unless she had help the hogs would eat all the nuts, for as fast as she drove one hog away another one came back. Chew-chew screamed for help and the women came with their digging-sticks.

The women drove the hogs away, but they returned again and again. And so the women learned to keep a close watch while they were gathering nuts. But in spite of all their trouble, they had a good time that day.

It was not until they were starting home that they found that a serious thing had happened. They did not know all about it then, and some of them never knew.

It was all about Fleetfoot. When Eagle-eye looked for him, he was nowhere to be seen. At first she thought he was with Chew-chew, but Chew-chew had not seen him since morn.

Fleetfoot had played near his mother nearly all day. He had cracked nuts; he had climbed trees; he had mimicked the squirrels; he had scattered burrs in the rabbits' paths, and he had done all sorts of things.

But now Fleetfoot was lost, and everybody began to hunt for him. Eagle-eye found the stones he had left only a short time before. She found his tracks and followed them until they crossed the boundary of the hunting ground. There she lost all trace of him. She called, but the "caw-caw" of a crow was the only answer.

The men heard her call, and came to join in the search. But in spite of all they could do, they did not find the child.

And so the Cave-men thought they would never see Fleetfoot again. They thought he had lost his way in the forest and had been killed by a cave-bear. For a few days they mourned for the child, then they spoke no more of him.

#THINGS TO DO#

_Tell a story of what happened one time when you went nutting._

_Name all the nuts you can that grow on trees. Name those that grow on bushes. Where do peanuts grow?_

_Dramatize this story._

_Draw a picture of the part you like the best._

XII

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Why do people put up such signs as "Keep off," "Do not trespass"?

Why do people build fences around their land?

Do you think the Cave-men could hunt wherever they chose?

Why did each clan have its own hunting ground? What kind of boundaries did the hunting grounds have? Why was it not safe to go on the land of a stranger?

Why did mothers teach their children the boundary lines?

What do you think some mothers mean when they tell their children that the "Bogie-man" will get them?

_Why Mothers Taught their Children the Boundary Lines_

Each day brought so many hard things to do that most of the Cave-men forgot Fleetfoot. But his mother and grandmother did not forget him. They often thought of the boy they had lost.

Other mothers were afraid they might lose their children. So they tried to keep them from running away. Most of all, they tried to keep them from running across the boundary line.

When Pigeon tried to run away, Eagle-eye would say, "The cave-bear will get you." Mothers tried all sorts of ways to keep their children from danger.

Each clan had its own hunting ground. The people who lived together shared it, but no one else was allowed to hunt on the land. It was not even safe to cross the land of a stranger. Sometimes the Cave-men had to do it. Sometimes they had to call upon their neighbors for help. But since there were people who had lost their lives when trying to cross the land of strangers, the Cave-men learned to use signs to show what they wanted. They carved pictures upon sticks, which told what we might tell in a letter.

When a stranger carried a message-stick, it was safe for him to do his errand. People knew what he wanted and why he came, so they let him go on his way unharmed. But when a stranger had no message-stick, his life was not safe in a strange land.