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diff --git a/18576.txt b/18576.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..573014f --- /dev/null +++ b/18576.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2885 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone, by Margaret A. McIntyre + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone + +Author: Margaret A. McIntyre + +Release Date: June 13, 2006 [EBook #18576] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Making stone tools] + + + + + + +THE CAVE BOY + +OF THE AGE OF STONE + + +BY + +MARGARET A. McINTYRE + + + +NEW YORK + +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY + +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + + + + +Dedicated to My Mother + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. STRONGARM'S FAMILY + II. THE NEEDLE, THE CLUB, AND THE BOW + III. THE TAMING OF THE DOG + IV. HOW STRONGARM HUNTED A BEAR AND A LION + V. THE OLD AX MAKER VISITS HIS DAUGHTER + VI. THE COMING OF FIRE + VII. THE CAVE TIGER + VIII. THE MAKING OF STONE WEAPONS + IX. AT THE GRAVEL PIT + X. A SUMMER CAMP + XI. THORN MEETS THE CHILDREN OF THE SHELL MOUNDS + XII. AT THE HOME OF THE SHELL MOUND PEOPLE + XIII. THORN LEARNS TO SWIM + XIV. THE FEAST OF MAMMOTH'S MEAT + XV. THE RED MEN OF OUR OWN COUNTRY IN THE STONE AGE + XVI. HOW STONE WEAPONS OF THE CAVE MEN WERE FIRST FOUND + XVII. HOW THE EARTH LOOKED WHEN THE SHELL MEN AND THE CAVE MEN LIVED + XVIIII. HOW EARLY MEN BELIEVED THAT ALL THINGS THAT MOVE ARE ALIVE + XIX. THE PEOPLE OF OUR TIME WHO WERE MOST LIKE THE CAVE MEN + + SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Making stone tools . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + +All at once, the goat stood up on her hind legs + +Strongarm + +A big black bear came along + +Then he sat down by the fire to make his picture of the bear + +Ram horns + +Sewing together skins of wild oxen + +A little bone + +Bone needle + +Broken hunting club + +The bees flew off humming angrily + +The edge of the pond + +And, for fun, set it against the string + +Broken hunting club (2nd version) + +Cattle horns + +So they lay down on the ground and began to call + +A nest full of young eagles + +She scraped off all the meat and fat + +Tiger's tooth and bear's claw + +Lion + +Lion's tooth + +Stone tools + +Stone axe + +Woven basket + +Little wild pigs were eating the acorns + +The sparks came like a flame and caught the dry leaves + +The boys listened in wonder + +Shelter of branches + +Acorns + +Tiger + +Tiger's tooth + +He struck with his hammer stone + +He held the pebble in his left hand and struck it a sharp blow + +Deer antlers + +Forest scene + +Spear + +The women and children went to pick berries + +The women and children ate and ate the sweet fruit + +Snowy owl in tree + +Women with baskets + +Skin bag with pull string + +Herd of reindeer + +They dived into the river and swam away, pulling the raft + +Flock of white swans + +The sea + +Clam and oyster shells + +Dug-out boat + +They began to cook the fish + +The people took the fish in their hands + +Cutting down a tree + +A flounder + +Seaweed + +Thorn learns to swim + +Clay bowls + +Mammoth trapped in swamp + +Wolves + +Throwing a spear + +A North American Indian + +A stone arrow head + +A stone ax + +Picture of reindeer, scratched on slate; found in a cave in France + +Eskimo by their winter huts; drawn by an Eskimo + +A bone awl; found in a cave in England + +Drawing of a mammoth, on a piece of mammoth tusk; + found in a cave in France + +A flint knife; found in Australia + + + + +THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE + + +CHAPTER I + +STRONGARM'S FAMILY + +It was spring, thousands of years ago. Little boys snatched the April +violets, and with them painted purple stripes upon their arms and +faces. Then they played that enemies came. + +"Be afraid!" shouted one, frowning; and he stamped his foot and shook +his fist at the play enemies. + +"I am fine!" called the other; and he held his head high, and took big +steps, and looked this way and that. + +The little brothers were named Thorn and Pineknot. Their baby sister +had no name. The children looked rough and wild and strong and glad. +The sun had made them brown, the wind had tangled their hair. Their +clothes were only bits of fox skin. Their home was the safe rock cave +in the side of the hill. + +Near the children a little goat was eating the sweet new grass. She +was tied with a string made of skin. Thorn stroked her and, laughing, +said, + +"Let us put the baby on the goat's back and see her run." + +"Oh, that would be fun!" cried Pineknot, and he ran and untied the goat. + +Laughing, Thorn put the baby on the goat's back. The little fingers +clung to the goat's hair. + +Then Thorn struck the goat and shouted, "Run!" + +The goat ran; the baby laughed; Pineknot danced and clapped his hands. +All at once, the goat stood up on her hind legs. The baby fell off, +and rolled over and over on the ground. She cried out, though she was +not hurt. And the boys laughed and shouted till the woods rang. + +[Illustration: All at once, the goat stood up on her hind legs] + +After a while Pineknot thought of the goat; he had not tied her. + +"Where is the little goat? Oh, there she is up among the rocks. She +did not run away, Thorn." + +"No," said Thorn, "she will not run away now, for we pet her and give +her things to eat. Mother feeds her, too." + +"Oh, but she was a wild one when father brought her home," said +Pineknot. "Father killed the mother goat and caught the young one +alive. He said that he would keep her at the cave. Then some day when +he had killed nothing on the hunt, and we were hungry, he would kill +the goat." + +"We will ask father not to kill her, but let us keep her for a pet," +said Thorn. + +As the boys were talking, from far away through the forest came a big, +merry song: + + "The wild horse ran very fast, + But I ran faster! + The wild horse ran very fast, + But I ran faster!" + +"It is father coming from the hunt," said Thorn, jumping to his feet. + +"He is bringing wild horse meat. Good, good!" cried Pineknot. + +Thorn threw the baby on his back, and together the boys ran into the +forest to meet their father. + +The forest--oh, it was beautiful! The trunks of the old trees were big +and rough and mossy. And there were tall ferns and gray rocks and +little brooks, and there was a sweet smell of rotting leaves. + + "The wild horse ran very fast, + But I ran faster!" + +still sang the young hunter, shaking his red hair gaily. He was not +tall, but his legs were big, for he ran after the wild horse and deer +and ox. And his arms were big, because he threw a great spear and a +stone ax. His name was Strongarm. + +[Illustration: Strongarm] + +The boys came running up to their father. They pointed to the meat on +his shoulder, and laughed and shouted and clapped their hands. + + "We shall not go hungry to-day! + We shall not go hungry to-day!" + +they sang as they danced along. + +"Ho, ho, ho!" sang Strongarm to his wife, as he went into the cave. He +threw the horse meat upon the floor with a loud laugh, and lay down on +a bear skin to rest. + +The cave was a big room with a high roof. The floor was of dirt and +very hard. The walls were limestone rock in beautiful rough layers, +one upon another. From the roof the limestone hung in long pointed +shapes, like icicles. + +A fire burned brightly on the floor, while the smoke rose slowly and +went out at a hole in the roof. The walls and the roof were blackened +by smoke. + +Strongarm's young wife was named Burr. She was glad when she saw the +meat. She took her stone knife quickly and cut up the meat, and threw +the pieces on the hot coals. While the fire blazed and snapped and +cooked the meat, the boys looked on with hungry eyes. + +When the meat was done, Burr pulled it from the fire with a long stick. +The boys and Strongarm snatched it up and tore it to pieces with their +white teeth. + +"Um-m! how good and tender and juicy!" said the boys, grinning, and +smacking their lips. + +When the meat was all gone, the bones were broken and the sweet marrow +scraped out and eaten; for that was good, too. + +While the family was still eating, a big black bear came along. He +smelled the meat, and put his great rough head in at the door and +sniffed. + +[Illustration: A big black bear came along] + +"Bear!" shouted Strongarm, jumping to his feet. + +Burr and the boys cried out and quickly ran away to hide. Strongarm +snatched a blazing log and struck the bear. He was burned and hurt, +and he grew angry. He stood up on his hind legs and growled and showed +his sharp teeth. + +Strongarm snatched his ax and made for the bear, but he had gone. His +growls sounded farther and farther away. Still Strongarm stood with +his ax ready, his heart thumping and his eyes big. When he saw that +the bear was not coming back, he dropped his ax with a gruff laugh. +Then Burr and the boys came creeping out of their holes. And they all +laughed and talked at once, telling how scared they had been. + +The growls of the bear still sounded through the woods, so the boys ran +to the door to see him. + +"There he goes!" cried Pineknot with wide eyes, pointing. + +"How big he is!" cried Thorn; "I shall make his picture." + +Thorn ran back into the cave and quickly threw a pineknot on the fire. +It blazed up and made all the cave light. He broke a piece of +limestone from the wall and picked up a sharp stone from the floor. +Then he sat down by the fire to make his picture of the bear. After a +while he held up the piece of limestone with the picture scratched on +it. + +[Illustration: Then he sat down by the fire to make his picture of the +bear] + +"O mother," said Pineknot, laughing hard, "see Thorn's picture of the +bear. It shows his big body and his long head and his little ears." + +"That is the very bear that made us run," said Burr, laughing. + +All this time Strongarm had been making a picture of wild horses. He +now held up the picture, scratched on a piece of deer antler. + +"See, this horse has his ears up," he said. "He heard me coming. Here +I am with my spear." + +Burr and the boys crowded round and said, "Oh!" + +While Strongarm and the boys were making pictures, the baby had been +tumbling about on the floor. She crept around or pulled herself to her +feet by holding to the rough places in the wall. After a while she +grew sleepy; then her mother took her in her arms and sang this song: + + "Little child! + Little sweet one! + Little girl! + Though a baby, + Soon a-hunting after berries + Will be going. + Little girl! + Little sweet one! + Little child!" + +The baby went to sleep, and Burr laid her on a bear skin on the floor. +Soon afterwards Pineknot fell asleep on another skin, and in a little +while Thorn lay beside him. Then Burr put ashes over the coals, while +Strongarm threw burning logs before the door. Soon all was quiet in +the cave. The cave folks had gone to sleep. + +[Illustration: Ram horns] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE NEEDLE, THE CLUB, AND THE BOW + +Nearly every day Strongarm went out to hunt. But he did not always +bring back meat to the cave, for he could not always kill an animal. +But sometimes he brought home the meat of deer or bison, and then again +it was that of mammoth or ox. + +Burr always took the meat when Strongarm brought it home, and sometimes +she cut tendons from it. A tendon is a strong white cord that fastens +a muscle to a bone. There are long tendons in the backs of big +animals. Burr cut these out sometimes and hung them in the sun to dry. +When they were dry, she broke the thin outside skin and tore the tendon +apart with her fingers. It came to pieces in many little threads. +Burr took some of the little threads and twisted them together