^/^'^f .y A ^ GIFT or PUBLISHER Mu^, •atf^KEUEY. CALiFORN^^ THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/caveboyofageofstOOmcinrich 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 Printed in the United States of America. Dedicated to My Mother CONTENTS OHAFTBB FAOB I. — Sthongarm's Family 1 II. — ^The Needle, the Glub, and the Bow . . 13 III. — ^The Taming of the Dog 25 IV. — How Strong ARM Hunted a Bear and a Lion 31 V. — ^The Old Ax Maker Visits His Daughter . 37 VI. — ^Thb Coming of Fire 43 VII.— The Cave Tiger 52 VIII. — The Making of Stone Weapons. ... 57 IX. — ^At the Gravel Pit 65 X. — ^A Summer Camp 69 XI. — Thorn Meets the Children of the Shell Mounds 76 Xn. — ^At the Home of the Shell Mound People . 83 XIII. — ^Thorn Learns to Swim 92 XTV. — The Feast of Mammoth's Meat .... 97 XV. — ^The Red Men of Our Own Country in the Stone Age 108 XVI. — ^How Stone Weapons of the Cave Men Were First Found 112 ix CONTENTS CHAPTER BAGTB XVII. — ^How THE Earth Looked When the Shell Men AND the Cave Men Lived . . . ,119 XVin. — How Early Men Believed that All Things THAT Move Are Alive 124 XIX. — The People of Our Time Who Were Most Like the Cave Men 126 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS 129 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE CHAPTER I strongakm'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 Uttle 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, 1 THE CkVE 'BOY'Oi^ THE AGE OF STONE 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 Kttle 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 imtied the goat. Laughing, Thorn put the baby on the goat's back. The Httle fingers climg 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 ran^. 2 STRONGARM'S FAMILY a After a while Pineknot thought of the goat; he had not tied her. ^^ Where is the Httle goat? Oh, there she is 3 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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 himgry, 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. 4 STRONQAEM'S FAMILY '^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 httle 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. The boys came rimning up to their father. They pointed to the meat on his shoulder, and laughed and shouted and clapped their hands. 5 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE *'We shall not go hungry to-day I We shall not go hungry to-day I'' they sang as they danced along. 6 STRONGARM'S FAMILY ^^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 hmestone rock in beautiful rough layers, one upon another. From the roof the limestone hung in long pointed shapes, Uke 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 7 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STOITE Strongarm snatched it up and tore it to pieces with their white teeth. ^^Um-m! how good and tender and juicy!'' said the boys, grin- ning, and smacking their Ups. When the meat was all gone, the bones were broken and the sweet mar- row scraped out and eaten; for that was good, too. ^J\ ^H^^ 1 \ While the fam- \M * r V Pineknot^s hand, and against his bare body. He yelled, and Thorn opened his eyes in wonder. Pineknot rubbed the place, but picked up the 23 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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 httle 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. 24 CHAPTER III THE TAMING OF THE DOG Early one morning Strong- arm went out to hunt . Cat- tle with wild eyes were eat- ing 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 ele- phants 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. 25 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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 himting!'^ 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 run- ning 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 pup- pies in a hollow tree. ''Um," he grunted, ''the Httle wild goat that the children play with is quiet and tama 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 Uttle ball of soft black wool between the two boys lying on a bear skin. 26 THE TAMING OF THE DOG Then there were merry eyes, laughs, and soft calls: ^^Here Httle pet!^' and ^'Oh, the little sharp teeth!'' At last a tired Uttle ball fell asleep in brown arms. The puppy grew fast and was full of play. He followed the boys everyivhere, and they called him ^'Wow wow.'' One day they were pla3dng 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 wdth our talking shadows." So they lay down on the groimd and began to call. "Ho, there!" called Thorn. 27 THE CAYE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE "^ ^'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, calUng, ^^0 Thorn, I was coming along on the high rock, and I heard Uttle cries. I 28 THE TAMING OF THE DOG 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!^^ Pineknot stopped /"& for breath. '^Go on, go on,'' said Thorn, 'Hell 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." 29 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE ^^The young eagles held their mouths open/' Pineknot went on, ^^and their mother fed them with the snake, a httle 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 httle 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." 30 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 foimd the great cave bear in it. He killed the bear and carried the meat home to eat, and the skin to sleep on. 31 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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 - tUEREnC/MilC-. 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.'' She looked up as a man came running toward the cave. '^Oho, Hickory!'' called Strongarm, 'Vhat is it?" 32 HOW STRONGARM HUNTED "A lion hunt!'^ shouted Hickory, and shook his spear, Strongarm's bold face lighted up. ^^TeU about it/' he said. ^^A Hon has come among the caves by the fiver. 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 Uon'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 33 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OP STONE 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.' ^' 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 Strong- arm. '^Tell us about the lion hunt, father," begged Pineknot. ''We watched the Hon for days," said Strong- arm. "We found that he sl^t nearly all day in the thick reeds by the river. At simdown he went out to hunt. He hunted all night; 34 HOW STRONGARM HUNTED 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 35 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF 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 Hon; he could not himt animals enough to eat, and that is why he had begun to kill people.'^ 36 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 Fhnt, 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. 37 The cave boy op the age of stone "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 Httle 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 httle 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 38 THE OLD AX MAKER it. He rubbed his fingers along the rough sharp edge. ^^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 Fhnt. "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 roimd where he sat and pulled up a little hickory tree. "We will put handles on these axes," he said. 39 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE He hacked off a piece of the little tree and spht it half way down, and hacked off one spUt piece. The other spUt 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. 