and made +a good strong thread for sewing. + +One day she sat before the door of her cave sewing together skins of +wild oxen. + +[Illustration: Sewing together skins of wild oxen] + +"What is the big skin for, mother?" asked Pineknot, who ran up. + +"To lay on sticks above our door," said Burr. "Then, even when it +rains, we can sit outside." + +"Oh, that will be fine!" said the boy. + +Burr went on with her sewing. She made holes along the edge of the +skins with a sharp stone. Then she threaded her needle. She put it +through a hole in each of the skins and pulled it tight. She worked on +in this way and sewed the skins together. + +"Where did you get the needle, mother?" Pineknot asked next, looking at +it closely. + +"I made it," said Burr. "When your father brings birds or deer from +the hunt, I sometimes take a little bone from the leg of a deer or the +wing of a bird. This I put in the cave to dry. When it is dry, I rub +it smooth with sandstone. Then I must have a hole in one end to carry +the thread. I take a sharp stone and turn it round and round on the +little bone, pressing down. It is not hard work. In that way I make a +smooth hole in my needle." + +[Illustration: A little bone] + +[Illustration: Bone needle] + +"But when my mother sewed," Burr went on, "she used a little bone to +push the thread through the skins. One day she found a little bone +with a hole in it and took it home. She put her thread through the +hole, wondering how it would do, and began to sew. Soon there was a +crowd of women round her, pointing and saying, 'Oh, oh!' while the +little bone carried the thread." + +"It must be fun to sew with a needle," said Pineknot. + +Thorn was nearby making bone whistles and marrow scrapers, and soon +Strongarm came up dragging a little tree. He threw down his old +hunting club and said, "It is broken. I will make a new one." + +[Illustration: Broken hunting club] + +With his stone ax he hacked off the top and roots of the tree; then he +stripped the bark from the small end, and rubbed it with sandstone. + +"It must be smooth or it will hurt my hand," he said to the boys who +stood watching him. + +"In the old days," he said, rubbing away, "the cave men had nothing to +fight with but a club. Before they had even that," he went on, +grinning, "they fought with nails and teeth, or with a stick or a stone +snatched from the ground." Then laughing loud, he added, "No wonder +that in the old days people lived in trees, and ran if they saw a +wildcat." + +"I should be sorry if you had nothing to hunt with but a club, father," +said Pineknot, making a long face. "We should go hungry oftener than +we do now." + +After they had gone into the cave, the boys began to play with the +baby. In fun they pushed her into the room behind the one they lived +in. She cried out, because she was scared at the darkness. + +"How loud her voice sounds in there," said Thorn. + +"What is the rest of the cave like, father?" asked Pineknot. "Is it +very big?" + +"Yes, it goes far back into the hill," said Strongarm. "I have never +been to the end of it, myself." + +"Show it to us, father," said Thorn; and he ran to get a burning knot. + +Strongarm took the torch and led the way into the next room. He held +the torch up high. The light looked small and dim in the darkness of +the big room. They went on and came to room after room and to long +halls. Some places were narrow and low, so that they had to crawl on +hands and knees to get through; and all the walls and floors were wet +and slippery. + +Everywhere in the cave the limestone showed beautiful rough layers. In +all the rooms long pointed rocks hung from the roof or stood up from +the floor. Water dripped from each pointed rock above, and fell on the +pointed rock just beneath. In many places two pointed rocks touched +each other and formed a great, rough, beautiful pillar. In some of the +rooms the walls and pillars were lovely and white, glistening in the +torch light. + +The boys looked at all these things in wonder. + +When at last they had come back to their own room, Pineknot asked, +"Father, what is the water that we heard trickling in the cave?" + +"It is a stream. It used to come down through that hole," said +Strongarm, pointing to the smoke-hole. "But afterwards it went down +another way." + +He sat thinking for a while. Then he said, "When I fought with the +other young hunters and carried off your mother, I wanted a cave to +bring her to. I came to look at this one. Bears were living here +then. But one evening while they were all away, I came in and made a +fire at the door." + +Strongarm laughed long and loud, and the rest laughed to hear him. + +"Since then the cave has been mine," he went on. "Well, you should +have seen the floor! It was covered with old bones that the bears had +brought in to gnaw. I threw them all out and broke off the rocks that +stood up from the floor. That gave more room. Then I brought your +mother here." + +"It has made us a good safe home," said Burr, nodding her head. + +After a while Thorn jumped up and said, "I want some honey." + +He took a burning stick from the fire and ran out. He walked through +the forest and looked and listened. At last he saw bees go into a hole +in a hollow tree. + +"Here is my bee tree!" he cried, waving his torch. + +Bees were in a crowd about the hole, crawling over each other, and +going in and coming out. Thorn could hear them humming from where he +stood. He swung his torch from his arm; then, hand over hand, up the +tree he went. + +When he came to the bees' nest, he threw his leg over a branch. He +swung the smoking stick back and forth. The bees flew off humming +angrily. Thorn quickly broke off the yellow honeycombs and put them +into his bag. Then down the tree he slid, followed by the angry bees. + +[Illustration: The bees flew off humming angrily] + +"Oh, oh, oh!" he cried, as he ran like a deer. When he went into the +cave with the wild honey, the baby held out her little hands. He gave +her some and said, "You are sweet. You are honey." + +So the baby came to be called Honey. + +At sundown, the boys went out into the woods to set the traps. A +beautiful mother deer and her fawn were drinking at a brook. Crickets +sang under old bark, and frogs on the edge of the pond. And birds were +singing their low sweet evening songs. + +[Illustration: The edge of the pond] + +The little hunters went straight on from trap to trap. But they found +no fox or wolf or wildcat in any of them. They were sorry. One trap +was sprung. + +"Something has been here, and the meat is gone," said Pineknot. "We +must set the trap again." + +Thorn quickly bent down a little hickory, and tied a string to the top. +Then he raised one end of a big rock and put a loop of the string +around it. + +Pineknot was busy setting a trigger under the rock. All this time, +Thorn stood by, playing with the string, pulling it and letting it go, +pulling and letting go. + +"Listen," he said, "it sings like the wind." Pineknot had a stick in +his hand and, for fun, set it against the string. When Thorn let the +string go, the stick was shot out of Pineknot's hand, and against his +bare body. He yelled, and Thorn opened his eyes in wonder. + +[Illustration: And, for fun, set it against the string] + +Pineknot rubbed the place, but picked up the stick, stood aside, and +set it as before. Then he said, "Do that again." + +Thorn did it again, and the stick flew among the trees. Over and over +again they tried it, and every time the flying string threw the stick. + +"Now," said Thorn, "I shall bend a little branch as that tree was bent, +and I shall tie a string to the ends." + +He did so; and all the way home he kept shooting with his little bow, +and wondering about it. + +[Illustration: Broken hunting club (2nd version)] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE TAMING OF THE DOG + +[Illustration: Cattle horns] + +Early one morning Strongarm went out to hunt. Cattle with wild eyes +were eating grass on the edge of the wood. Strongarm dropped to his +knees and slowly, carefully, crawled through the bushes toward them. + +"Just a little nearer, and I will throw my spear!" he thought. + +A dry branch snapped beneath him! The wild cattle threw up their +heads, and with a hurry of feet were soon lost to sight. + +Frowning, the hunter got up from his knees and walked on. He saw a +herd of mammoths, but he could not kill one of the big hairy elephants +alone, so he turned away. He hunted all day long. He saw plenty of +wild animals, but he could not get near enough to kill one. He saw +wild ducks and grouse, but he had not brought his sling. + +"Must I go hungry to-day?" he growled, frowning. + +From far off came the yelping of dogs. + +"The pack is hunting!" he shouted, with a roaring laugh. "I will +follow the wild dogs and take some of the meat they leave!" + +Led by the sounds, he found the dogs running down a bison. They +followed it until it was too tired to fight, and then pulled it down +and killed it. They ate all the meat they wanted and went away. Then +Strongarm cut meat from the bison. + +On his way home he saw a nest of wild puppies in a hollow tree. + +"Um," he grunted, "the little wild goat that the children play with is +quiet and tame. If a wild puppy grew up with them, would it be tame? +Would it help me to hunt?" + +He picked up a puppy. When he got home, he dropped the little ball of +soft black wool between the two boys lying on a bear skin. + +Then there were merry eyes, laughs, and soft calls: + +"Here little pet!" and "Oh, the little sharp teeth!" + +At last a tired little ball fell asleep in brown arms. + +The puppy grew fast and was full of play. He followed the boys +everywhere, and they called him "Wow wow." + +One day they were playing by the high rock, when the puppy saw +something in the woods and ran after it. + +Pineknot called to him, "Come here, Wow wow!" + +And the call came back from the rock, "Wow wow!" + +"Oh, hear my talking shadow, brother," said Pineknot. + +"Yes," said Thorn, laughing, "let us talk a while with our talking +shadows." + +So they lay down on the ground and began to call. + +[Illustration: So they lay down on the ground and began to call.] + +"Ho, there!" called Thorn. + +"Ho, there!" came back from the rock. + +"Come here, talking shadow." + +"Shadow," was the answer. + +"We want to see you," called the boys. + +"See you," said the echo. + +"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed the boys. + +"Ho, ho!" laughed the talking shadow. + +That evening Pineknot came running to the cave, calling, "O Thorn, I +was coming along on the high rock, and I heard little cries. I crawled +through the bushes and looked over and saw a nest full of young eagles. +They were skinny and had no feathers on their bodies. The nest was +made of sticks; and oh, it was big, and there was a lot of feathers in +it!" + +[Illustration: A nest full of young eagles] + +Pineknot stopped for breath. + +"Go on, go on," said Thorn, "tell more." + +"As I looked, a shadow bird went over the rock," said Pineknot; "and +then down dropped the mother eagle with a snake in her claws." + +"Oh," cried Thorn, "I wish I had seen it." + +"The young eagles held their mouths open," Pineknot went on, "and their +mother fed them with the snake, a little bit at a time. When the snake +was all gone, the mother eagle waved her big wings and flew away. Then +the young ones' heads fell down. They were asleep." + +A day or two after that, Thorn came into the cave with an eagle's +feather in his hand. And there were long red cuts and scratches on his +body. + +His father looked at him with a scowl. + +"Men bring meat from the hunt, not feathers," he said roughly. + +The boy looked pitiful; his mother felt sorry for him. She said to +herself, "He has been to see the young eagles. The mother eagle saw +him. He fought her alone with his little stone ax. He will be a great +hunter!" + +She looked at him proudly, and put cold water on the little torn body. + +"Gr-r-r," growled Strongarm, scowling. "Would you make a baby of the +boy? A fight is good for him. He will learn to make his way." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HOW STRONGARM HUNTED A BEAR AND A LION + +In those days Strongarm was busily digging a big hole away out in the +forest. He cut the dirt up with his stone ax, and threw it out with a +clam shell. He had worked now for days, and at last the hole was large +enough. He laid branches over it, and over the branches he hung the +leg of a wild goat. + +That night the wild things of the woods came out to hunt for food. A +cave bear came by and smelled the meat. He went to get it and fell +through the branches into the hole beneath. + +The next day when Strongarm went to the hole, he found the great cave +bear in it. He killed the bear and carried the meat home to eat, and +the skin to sleep on. + +Burr took the bear skin from him and laid it out on the ground. She +drove sticks down through the edges, all the while pulling the skin +tight. Then with her stone scraper, she scraped off all the meat and +fat. She left the skin stretched on the ground, and thought, "It will +dry there, and another day I will scrape it again. Then it will be +good and soft to sleep on." + +[Illustration: She scraped off all the meat and fat] + +She looked up as a man came running toward the cave. + +"Oho, Hickory!" called Strongarm, "what is it?" + +"A lion hunt!" shouted Hickory, and shook his spear. + +Strongarm's bold face lighted up. + +"Tell about it," he said. + +"A lion has come among the caves by the river. He kills the people and +carries off the children. The women dare not go to the river for +water. The men are afraid to go alone to hunt. So they want help to +kill the lion. They want all the strong men and the good hunters. +They have sent for you." + +Strongarm quickly took his club and spear and went off with old +Hickory. The men went over two hills and across a stream, and came to +Hickory's cave. There other men joined them. All the men had clubs +and spears and stone axes. They went together toward the river caves. +They found the lion and killed it. + +Strongarm came home after some days, bringing lion's meat. Burr cooked +it, and Strongarm said to the boys, "Eat, it will make you brave." + +After a while Strongarm sat down and made a hole in a lion's tooth. +Then he took off his necklace. It was made of shells and bears' claws +and a tiger's tooth and a bit of amber. He put the lion's tooth on his +necklace and held it up and looked at it and said, "Men will see that +and say, 'There is a brave man. There is a good hunter. He has helped +to kill a lion.'" + +[Illustration: Tiger's tooth and bear's claw] + +The boys stood by, watching. Thorn pointed to the tiger's tooth. + +"How long and sharp it is! I never saw a tiger." + +"You never want to see one unless you are where he cannot see you," +roared Strongarm. + +"Tell us about the lion hunt, father," begged Pineknot. + +[Illustration: Lion] + +"We watched the lion for days," said Strongarm. "We found that he +slept nearly all day in the thick reeds by the river. At sundown he +went out to hunt. He hunted all night; we heard him roar at times. In +the early light he went back to his bed of reeds by the river and went +to sleep. We rolled a big stone from a high rock and killed him while +he slept. Then we went down to where he lay. We saw that he was an +old lion; he could not hunt animals enough to eat, and that is why he +had begun to kill people." + +[Illustration: Lion's tooth] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE OLD AX MAKER VISITS HIS DAUGHTER + +As they were talking, a long call came from far away. They listened. +The call came again, and Strongarm put his hands to his mouth and +answered. + +"It is old Flint, the ax maker," he said to his wife. + +"Grandfather!" cried the boys, and they ran to meet him. + +Soon they came back with an old man. His hair was rough and gray, but +his eyes were bright under his bushy eyebrows. He wore an old brown +bear skin. + +"Ho, man!" called Strongarm, "come on!" + +"Sit and rest, father," Burr said. + +The old man sat down on the root of a tree. Burr brought him bison +meat and wild honey and a horn of water. + +"Eat, you are tired and hungry." + +The old man ate all he wanted. Then he began to talk. He told about +his wife, and the work at the stone yard and the gravel bed, and of the +men who had come from far away to buy his axes. + +The boys stood by and listened. + +After some time Burr looked at the bag on the old man's shoulder. + +"Have you a new ax in there for me?" she asked with a little laugh. + +Smiles came about the old man's mouth, and he slowly pulled four +beautiful chipped axes from his bag. One ax was big and heavy. That +was for Strongarm. He handed it to him. Another ax was small and +light. That was Burr's. She put out her hand for it. There were two +little axes. These the boys snatched with shouts of joy. + +The axes were wide at the sharp end and narrow at the head, and you +could see where every chip had come off. + +Strongarm turned his ax over and looked at it. He rubbed his fingers +along the rough sharp edge. + +[Illustration: Stone tools] + +"That is a good ax," he said, and he held it up and looked it all over +again. + +"Grandfather," said Thorn, pressing close to the old man's side, "when +I am a man, I shall be an ax maker like you." + +"Begin now," said his grandfather, with a gruff laugh. "It takes a +long time to learn to make a good ax." + +"Can anybody learn?" asked Pineknot. + +"No," said Flint. "Some men can chip stone, and others cannot. That +is why some men make axes, and other men use them." + +"Well, I will try," said Thorn. "When you go back to the stone yard, I +will go with you." + +Strongarm turned round where he sat and pulled up a little hickory +tree. "We will put handles on these axes," he said. + +He hacked off a piece of the little tree and split it half way down, +and hacked off one split piece. The other split piece he bent around +his ax. Then he took wet string made of skin. This he put around and +around the ax handle, and pulled it tight. + +[Illustration: Stone axe] + +The boys stood by watching. "The wet string will shrink and draw up +short," their father told them. "Then the ax will be very tight on the +handle." + +The boys now tied on their ax handles with their father's help. And +Flint tied on Burr's. Then all set to work with sandstone pebbles and +rubbed them smooth. Strongarm's was soon done. He threw his old ax +away, stuck his new one in the string around his waist, and went off to +hunt. + +Burr took her digging stick from beside her door and hacked a point on +it with her new ax. Then she burned the point in the fire until it was +hard. She took a basket in her hand, and her baby on her back, and +went out of the cave. Old Flint and the boys rolled a stone up to the +door to keep out wolves and foxes. Then they all went into the woods, +and Burr began looking for things to eat. + +She found a root and pushed it out of the ground with her digging stick +and threw it into her basket. It was the root of a wild turnip. She +found other roots. They were wild carrots and celery. In the open +places, tall grasses grew. They were the wild grains. These she bent +over and beat with a stick until the ripe seeds fell into her basket. +Under the oak trees she gathered acorns. + +[Illustration: Woven basket] + +Little wild pigs were there eating the acorns, and the boys ran one +down and brought it, squealing, to their mother. Burr laughed and +said, "You are little men. You will soon hunt for yourselves." + +It began to rain, and they all sat under a tree until the rain had +passed. + +[Illustration: Little wild pigs were eating the acorns] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE COMING OF FIRE + +When Strongarm came back from the hunt, he found the cave cold and dark +and wet. A stream of water was running down through the smoke-hole. +It had put out the fire. The ashes, too, were wet; and there were no +coals from which to start the fire again. + +He looked at the black fire-place. + +"Now I must walk all the way to old Hickory's for fire," he grumbled; +"and it is growing dark." + +Tired and hungry, he left the cave. + +He had not gone far when a dead branch fell across his path. He jumped +back. + +"The people who live in the trees did that--some of those shadow +people," he said to himself. "They tried to kill me. The man who +lives in the wind is angry, too. Hear him roar! + +"I do not like shadow people," he thought as he walked on. "They live +in trees and wind and rivers and fire and stones and everything, but +you cannot see them. They will hurt you if you make them angry. I am +afraid of them. I wish I had a torch to scare them off. All the other +shadow people are afraid of the fire man." + +Then to keep up his heart he sang in a loud gruff voice: + + "O why did the water put out the fire? + O why did the water put out the fire?" + + +Strongarm gave a loud call as he came up to Hickory's cave. The old +man came to the door and asked what the trouble was. + +"Trouble enough," growled Strongarm. "My fire is out. I came for +coals." + +Old Hickory gave a great roaring laugh. His wife laughed, too, as she +pushed the children aside and raked out coals. These she put into a +hollow branch that Strongarm handed her. + +"They will keep alive in there," he said, "even if it rains." + +Then with a good pine torch and his branch full of coals, he hurried +home. + +When Burr came back to the cave, she, too, found the fire out. There +was a deer on the floor, so she knew that Strongarm had come from the +hunt. + +"The man has gone to old Hickory's for fire," she told her father. + +"Um," said Flint, "he might have rested his legs. I can get fire from +stones." + +"From stones!" cried Burr, her face white. + +The old man quietly pulled two stones from his bag. One was flint, the +other was quartz. He took dry leaves from his bag and rubbed them very +fine between his hands and laid them on a rock. Over the leaves he +held the two stones and began to strike one with the other. + +Burr and the boys watched with scared faces. + +"The fire man--will he not be angry?" she asked. + +Flint said nothing. He was striking the stones together. A spark +came! then another and another! He kept on striking very fast until +the sparks came like a flame and caught the dry leaves. He put on more +leaves and little sticks, and soon there was a good fire blazing on the +floor. + +[Illustration: The sparks came like a flame and caught the dry leaves] + +"From stones!" Burr kept thinking, as she shook her head and watched it +out of the corner of her eye. + +When Strongarm came with the coals, the cave was already warm and light +and full of the smell of good things cooking. He looked at the fire +and wondered where it had come from, but said nothing. + +Near the fire his wife had a basket lined with clay. In it were the +seeds of the wild grains and acorns, with hot coals. She shook the +basket around and around until the seeds were roasted. Then from the +ashes she pulled the roots she had put there to roast. + +After Strongarm had eaten, he lay down by the fire. Nodding toward it +he said, "Where did you get it?" + +Flint then told him that he had brought it out of stones. Strongarm +sat up and looked hard at Flint. Then Flint had to strike the stones +together again, to let Strongarm see the fire come out. + +"Beaver Tail, an old ax maker, showed me how to do it," said Flint. +"He has worked in stone all his life. For a long time he has known +that fire lives in stone. He has seen sparks fly as he chipped his +axes. One day in making a spear head, he struck a quartz pebble with +his flint hammer stone. A big spark came! He struck again and again, +and the sparks came fast and caught the dry grass at his feet!" + +"Um," grunted Strongarm, wondering. He thought for a long time; then +he looked at Flint and said, "Fire lives in wood, too! My ax handles +grow warm as I rub them." + +The boys listened in wonder to their grandfather's strange story of the +making of fire. + +[Illustration: The boys listened in wonder] + +After a time Thorn said, "We have always had fire in the cave. All the +cave folks have it. They did not bring it from stones. Where did they +get it?" + +"Once, in the old days," Strongarm said, and turned to the boy, "a man +saw fire come out of the sky and begin to eat up the woods! He could +feel the fire from where he stood. It made him warm, and he liked it. +But he was afraid to take any, for he thought the fire man might be +angry. But at last he did take some. He kept it, and grew to like it +more and more. With it burning beside him, the night was not so dark, +and he was not afraid; for the hungry wolf and tiger turned away--teeth +and claws could not fight fire! + +"The other men saw that it was good to have fire; so, in time, they +took some of it. And ever since then every man has tried to keep his +fire burning." + +"It is better for us cave folks since fire came," Burr then said, +nodding to the boys. "Why, before it came, there was no cooked meat, +nor were there any sweet roasted seeds or roots. But the folks tore +their meat from the animal where it was killed, and stood by and ate it +raw. + +"Nor was there a home before fire came. My grandmother told me that, +long ago, in the old days, the men and women wandered from place to +place with their little children. And the women hunted and fished and +fought beside the men. And at night the people curled themselves round +as the wild dogs do, and slept on the ground; and the rain wet them, +and the cold winds made them shiver. + +"But after fire came, all this was changed. For the fire would go out +unless there was some one to keep it. So a man told his wife that she +might stay and keep the fire, and said that he would hunt for both. + +"The woman then took a place that she liked, near a stream, and built a +shelter of branches and made her fire there and kept it. And the man +brought meat to her, and she cooked it. And before very long all the +people were living in that way. And so ever since that time, the man +has been the hunter, and the woman has kept the fire and brought water +from the stream and gathered seeds of the ripe grasses." + +[Illustration: Shelter of branches] + +"And always since then, too, the family place has been about the fire. +We sit beside it and warm ourselves and work and talk and rest; and +that is home." + +"True, true," grunted old Flint; and Strongarm nodded his head. + +[Illustration: Acorns] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE CAVE TIGER + +One morning not long after the lion hunt, Thorn and his grandfather +started off to the stone yard. They soon came to the deep forest where +they could not see far ahead of them, because the beeches and oaks and +chestnuts grew close together, and under the branches there was a thick +tangle of low bushes. + +Old Flint watched carefully as he led the way through the woods. He +listened to every sound, and looked often behind him. Farther along, +the ground was more open; and from a hill they looked far away over +wide level land. Herds of horses and bison were grazing there, and +packs of wolves skulked through the edge of the forest. They waited to +spring upon the animals that should stray from the herds. + +Passing on, old Flint came upon the body of a rhinoceros partly eaten, +and he stopped and looked anxiously around. + +"This is the work of a tiger," he said; "and he cannot be far off, for +the meat is fresh." + +Flint peered through the bushes; but the tiger was not in sight, so he +quickly cut meat from the rhinoceros and walked on slowly. + +"The tiger may be somewhere near, sleeping. Keep a sharp look-out, +boy; he is yellow with dark stripes, just the color of the dry grass, +and you can walk almost onto him before you see him. No animal can +hide better than he, and none can walk the forest paths with less noise +from his padded feet." + +They had not gone much farther when old Flint stopped and, catching his +breath; stared into the shadows of a tree. Clutching Thorn's shoulder, +he pointed to the spot without saying a word. There on a limb, asleep, +beautiful in his tawny skin and easy grace, lay the great animal. +Thorn looked while his heart beat fast. Never before had he seen +anything that so held his eye. He would have liked to stay and watch +him--to see him walk, to see his great claws and teeth, and his wild +eyes. But Flint hurried him off, and without a sound they left the +place. Not till he had put miles between himself and the tiger did +Flint shake off a feeling of terror, and speak in answer to Thorn's +question: + +"How does the tiger get things to eat?" + +"He steals to the river bank where the shade is deepest," said the old +man, recalling many a sight of the crouching beast. "There, on some +over-hanging limb or rock, he waits for deer or horse or any other +animal to come to drink. Then from his hiding place, with an angry +snarl, he springs upon the back of his prey." + +"Oh, many a time I have seen him," continued old Flint, thinking of +past years; "for when I was a boy, my father's cave was in a high +cliff, close to the river. A little way below, there was a place where +the animals came to drink. And often I have felt the hair rise on my +head as I heard the cry of some wounded animal, and saw it rush away +with a yellow patch clinging to its neck." + +[Illustration: Tiger] + +"I have a tiger's jaw which I found once long ago. You may see it some +time. Then you will know why the tiger can kill the rhinoceros, whose +thick skin no other animal's teeth can pierce. In the tiger's upper +jaw, there are two teeth that are long and sharp and thin. The tiger +thrusts these into the neck of the rhinoceros, and he sinks to the +ground, and the tiger feeds upon him." + +"You say the tiger springs upon the back of the rhinoceros. Well, what +would happen if he should miss, and not land on the back?" asked Thorn. + +"In that case he would likely have short time to live," said Flint. +"For the rhinoceros is a furious beast when angry. If he gets his +terrible two-horned snout under the body of his enemy and gives an +upward fling of his powerful neck, the end is near. So fierce is the +rhinoceros when angry, that even the mammoth is afraid of him and keeps +out of his way." + +[Illustration: Tiger's tooth] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE MAKING OF STONE WEAPONS + +Thorn and his grandfather walked for a long time, but at last Flint +pointed to a cave in the side of the hill and said, "We rest there." + +As they came up, Thorn saw his grandmother sitting in the sun at her +door. Flint said to her, "Here is Thorn, your grandson." + +"The little man!" she said, and laid her rough hand on his shoulder +gently. + +Then she quickly cut off big pieces of the rhinoceros meat and ran a +long stick through them, and placed the stick over the burning fire. +While the meat was cooking, Flint was telling about Burr and her little +family; and of Strongarm's surprise at the making of fire; and of the +lion hunt; and of the sleeping tiger they had seen on the way home. + +After the hungry man and boy had eaten great pieces of the roasted +meat, they went to the stone yard. There Thorn heard the sound of +stone hammers and saw a big rocky place in the hillside. Three men sat +on the ground at work. Other men sat about talking. Pointing to +these, Flint said, "They are waiting to buy axes." + +There were piles of bowlders on the ground, and little piles of stone +chips around each ax maker. + +Flint went up to one of them and said, "Redtop, my boy wants to make +axes. Show him how." + +Redtop grinned at Thorn, and threw him a smooth oval bowlder. + +"That is your hammer stone," he said. "Now take a stone about the size +you want your ax, and chip it this way." + +Redtop sat on the ground. He held a flint bowlder and began chipping +it with his hammer stone. Every time he struck the bowlder, a chip +flew off. He kept on striking, first on one side and then on the +other. Thorn watched with shining eyes. Redtop worked fast and +easily, and after some time held up a beautiful ax. It was broad at +the sharp end and narrow at the head. Thorn saw the little places all +over it where the chips had come off. + +He looked at it and laughed, and then sat down and tried to do what +Redtop had done. He struck with his hammer stone, but the bowlder did +not chip. He worked on and on, for a very, very long time. Still the +bowlder would not chip, and his arm was ready to drop off. + +[Illustration: He struck with his hammer stone] + +At last Redtop said, "Enough for to-day! You will do." + +Thorn threw down his stones with a shout and ran to his grandfather. + +Old Flint sat at work under a big beech tree. At his side there was a +little pile of bowlders, and about him there were chips of flint. + +"Well," he said, as he looked up at the boy, "how is stone work?" + +"It is not so easy as it looks, and it makes my arm hurt," said the boy +soberly; "but Redtop said that I would do." + +"Um," grunted the old man with an unsmiling face, the while laughing to +himself. + +He worked on. After a time he said, "The little thing you shoot with, +your bow--did you bring it?" + +"Oh, yes!" + +"Well, I will make a little stone head for the stick." + +"Good, grandfather!" said Thorn, clapping his hands. + +Flint took a pebble from the pile and struck it with his hammer stone. +It did not chip in the right way, so he threw it on the chip pile. He +struck another. That was too soft; he threw that away. He tried many +pebbles before he found a good one. + +"This will do," he said at last. "The chip leaves a slight rounding +hollow like the inside of my hand." + +Then he began to work. He held the pebble in his left hand and struck +it a sharp blow with another pebble. He went on striking, round and +round the pebble, taking off a flake or a big chip at every blow. At +last the part of the pebble left was too small to work with any more. +It was the core; he threw it away. + +[Illustration: He held the pebble in his left hand and struck it a +sharp blow] + +"We chip axes by striking," he then said to the young ax maker. "That +way of chipping is good enough for axes; they are heavy and have, +besides, the weight of the arm to carry the blow. With spear heads it +is different; a spear is thrown, and the head should be sharp. I can +get a smaller chip, and so a sharper edge, by pressing than by +striking; so I chip my spear heads by pressure." + +He laid a little piece of deer skin in his left hand. On this he laid +one of the flakes he had just broken from the pebble, and held it fast +with his fingers. Then he took a piece of deer antler. + +"This antler," he said, "is soft enough to spring a little when I press +it against the pebble. Yet it is hard enough to bring off a chip." + +He began pressing with the antler along the edge of the flake. He +pressed very hard; and every time he pressed, a little chip flew off. +He worked very fast. + +"I must not let a hump come in the middle," he said; "for then I should +have a turtle back. Look on that chip pile; you will see many turtle +backs that I have thrown away." + +The old man was making the point now, and he began to sing: + + "I give you the eye of the eagle, + To find the rabbit's heart! + I give you the eye of the eagle, + To