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 FUnt 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 40 THE OLD AX MAKER it was hard. She took a basket in her hand, and her baby on her back, and went out of the cave. Old FUnt 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 foimd 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. Little wild pigs were there eating the acorns, ^ and the boys ran one down and brought it, squeahng, to their mother. Burr laughed and 41 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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. 42 CHAPTER VI THE COMING OF FIRE When Strongarm came back from the hmit, 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 Hick- ory'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 Uve in the trees did that — some of those shadow people," he said to him- self. ^^They tried to kill me. The man who 43 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE lives in the wind is angry, too. Hear him roar! ^^I do not hke 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 44 THE COMING OF FIRE 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. 45 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE '^The fire man — ^wiU he not be angry?" she asked. Flmt said nothing. He was striking the stones together. A spark came ! then an- other and another! He kept on striking very fast until the sparks came Uke 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. ''From stones!" Burr kept thinking, as she shook her head and watched it out of the comer of her eye. When Strongarm came with the coals, the cave was already warm and Hght and full of 46 THE COMING OF FIRE 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 ?^^ Mint 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 Fhnt. ^^He has worked in stone all his life. For a long time he has known that fire fives in stone. He has seen sparks fly as he chipped his axes. One day in making a spear head, he struck a quartz peb- 47 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE' ble 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 hves in wood, too! My ax handles grow warm as I rub them.'' The boys listened in wonder to their grand- father's strange story of the making of fire. 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 48 THE COMING OF FIRE 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 Hked 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 — ^tfeeth 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 49 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE the old days, the men and women wandered from place to place with their httle children* And the women hunted and fished and fought beside the men. And at night the people ciu*led 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 fixe, 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 50 THE COMING OF FIRE 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 j&re and brought water from the stream and gathered seeds of the ripe grasses. ^^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 FUnt; and Strong- arm nodded his head. 51 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 chest- nuts grew close together, and imder the branches there was a thick tangle of low bushes. Old Fhnt watched carefully as he led the way through the woods. He Kstened 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. 52 THE CAVE TIGER 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/' Fhnt 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 breathy 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 53 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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 FUnt 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,'^ con- tinued old FHnt, thinking of past years; ^'for when I was a boy, my father's cave was in a high cUff, close to the river. A little way be- low, there was a place where the animals came to drink. And often I have felt the hair rise 54 THE CAVE TIGER on my head as I heard the cry of some wounded animal, and saw it rush away with a yellow patch chnging to its neck. ^^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 rhin- oceros, 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 55 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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 fiuious 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." 56 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. Fhnt said to her, ^^Here is Thorn, your grandson." ^^The Httle 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. 57 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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. Point- ing to these, FUnt said, ^^They are waiting to buy axes.^' There were piles of bowlders on the ground, and Uttle piles of stone chips around each ax maker. FUnt went up to one of them and said, ^^ Red- top, 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 58 THE MAKING OF STONE WEAPONS ^^^ • 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. Strong- arm's spear stood oftenest in the tree from the longest distance. ^'Strongarm's eye is best!'' the others shouted. ^^His arm is strongest!" 103 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE After that a young man cried, ^^I have flying feet! Who will run with me?'' ^^I wiU!'' ^^I will!'' And yoimg men ran out and stood beside him, and all the people watched. The race started. The young men ran Hghtly, Hke deer. They skimmed the ground like swal- lows. 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 nm 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 Pine- knot and old Hickory's children and some of 104 THE FEAST OF MAMMOTH'S MEAT 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 Hving 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 manmaoth, 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 r^ 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. 105 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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 Hfted the bone and car- ried 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. 106 THE FEAST OF MAMMOTH'S MEAT When they reached the cave, Thorn told Pine- knot 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 mamimoth 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. 107 CHAPTER XV I THE RED MEN OF OUR OWN COUNTRY IN THE STONE AGE Last summer a little boy went to visit his grandfatlier who Uved near one of the beauti- jful 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 coimtry. 