find the rabbit's heart!" + + +As Thorn listened, and caught the meaning of the song, his eyes grew +bright and he held his head high. + +"Grandfather hopes that I will hunt with the little bow and spear!" he +said to himself. + +He was very glad. He began to dance and clap his hands in time with +the old man's song. Then he caught the words and began to sing with +his grandfather: + + "I give you the eye of the eagle, + To find the rabbit's heart! + I give you the eye of the eagle, + To find the rabbit's heart!" + + +Before long the little spear head was done. It was thin and sharp and +beautiful. Thorn tied it to the little straight stick, and he had an +arrow for his bow! + +Flint worked on. + +"We make all of our axes and spear heads and knives and scrapers of +flint," he said after a while. "It chips more easily than any other +stone." + +After some time Flint and the boy left the stone yard. + +[Illustration: Deer antlers] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AT THE GRAVEL PIT + +As they walked along, the old man pointed to a place in the hillside +and said, "That is the gravel bed. From it we dig all the stone for +our axes and spear heads." + +Thorn looked and saw a big hollow in a gravel hill. The hill was made +of sand and clay and pebbles and bowlders. The rain had washed some of +the sand and clay away, and the stones had fallen down and now lay in +piles on the ground. + +"Men come from far away for our stone," the old man went on. "It is +good stone for axes. They bring us shells and amber and meat and skins +for our stone. Some of them take the stone to their homes and make +their own axes; others buy our axes." + +At the gravel bed, men were at work. One man had a big digging stick. +He put it under a rock and pushed it out of the ground. Another man +had the shoulder bone of a bear. He pushed it under some pebbles and +lifted them and threw them upon an ox skin on the ground. Then he +gathered up the corners of the skin, took it on his back, and carried +it down to the stone yard. + +As Thorn watched the men getting out stone for their axes and spear +heads, he said to his grandfather, "Who made the axes for the cave men +before you made them?" + +"Oh, ever since the old days," said Flint, "there has been an ax maker. +Some men can chip stone well and easily. Others can never learn to do +it in their whole lives. So the men who can chip stone do it; and they +are the ax makers. The other men use the axes, and they are the +hunters. + +"My grandfather told me," said Flint, as he walked slowly down the +hill, "that in the old days the cave men did not have stone axes and +spears. They hunted with sticks; they threw a stick like your mother's +digging stick; and they struck with a stick like your father's hunting +club. And they used the sharp stones they chipped only for knives and +scrapers. But one day, a man thought about tying a sharp stone to a +stick! There, you see, was the first spear!" + +[Illustration: Forest scene] + +"That was a great day for the cave men!" Flint went on, while his grim +face lighted up. "For with a stone weapon they could hunt the swift +wild animals, and so get more food." + +Then he stamped his foot and said, "And they could kill enemies +better!" And he clenched his fist, while his face grew hard. + +The next day, men from the stone yard went out to make a fish trap. +They drove sticks across the river bed where the water was low. Then +from stick to stick they tied string made of skin. Rushes grew by the +river. They took these and wove them in and out of the strings until +the trap reached clear across the river. The water could go through +the rushes, but the fish could not; and the men speared them or caught +them with their hands. + +[Illustration: Spear] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A SUMMER CAMP + +Berries were ripe now, and Flint and the other cave people around him +left their caves and went to live near the berry fields. The men went +out to hunt early next morning, and the women and children went to pick +berries. + +[Illustration: The women and children went to pick berries] + +There were plenty of wild huckleberries and little yellow plums. The +women and children ate and ate the sweet fruit, and then filled bags +and baskets to carry home. + +[Illustration: The women and children ate and ate the sweet fruit] + +As they left the berry fields, the children pulled down the wild grape +vines and bit into the little grapes. But they made faces and cried, +"Oh, how sour! After awhile they will turn purple; then they will be +sweeter." + +And there were trees full of little green apples. The children tasted +some of them, but threw them away. "Too sour!" they cried. + +When day came to an end, the men gathered sticks and lighted the night +fires. Then they threw themselves on skins, and all talked together. +They called to each other from fire to fire, and told long stories till +far into the night. At last, in the middle of a story, they dropped +off to sleep. + +Half asleep on his reindeer skin beside his grandfather, Thorn saw the +old yellow moon go down. Around him he heard the noises of the great +forest. Katydids and locusts and tree toads were singing, and from far +away came the long howls of wolves. From a branch overhead a great +snowy owl kept calling to his mate. That was the last the boy knew +till the sun lighted up the tree tops. + +The next evening it rained. The women quickly bent little trees over +and tied their tops together and threw skins over them. Then they sat +on the ground under the shelters and laughed and talked and watched the +rain. Some of the women made baskets. + +[Illustration: Snowy owl in tree] + +One woman had an elm branch. She broke off the rough outside bark to +get the soft inside bark. This she pulled off in strips and twisted +together into long strings. Then she broke little branches from the +tree bending over her, and tied them together at one end. With two +pieces of string, she wove under and over a stick and crossed the +strings. In this way she wove around and around the basket to the top, +and tied a stick for a handle. + +[Illustration: Women with baskets] + +"I will place leaves in it, and then it will hold berries," she said. + +One woman was making a bag of a bit of skin. She made holes near the +edge of the skin and put a string through them and pulled them +together. Another woman made a basket of birch bark in the same way. + +[Illustration: Skin bag with pull string] + +One day when the berries were about gone, Thorn saw a great herd of +reindeer going by. + +"Oh, look at all the reindeer, grandfather!" he cried. "Where are they +going?" + +"When summer comes," said Flint, "they go to a colder country; and when +summer ends, they come back to the cave country." + +There were many reindeer in the herd, and their antlers looked like a +forest of trees without leaves. A big bear with hungry eyes was +following the herd. + +That evening a young hunter made a picture of a beautiful reindeer with +his head among the grasses. Another hunter made a picture of two deer +that he had killed, and two live deer. Still another man made a handle +for a knife. He carved it from bone. It was like a deer springing. +The antlers were laid back on the neck, and the front legs were turned +under the body; the hind legs lay along the handle. + +"Good!" said the other men as they looked at it. + +[Illustration: Herd of reindeer] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THORN MEETS THE CHILDREN OF THE SHELL MOUNDS + +Every day Thorn worked for a little while at the chipping of stone +axes, but he had plenty of time for play. One morning he ran to the +river and jumped on his raft. + +"Ha!" he said, "my other self jumped the stream with me. And now it +leans over a shadow raft and reaches for a shadow pole." + +He looked about him. On the grass lay the long shadows of the trees. +In the clear water were the pictured banks. + +"Everything has another self," he thought. + +As he grew busy with his bow, he heard loud talking, and looked up and +saw strange men and children coming along the other bank. + +"The men are coming to buy axes," he thought. "The children have come +along with them." + +The men jumped into the river and swam across and went to the stone +yard. But the children came swimming up around the raft like wild +ducks. Some of them had long hair that floated about on the water. + +"Are you Thorn, the cave boy?" one of them asked him. + +"Yes, who are you?" + +"I am Clam, a shell mound boy." + +Then the children came up around the raft and shook it so that Thorn +almost fell off. + +"Stop, or I will shoot you!" he cried, laughing. + +"Oh, he will shoot us!" cried the children, and they hid behind one +another, playing they were afraid. + +"Is that your bow?" Clam now asked. "We heard about it. Shoot for us." + +"Yes," said Thorn. + +He began to paddle to the bank, but the children crowded around the +raft and quickly pushed it to shore. Thorn jumped off and began to +shoot at the trees. The children went along with him and watched with +big eyes. One of the arrows struck a tree and stuck in the bark. The +children laughed and ran and pulled it out. + +"Do that again!" they cried. + +Thorn did it again to shouts and the clapping of hands. Then a boy +named Periwinkle threw up a piece of bark and cried, "Hit that!" + +Thorn tried over and over again, but he could not. At last he grew +tired of shooting. Then the children crowded round him, and Clam said, +"Come home with us. Show your bow to the other children." + +"How can I get there?" Thorn asked. + +"Swim across the river, then walk." + +"I cannot swim." + +The children laughed and thought that very strange, but Periwinkle +said, "Well, we will push you on the raft." + +"Yes, yes!" cried the other children. + +So Thorn told his grandfather that he was going home with the shell +mound people. And when the men had bought their axes, the children all +ran down to the river together. + +Some of the boys quickly tied a wild grape vine to the raft. Then they +cried, "Here we go!" and dived into the river and swam away, pulling +the raft. Laughing and shouting and splashing, the others jumped in +and followed. They came up alongside the raft and pushed it with one +hand and swam with the other. + +[Illustration: They dived into the river and swam away, pulling the +raft] + +Before long, all the children on one side of the raft shouted and waved +their arms and dived. They came up on the other side of the raft. +Then the rest of the children dived and came up far ahead of the raft. +Thorn looked on in wonder. As they came near the other bank, the girls +pulled up the yellow water lilies and tied them in their wet hair. + +The children walked along beside the river for a while. Hippopotamuses +lay floating in the water, asleep in the sun. The children gave a +great shout and woke up the river horses, as they called them. The +animals opened their big mouths;--and the snorts, grunts, yawns! Thorn +had never heard anything like it. + +"What big teeth they have," he said. + +"Yes, and just to eat grass," said another boy. + +And soon some of the great rough things dived and came up with their +mouths full of reeds. + +A little farther along, Thorn saw beavers at work on the bank. They +were carrying birch branches down to their homes beneath the little +round mounds. And once in a while a water rat or snake swam across the +river. Farther on, a flock of white swans floated. Their wings were +raised a little, and their shadows floated with them. + +[Illustration: Flock of white swans] + +The children stopped to watch them. + +"Pretty!" they said. "Swans and shadow swans!" + +So laughing and playing and seeing strange and beautiful things, Thorn +walked a long way with the children. At last, far off, he saw a long +purple line. + +"That is the sea," Periwinkle told him. + +When they came to it, there was a big blue water with no shore on the +other side. It was beautiful, and Thorn shouted as he saw the +foam-capped waves roll in and break on the white sand. + +Pointing to a place along the shore, the children said, "There is our +home." + +[Illustration: The sea] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +AT THE HOME OF THE SHELL MOUND PEOPLE + +Dogs barked and ran up and down the shore among the people. The +children ran along to their home. They were not afraid of the dogs, +but petted them. And the dogs jumped about the children and played +with them and were glad to see them. + +The people of the shell mounds did not look just like the cave people. +They were shorter and had rounder heads. But their eyebrows hung over +their eyes, as the cave people's did. And they dressed in skins. + +Their houses were made of branches of trees and stones and dirt. They +were set high up on shore where the waves could not reach them. + +Thorn walked about with the children and saw a great pile of shells. +It lay far along the shore, and was higher than a man, and very wide. + +[Illustration: Clam and oyster shells] + +"What are you going to do with all these shells?" he asked Periwinkle. + +"Do with them?" laughed Periwinkle. "Why, nothing. We threw them +away. They show what good things we have had to eat, do they not, +Foam?" + +Foam was a girl with white teeth. + +"Yes," said Foam, laughing. "They are shells of oysters and clams and +periwinkles that we have eaten." + +"Um-m! what lots of them you have eaten!" said Thorn, looking over the +big pile. + +"Yes," said Periwinkle, with a laugh, "we live on them." + +"But you see," Foam went on, "our people have lived here for a long +time--longer than my grandfather can remember. And the shell mounds +have been growing all that time. There are many other shell heaps all +along this shore, where more of our people live." + +Thorn looked down to the water's edge and saw men pulling hollow logs +down to the shore. + +[Illustration: Dug-out boat] + +"They are going fishing in the dug-outs," said Periwinkle. "Come on, +we will go with them." + +The boys ran down to the shore and jumped into a boat that the men had +pushed out into the water. Then the men also jumped in, and paddled +out with sticks. + +"Why do you call these dug-outs?" asked Thorn, rubbing his hand along +the side of the boat. + +"Because they are dug-outs," laughed Periwinkle. "You will see them +made some day." + +"Well, why do they not turn over?" Thorn asked next. + +"Because they are flat on the bottom." + +The dug-outs kept together and went a little way out to sea. One man +had a bone spear. He saw a fish lying on the bottom and speared it. + +"Oh, it is a flounder," said Periwinkle. "See, it is white on one +side. It lies on that side. It is gray on the top side, and both the +eyes are there." + +Other men had long strings and bone hooks. They caught cod and herring. + +When the boats were well filled with fish, the men began to paddle +home. But before they reached the shore, the sky turned gray, and the +sea grew rough, for the wind blew hard. + +"This is nothing," said Periwinkle, laughing, as he saw the whites of +Thorn's eyes. "You should see it sometimes. The waves are as high as +a hill! Then we do not go fishing, and we live on foxes or rabbits or +bears or ducks, or anything that we can kill. When we get nothing by +hunting, we kill the dogs." + +"Do the big waves ever turn the dug-outs over?" Thorn asked, with white +lips. + +"Yes, but we all swim." + +When the boats reached shore, the women stood waiting. They were glad +when they saw the fish, and quickly took them out. Then they began to +cook them. + +[Illustration: They began to cook the fish] + +One woman laid her fish on hot coals to cook. Another put big leaves +around hers and buried them in the ashes. One cooked hers in still +another way. She went to a hole in the ground and lined it with a +skin. She poured water into the hole and then put in hot stones until +the water grew hot. Then she put in her fish. + +When the fish were cooked, the women cut big pieces and gave them to +their families. The people took the fish in their hands and sat down +on the sand and ate. + +[Illustration: The people took the fish in their hands] + +"Maybe you would like salt on your fish," said Foam to Thorn. + +She took a little in her fingers and put it on his fish. + +"That makes it taste better. Where do you get salt?" + +"We burn sea-weed and get it." + +When all the fish had been eaten, Periwinkle called, "They are going to +hack down a tree. Come on, if you want to see it." + +As the boys ran through the woods, Thorn saw nothing but fir trees. + +"Have you no trees but firs?" he asked. + +"No, only firs--firs, little and big, as far as you can see." + +The boys followed the sounds that rang through the woods. Soon they +saw men busy about a tree. One man was hacking a ring around it near +the ground. When that was done, he hacked another ring above the +first. His stone ax did not cut deep. And the wood between the two +rings stayed there; it did not fly off in chips. So both men began to +beat the wood between the rings with the flat side of their axes. +Around and around the tree they went, and beat the chips to get them +loose. Then, with a piece of antler, they worked under the chips until +they came off. After that they hacked again in the rings, and again +beat the wood between, and worked off the chips. + +[Illustration: Cutting down a tree] + +"Oh, come and play in the sand," at last cried Periwinkle. "They will +be days hacking down that tree." + +The boys ran back to the shore and lay down in the warm sand. They saw +the purple sea, and the sea birds flying, and heard the waves breaking +on the beach. + +[Illustration: A flounder] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THORN LEARNS TO SWIM + +After a little the boys jumped up and ran into the water to play with +the other children. + +[Illustration: Seaweed] + +A big green wave came rolling in, and the children quickly took hold of +hands. They jumped up as the wave broke over them. It knocked some of +them down and stood Clam on his head. Somebody caught his feet, and +the others all laughed. He came up angry and choking, when another +wave caught him and rolled him over again. After that the boys came +crowding around Thorn, waving their arms. + +"You must learn to swim," they cried. "It is easy. Make your arms go +this way and your feet this way"; and they showed him how. + +Thorn tried it and went straight to the bottom. The boys shouted. + +"Here is a log," they said. "Put your arms over that. It will keep +you up till you learn." + +[Illustration: Thorn learns to swim] + +Thorn kept on trying, and in a few days he could swim a little. + +"You do very well," said Foam. + +The next day, when the tide was out, the boys waded in and picked up +periwinkles and oysters and clams, and threw them up on the beach. + +When Periwinkle began to open his oysters, he took a brown bowl to put +them in. Once, in breaking a shell, his stone knife struck the bowl +and broke it. + +"Too bad," he said. "Mother liked that bowl. She made it herself, of +clay, and dried it by the fire." + +[Illustration: Clay bowls] + +"Of clay!" Thorn said, looking at pieces wonderingly. "I never saw a +bowl like that." + +Periwinkle threw the oyster shells and pieces of broken bowl up on the +shell heap. "We throw all such things in a heap," he said. "Then they +are out of the way and will not cut our feet." + +After working for days and days, the men got the tree for the dug-out +hacked down. Then they hacked off a log and dragged it down to the +shore. Here they began to make the dug-out. + +They built a fire all along the top of the log. It burned down slowly. +The men watched the fire and kept putting on more sticks. If it burned +too near the edge, they put on water or clay or wet moss to stop it. + +"You see, they burn out only the middle of the log and leave good +strong thick sides to the boat," said Periwinkle. + +After the fire had burned down into the log a way, the men raked off +the hot coals. The wood beneath was burned to charcoal. The men +scraped it off with stone scrapers. Then they put on more fire and +again burned the log. + +"The fire will burn down faster, now that the charcoal is scraped off," +said Periwinkle. + +The men worked for a long time, burning and scraping away, burning and +scraping, until they had dug a little hollow all along the middle of +the log. + +Then one man said, "We have worked enough." + +And the men dropped their scrapers and went off. + +The next day Thorn walked along the beach and picked up pretty shells. + +"These are for the folks at home," he said to Periwinkle. "They will +put them on the strings around their necks." + +"Here is my bow," he went on, handing it to Periwinkle. "You may keep +it. I can make another. I am going back to my grandfather's now." + +Periwinkle and Clam and some of the men went part way with Thorn. They +walked for a long time through fir forests and then came to the forests +of oak and beech and ash and chestnut. Here Thorn left his friends, +and waved his arm to them as he ran on to his grandfather's. The shell +people went back to their home by the sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE FEAST OF MAMMOTH'S MEAT + +One morning after Thorn had come back to his grandfather's cave, he +woke up with tears on his face. + +"Last night when I was asleep," he said to himself, "my shadow self +went away to the home cave. And there it saw my mother and Pineknot +and the baby sitting about the fire, just as they used to sit. And +they were talking about me, saying that they wanted to see me. And I +want to go home to see them." + +The homesick boy went into the woods for comfort; he loved to watch the +wild things going about. Not far off, he saw a herd of mammoths +feeding. He never tired of looking at the big hairy elephants with +their turned-up tusks and long snaky trunks. They were reaching up for +the tender leaves of the birch, or needles of the hemlock, and would +carry the green stuff to their mouths with their trunks. Young ones +with shaggy coats of woolly hair, were playing about their mothers or +eating grass. Sometimes one of the big mothers would give her young +one a bunch of leaves. Then she would rub it gently with her trunk, +petting it. + +The herd ate on toward the edge of the woods. Then, following a big +mammoth, it left the forest and went toward a swamp. + +Thorn slipped down from his tree and ran to another one on the edge of +the woods, where he could get a better view. From here he saw the +mammoths out in the swamp. Some were drinking, others were wallowing, +and still others were throwing water over themselves with their trunks. +After getting a thick coat of mud on their shaggy skins, the herd began +to leave the swamp. + +But one big mammoth did not leave with the others. He could not; he +had gone far out in the swamp. His feet sank in the soft mud; and when +he tried to pull them out, he found them stuck fast. Then he began to +trumpet. At this the whole herd grew uneasy and turned back and walked +round him, waving their trunks and trumpeting and throwing mud and +water. + +[Illustration: Mammoth trapped in swamp] + +Thorn well knew that a mammoth stuck in the mud meant meat for the cave +folks for many a day. So he lightly slid down the tree and ran to the +stone yard with the news. The men there ran to the nearest caves with +the word, and it was sent on from cave to cave. + +The herd stayed with the mired mammoth all day. But when night fell, +the other mammoths slowly left him, often turning back to touch him +with their trunks and to trumpet. + +A crowd of cave men had already gathered, and were waiting in the woods +until the herd should leave. They now made fires around the mammoth to +keep off the wolves and hyenas that had already begun to skulk about. +And then they killed the mammoth with their spears. + +[Illustration: Wolves] + +As the sun rose next morning, Thorn and his grandfather and grandmother +went over to the swamp. The cave people soon began to come in from all +the caves round about in the hill country. They came in little crowds, +laughing and talking very loud. They were happy, for there was plenty +to eat and somebody to eat with. As they came up, they stood for a +long time looking at the mammoth and talking about how big he was. And +some told of other mammoths that had got stuck in swamps and of how +they had found them. + +Thorn sat down on the side of a hill and watched the people coming. +The arms and faces of the men and women were painted in stripes of red +or yellow. All the cave men that Thorn knew were there, and many that +he did not know. Before long his own family came. + +Soon after that the men began to cut great pieces of meat from the +mammoth. They gave them to the women to roast. The women made fires +and put stones in them to get hot. They dug holes in the ground and +rolled into them some of the hot stones. Next they threw meat upon the +hot stones and rolled more hot stones upon it. Then they covered the +holes with dirt and built fires upon them. While the meat was +roasting, the women went over to watch the men playing. + +The men were talking together in a crowd. A man named Crowfoot stood +out and shouted, "I can climb a tree faster than any man here!" + +"No, no!" shouted five or six men who jumped up and ran to trees. + +"Go!" called a man. + +They all jumped as high as they could and then climbed very fast, hand +over hand, feet and legs pushing as if a wounded bear were after them. +Crowfoot reached the top first. + +Everybody shouted, "Crowfoot! Crowfoot!" + +Then a man with big arms stood out and said, "I am best man in throwing +the spear!" + +A dozen men snatched spears and ran out. Everybody stood where he +could see. The men with spears stood far back from a tree. One threw. +His spear struck the tree, but fell. Everybody laughed. The next man +threw. + +His spear missed the tree. Everybody yelled and roared. Strongarm +threw. His spear struck and stood in the tree shaking. + +"Strongarm!" shouted the people. + +Other men threw, whose spears stood in the tree. Then those men ran +and pulled out their spears and stood farther back and threw again. +Each man threw many times. Strongarm's spear stood oftenest in the +tree from the longest distance. + +[Illustration: Throwing a spear] + +"Strongarm's eye is best!" the others shouted. "His arm is strongest!" + +After that a young man cried, "I have flying feet! Who will run with +me?" + +"I will!" + +"I will!" + +And young men ran out and stood beside him, and all the people watched. + +The race started. The young men ran lightly, like deer. They skimmed +the ground like swallows. Some of them ran all the way side by side, +and came in together sweating and panting. + +The people clapped their hands and said laughing, "They are good cave +men; they can both fight and run away." + +By this time the meat was roasted. The women pulled it from the holes +with long sticks, and the people took great pieces in their hands and +ate them, and then took more. + +"Mammoth meat is good and juicy," one man said. + +"Yes," said another, "but not so tender as horse or reindeer meat." + +After eating all they wanted, Thorn and Pineknot and old Hickory's +children and some of the other children went off to play. They played +being grown up; and Thorn fought with the other little hunters and +caught and carried off a wife, and played living with her and their +children in a cave. + +The men ate for a long time, but at last they had enough. Then they +began to break up the tusks of the mammoth, and they gave a piece to +each man who had helped to kill the animal. + +"To wear on your necklace," they said. + +And they gave a piece to Thorn because he had found the mired mammoth. +Strongarm looked at him proudly then, and the boy stood straight and +tall and held his head high. + +A man standing near him snatched for the piece of tusk, but Strongarm +shouted, "Get off!" and scowled and shook his fist. + +The man grew angry and raised his stone ax. Strongarm snatched his, +and in a minute there was a clash of stone axes. The other men stood +around and watched. They loved a good fight. Before long Strongarm's +ax crashed down on the man's head, and he fell over and lay still. The +others looked at him, and then went on breaking up the tusks. + +After that every man grew busy, and began to cut as much meat from the +big bones of the mammoth as he could carry. One bone was all cut bare. +Three men standing near it whispered together. Then they lifted the +bone and carried it toward a man who could not make axes and was too +lazy to hunt. They set it down before him. + +"This is your prize," they said, without a smile. + +Everybody was looking. + +The man turned red and snatched a spear. But the other men ran away +and laughed. And everybody laughed. + +Then the people started homeward, carrying the mammoth meat. Thorn +said good-bye to his grandfather for a while and went home with his +mother. Old Hickory and his family went along with Strongarm and his +family, and the children ran through the bushes and scared up the wild +rabbits and porcupines. + +When they reached the cave, Thorn told Pineknot all over again about +the mammoth. And he scratched a picture on the piece of tusk to show +him. Holding up the picture he said, "This is the way the angry +mammoth looked. His mouth was open, and his trunk was up. When still +a long way off, the men heard him trumpeting." + +Then Thorn made another picture of the mammoth. In it he showed the +big body with the long hair, and the turned-up tusks, the long trunk, +the small eyes, and the shaggy ears. + +Thorn was very happy that evening, as he sat in his old place by the +fire. Pineknot sat beside him, and Wow wow lay at his feet. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE RED MEN OF OUR OWN COUNTRY IN THE STONE AGE + +Last summer a little boy went to visit his grandfather who lived near +one of the beautiful lakes in the northern part of our own land. The +family doctor was very kind to the boy and often took him on long walks +into the country. + +[Illustration: A North American Indian] + +One day, as they were going through the woods together, the boy said to +his friend, "Grandpa says that when he first came here, red men lived +all about him, and that they made their houses of skins and called them +wigwams. Afterwards the red men were all moved to the west and given +land there. But grandpa says that for years after they went away, he +used to find their arrow heads and stone axes as he turned up the +ground in plowing. I wish that I could find an arrow head!" + +As the doctor walked on he pointed to a pebble half buried in the sand +beside the path. The boy stooped; there was a beautiful arrow head! +He was very glad. Seeing that he was pleased, the doctor took him to +his office and showed him hundreds of arrow heads. Some of them were +small and finely chipped. + +[Illustration: A stone arrow head] + +"These are bird arrows," the doctor said. + +Then he showed large arrows. + +"These are for killing buffalo and other big game." + +And there were stone axes and hammers. Lastly, the doctor showed him +something that looked like a little, very old hatchet. The boy turned +it over and over and looked at it. It was all weather stained, and +reddish-brown and green. + +[Illustration: A stone ax] + +"This is not stone," the boy said at last. + +"No," said the doctor, "that is a copper hatchet. I was very glad to +get that because there are not many of them found now. You know that +when Columbus came to our country, red men lived all over the land. +They were in what we call the Stone Age; that is, they made their tools +and weapons of stone. But there are great lumps of copper beside one +of our lakes here. Now copper, you know, is a rather soft metal, and +the red men about here learned to pound it into shape for weapons. +They called both their stone hatchets and copper hatchets 'tomahawks.' + +"Red men never learned to melt iron and make tools of it as we do, +though there was plenty of iron in the mountains among which many +tribes lived. The red men never got beyond the Stone Age and into the +Iron Age as white men did." + +"Where did you get all these beautiful stone things?" the boy asked +after a while, looking at them with longing eyes. + +"I have been years in getting them together," the doctor said. "Many +of them I found myself, on my walks through the country. Others I +bought from the people who found them." + +"You must love them very much," said the boy. + +"I do," said his friend, "and some day I shall give them all to a +museum where they will be kept for people to see." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +HOW STONE WEAPONS OF THE CAVE MEN WERE FIRST FOUND + +If you should cross the broad ocean that lies toward the rising sun, +you would come to a beautiful country called France. Here grow the +olive, the orange, and the grape; and the mulberry, on which the silk +worm feeds. But it is not with these that we have to do to-day, but +with some strange old things that once lay buried far below the soil in +which they grow. + +About seventy years ago, a man in that country who sold sand and gravel +found that his own gravel pits were worked out. He went to the banks +of a river--the river Somme--near by and found a good gravel bed, which +he began to cut down and cart off to sell. He dug away at the hill for +months and got far below the top of the ground. Then one day his spade +struck something hard; he dug it out and saw that it was a very large +bone. + +"That is a queer bone," he said to himself. "I wonder what animal it +belonged to. It is too big to have been the bone of a horse or a cow. +It is big enough to have belonged to an elephant. Well, no matter what +it came from," he said, throwing it aside, "it is neither sand nor +gravel, so it is nothing to me." + +As he dug on, he threw out some rudely shaped stones. + +"These are queer, too," he said, "but they will not sell for gravel." +And away went the stones from his shovel. + +That evening a learned man from Paris, the most beautiful city of +France, was walking beside the river and looking at the sunset clouds +in sky and water. + +There in the pit lay the big bones. He saw them. Forgotten were +clouds and sky! He knew that he was looking at the bones of some +animal long since gone from the earth! For years after that, he +watched the work in the gravel pits and carried away any bones and +shaped stones that were dug out. He studied them and found that some +of the bones were those of the mammoth, and that there were bones of +the rhinoceros too. + +At last he showed the bones and the stones to the learned men in Paris, +and said, "These stones are very old; they are as old as the ground in +which they lay. They were shaped by men who knew very little and had +very little, and who used them for weapons. Near the stone weapons +were these bones of the mammoth and the rhinoceros. So those animals +lived at the time the men did, and in this country." + +The learned men listened, but did not believe what he said. + +A few years after that, however,--about twenty years,--other shaped +stones were found on the banks of the river that flows by the great +city of London, in England, across the narrow water from France. And +in Denmark, another country near France, still more shaped stones were +found, and, with them, bones of the reindeer. + +Then the learned men had to believe that men who shaped stones once +lived in England and France and Denmark; and that at the same time +lived the mammoth, the rhinoceros, and the reindeer; and that the men +had very little and knew very little, and made the shaped stones for +weapons. + +[Illustration: Picture of reindeer, scratched on slate; found in a cave +in France] + +Soon after this, chipped stones were found all the world over. More +than that, there were people living who still were chipping them. The +Eskimo, who live in the frozen north of our own country, make their +weapons of stone. + +[Illustration: Eskimo by their winter huts; drawn by an Eskimo] + +So you see that by the Age of Stone is meant a time when the +metals--tin and copper and iron--were not known; and when stone, horn, +bone, shell, and wood were used for tools and weapons. The cave men +were in the Stone Age long ago. The Eskimo are in the Stone Age now. +And the American red men, though they were still in the Stone Age, were +beginning to learn the use of one metal--copper. + +And the people of the shell mounds--how do we know about them? In +Denmark to-day you may see shell mounds. They are the old hunting and +fishing villages. They are of different sizes; some are a quarter of a +mile long and half as wide. They are built up of things that the +hunters and fishermen threw away: oyster and mussel and periwinkle +shells; bones of the wolf, the hyena, the dog; of wild duck, swan, and +grouse; of cod, herring, flounder, and other deep-sea fish. Many of +the bones had been split open for the purpose of extracting the marrow. +Besides bones, there are also pieces of burnt wood; and there is sea +plant, which may have given salt. + +[Illustration: A bone awl; found in a cave in England] + +The stone tools and weapons found in the heaps are axes, knives, +hammers, awls, lance heads, and sling stones--all of rude make. There +are also bits of rude pottery, which show that these men knew a little +more than the cave men; they knew how to bake clay. They were ahead of +the cave men also in having one tamed animal--the dog. No bones were +found of any tamed animal except the dog, and this seems to show that +it was the earliest animal tamed by man. + +Mounds like those in Denmark are found in many other countries: in our +own land where the red men lived; in Africa, the land of the black man; +and in Asia, where the brown man lives. Wherever man has led a +wandering life, eating fish and leaving their bones behind him, these +heaps are found; and they are always by the sea or by a river. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +HOW THE EARTH LOOKED WHEN THE SHELL MEN AND THE CAVE MEN LIVED + +At the time when the cave men and the shell men lived, the earth looked +much as it looks now, as far as hills and rivers and trees and grass +could make it. The earth had its seasons--its spring and summer, its +autumn and winter. Then, as now, the forests dropped their leaves in +autumn. Many leaves of oak, maple, poplar, and hickory fell upon +clayey soil and left their imprints; and the clay afterwards turned to +stone, and the imprints show us that the forests of the cave men were +like our own. + +The insects, too, were the same as those of our own fields. We know +this because the gum flowed down the pine trees then as now; and ants, +crickets, butterflies, grasshoppers, and spiders visiting the tree were +held and covered. The gum turned to stone and made the amber of a +later time and kept the insects within it unchanged, and there within +the amber we see the insects that the cave men knew. + +The animals, also, were much the same as those of our own time. It +seems strange to us that at that time the reindeer and the mammoth +should have lived in the same country; because the reindeer of our time +lives in a cold country, and the elephant, which is like the mammoth, +lives in a hot country. But before the time of the cave men, it was +warm in England and France, and the mammoth went to live there then. +Afterwards, it became colder; but the mammoth liked it there, so he +grew himself a coat of thick woolly hair to keep out the cold and +stayed, while the reindeer lived there only in winter and went +northward in summer. + +[Illustration: Drawing of a mammoth, on a piece of mammoth tusk; found +in a cave in France] + +We know that the mammoth had this heavy coat of wool because, in the +cold country of Siberia, some time since, there was a mammoth thawed +out of the ice; and also because the cave men have left a drawing that +pictures the long hair. It was about a hundred years ago, when a +fisherman on the frozen Lena River saw an iceberg of odd shape. Two +years later, he saw the tusks of a mammoth standing out from it. And +five years after that, all the ice had melted from around it, and the +big body of the mammoth lay upon the sand. There was a flowing mane on +the neck, and the body was covered with reddish wool and long black +hair. The people about the country there cut up the flesh as food for +their dogs, and the bones and tusks were sent to the museum in St. +Petersburg. + +Thousands of teeth and tusks of mammoths have been brought up by the +nets of fishermen in the North Sea, that washes England. And whole +islands along that coast are made up of nothing but ice and sand and +the teeth and tusks of mammoths. During every storm, pieces of this +old ivory are washed loose and cast ashore; and the fishermen sell them. + +It is thought that what is now the North Sea was, at the time the +elephants lived there, a swamp in which the animals went to drink and +bathe, and in which, at times, they became mired; and that this is why +so many of their bones are found along that coast. + +Mammoths were very like big elephants, with tusks that turned up. +There are none on earth now. Neither are there any cave tigers. And +the two-horned rhinoceros has gone, and the great snowy owl. + +Caverns and rock shelters in which men of the Stone Age lived have been +found in many places in our own country and in other lands. But caves +are few, even in limestone countries; and these early, stone-chipping +men lived the world over. So, in the open places and in forests among +wild beasts, they must have dug pits for safety or made rude huts of +earth or branches. + +In caverns there have been more bones of horse and reindeer found than +of any other animals; and this shows that the early hunters did best in +killing these animals. There have been few bones of mammoths found; +but that is because those bones were mostly too heavy for the cave +people to carry away. It is likely that the flesh was eaten on the +spot where the animal was killed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +HOW EARLY MEN BELIEVED THAT ALL THINGS THAT MOVE ARE ALIVE + +All early peoples made their songs by singing over and over a line or +two. And into these words they put what they were thinking most about, +or hoping for. They believed that the whispered wish went into the +thing they sang to, and helped to bring about the thing they hoped for. +So the old axmaker, in time to his chipping, sings over and over to the +arrow head: + + "I give you the eye of the eagle, + To find the rabbit's heart. + I give you the eye of the eagle, + To find the rabbit's heart." + +And the mother sings to the child: + + "Though a baby, + Soon a-hunting after berries + Will be going." + + +Early men believed that since they themselves are alive and move, all +other things that move also are alive, and have feelings and likes and +dislikes as men have. The rustling leaves, the waving grass, a rolling +stone, a drifting cloud, the rising moon--all are to them alive, and +many of them are to be feared. + +The speech of the cave and the shell men was made up of few words, and +the meaning was helped out by motions of the hands and body. They knew +little outside of their forest life, and probably could not count +beyond three. But the power to grow was in them, and from such rude +beginnings came the men who built the cities of Paris and London. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE PEOPLE OF OUR TIME WHO WERE MOST LIKE THE CAVE MEN + +Up to a short time ago, on the island of Tasmania, near Australia, +there lived a people more nearly like the cave men than any people we +know about. Their weapons were made of limestone and were without +handles, because they did not know how to fix handles to them. Their +boat was a raft of bark bundles and was pushed by a pole. They lived +under shelters made of boughs, and made fire by twirling a stick on a +piece of soft wood. They drew rude pictures on bark; and they were +quick and cunning about hunting, but knew little more. They believed +that the shadow of a thing was its other self--the self that traveled +in dreams and that lived after the body died; and that the echo was the +talking shadow. Like the cave men these people were hunters, without +any tamed animal to help them. + +[Illustration: A flint knife; found in Australia] + + + + +SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS + +The teacher who wishes to make the most of this work will take her +class to visit a museum, if a museum is available; or, if not, she will +do what she can to show her class actual specimens of the things +described in the story. + +In a museum primitive implements should be observed, and specimens of +animals and birds. Pictures of caves, pieces of stalactites, +stalagmites, of limestone, quartz, and flint would be of value, either +seen in the museum or, better still, looked at and handled in the +classroom as the story is read. A tendon procured from the butcher and +dried for a few weeks and then pulled to pieces would show primitive +thread. + +Out of doors a limestone cliff showing stratification would be the best +kind of illustration to explain both the formation of caves and the +gradual burying and preservation of animal bones and other primitive +relics. + +In the schoolroom, again, on a large stand might be made a model of a +hilly country. A cave could be shown, shaped of two upright stones and +a crosspiece, the whole covered with sods and earth; and animals and +men might be made of paper or of clay. + +Various scenes from the story are adapted to dramatization; for +instance, the visit of the cave bear, the making of fire, work in the +stone yard, or the feast of mammoth's meat. + +For those who wish to read further in a subject so suggestive along the +lines, not only of social life, but of history, geography, and nature +study, the following books will be full of interest: + +The Story of Primitive Man. _Clodd_. _D. Appleton & Company_, 50 +cents. (If only one book on the subject is purchased, this is the most +valuable for the price.) + +Early Man in Britain. _Dawkins_. + +Cave Hunting. _Dawkins_. + +Ancient Stone Implements. _Evans_. + +Primitive Man. _Figuier_. + +The Origin of Inventions. _Mason_. + +Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. _Mason_. + +Some First Steps in Primitive Culture. _Starr_. + +Myths and Dreams. _Clodd_. + +Primitive Culture. _Tylor_. + +Prehistoric Times. _Lubbock_. + +Animals of the Past. _Lucas_. + +The Beginnings of Art. _Grosse_. + +Prehistoric Europe. _Geikie_. + +Materiaux. _Massenet_. + +Phases of Animal Life, Past and Present. _Lyddecker_. + +Royal Natural History. _Lyddecker_. + +Ancient Quarry Sites. _Holmes_. + +The Language of Paleolithic Man. _Brinton_. + +Ancient Society. _Morgan_. + +The Descent of Man. _Darwin_. + +The Voyage of the Vega. _Nordenskjoeld_. + +The History of America, Vol. I. _Payne_. + +The Story of Ab. _Waterloo_. + + + THE AUTHOR + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone, by +Margaret A. 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