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 X NOETH AMERICAN INDIAN Mm, aud that they 108 THE RED MEN OF OUR OWN COUNTRY 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 himdreds of ar- row heads. Some of them were small and finely chipped. ''These are bird arrows,'^ the doctor said. Then he showed large arrows. ''These are for killing buffalo and other big game.'' 109 A STONE ARROW HEAD THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE And there were stone axes and hammers. Lastly, the doctor showed him something that looked Uke a Httle, very old hatchet. The boy turned it over and over and looked at it. It was all weather stained, and reddish-brown and green. ^^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 cop- per hatchets 'tomahawks.' ' 110 A STONE AX THE RED MEN OF OUR OWN COUNTRY ^'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 be- yond 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 to- gether/' 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 museima where they will be kept for people to see." Ill 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 Sonmie — 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 112 HOW STONE WEAPONS WERE FOUND 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. ^M 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 be- side 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 113 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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 maromoth, 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 ht- tle, and who used them for weapons. Near the stone weapons were these bones of the mam- moth and the rhinoceros. So those animals lived at the time the men did, and in this country/^ The learned men Hstened, but did not be- lieve 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 114 HOW STONE WEAPONS WERE FOUND stones were found, and, with them, bones of the reindeer. Then the learned men had to believe that men who shaped stones once Uved in England PICTUKE OF REINDEER, SCRATCHED ON SLATE; FOUND IN A CAViS IN FRANCE and France and Denmark; and that at the same time lived the mammoth, the rhinoceros, and the reindeer; and that the men had very Uttle and knew very Uttle, and made the shaped stones for weapons. Soon after this, chipped stones were found all the world over. More than that, there were people Hving who still were chipping thenu 11^ THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE The Eskimo, who hve in the frozen north of our own country, make their weapons of stone. ESKIMO BY THEIB 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 116 I HOW STONE WEAPONS WERE FOUND you may see shell mounds. They are the old hunting and fishing villages. They are of dif- ferent 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, floun- der, and other deep-sea fish. Many of the bones had been split open for the purpose of extracting the marrow. Be- sides bones, there are also pieces of burnt wood; and there is sea plant, which may have given salt. The stone tools and weap- ons found in the heaps are axes, knives, hammers, awls, ^ ^^* ^^^'^ foun© m A CAVE Ilf EN«- lance heads, and sling stones land 117 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE " — all of rude make. There are also bits of rude pottery, which show that these men knew a Uttle 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 earhest animal tamed by man. Mounds hke 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 foimd; and they are always by the sea or by a river. 118 CHAPTER XVII HOW THE EARTH LOOKED WHEN THE SHELIi MEN AND THE CAVE MEN LIVED At the time when the cave men and the shell men Uved, 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 simmier, 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 after- wards 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 gima flowed down the pine trees then as now; and 119 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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 manmaoth went to live there then. Afterwards, it became colder; but the manmaoth 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. We know that the mammoth had this heavy coat of wool because, in the cold coimtry of Siberia, some time since, there was a mammoth 120 HOW THE EARTH LOOKED 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 DRAWING OP A MAMMOTH, ON A PIECE OF A MAMMOTH TUSK; ) FOUND IN A CAVE IN FRANCE 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 coimtry there cut up the flesh as food for their dogs, and the 121 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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 Uved 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. Manamoths were very Uke 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 122 HOW THE EARTH LOOKED places in our own country and in other lands. But caves are few, even in limestone countries; and these early, stone-chipping men Uved the world over. So, in the open places and in for- ests 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 ani- mals; and this shows that the early hunters did best in killing these animals. There have been few bones of mammoths found; but that is be- cause 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. 123 CHAPTER XVIII HOW EARLY MEN BELIEVED THAT ALL THINGS THAT MOVE ARE ALIVE All early peoples made their songs by sing- ing over and over a line or two. And into these words they put what they were thinking most about; or hoping for. They beheved that the whispered wish went into the thing they sscng 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." 124 HOW EARLY MEN BELIEVED Early men believed that since they them- selves are alive and move, all other things that move also are alive, and have feeUngs and hkes and disUkes as men have. The rustUng 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 Uttle 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. 125 CHAPTER XIX THE PEOPLE OF OUR TIME WHO WERE MOST LIKE THE CAVE MEN Up to a short time ago, on the island of Tas- mania, near Austraha, there hved a people more nearly Uke the cave men than any people we know about. Their weapons were made of limestone and were without handles, be- cause 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 Uved 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 126 A FLINT knife; FOUND IN AUSTRALIA THE PEOPLE OF OUR TIME 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 Hved 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. 127 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHEKS 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 ob- served, and specimens of animals and birds. Pictures of caves, pieces of stalactites, stalagmites, of lime- stone, 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 pro- cured 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, 129 THE CAVE BOY OF THE AGE OF STONE 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 y 50 cents. (If only one book on the subject is purchased, this is the most valuable for the price.) Early Man in Britain. DawJcins. Cave Hunting. DawTcins, 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. LvMock. Animals of the Past. Lucas. The Beginnings of Art. Grosse. Prehistoric Europe. GeiMe. Materiaux. Massenet. Phases of Animal Life, Past and Present. LyddecJcer. 130 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS Eoyal Natural History. Lyddeclcer. Ancient Quarry Sites. Holmes. The Language of Paleolithic Man. Brintoru Ancient Society. Morgan, The Descent of Man. Darivin. The Voyage of the Vega. Nordenslcjold. The History of America, Vol. I. Payne. The Story of Ab. Waterloo. The Author. (18) B 37083 611218 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY