The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone Read online

  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 Aprilviolets, and with them painted purple stripes upon their arms andfaces. Then they played that enemies came.

  "Be afraid!" shouted one, frowning; and he stamped his foot and shookhis fist at the play enemies.

  "I am fine!" called the other; and he held his head high, and took bigsteps, and looked this way and that.

  The little brothers were named Thorn and Pineknot. Their baby sisterhad no name. The children looked rough and wild and strong and glad.The sun had made them brown, the wind had tangled their hair. Theirclothes were only bits of fox skin. Their home was the safe rock cavein the side of the hill.

  Near the children a little goat was eating the sweet new grass. Shewas 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 fingersclung 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 wasnot hurt. And the boys laughed and shouted till the woods rang.

  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. Shedid not run away, Thorn."

  "No," said Thorn, "she will not run away now, for we pet her and giveher things to eat. Mother feeds her, too."

  "Oh, but she was a wild one when father brought her home," saidPineknot. "Father killed the mother goat and caught the young onealive. He said that he would keep her at the cave. Then some day whenhe had killed nothing on the hunt, and we were hungry, he would killthe 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 theforest to meet their father.

  The forest--oh, it was beautiful! The trunks of the old trees were bigand rough and mossy. And there were tall ferns and gray rocks andlittle 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 nottall, but his legs were big, for he ran after the wild horse and deerand ox. And his arms were big, because he threw a great spear and astone ax. His name was Strongarm.

  Strongarm]

  The boys came running up to their father. They pointed to the meat onhis 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. Hethrew the horse meat upon the floor with a loud laugh, and lay down ona bear skin to rest.

  The cave was a big room with a high roof. The floor was of dirt andvery hard. The walls were limestone rock in beautiful rough layers,one upon another. From the roof the limestone hung in long pointedshapes, like icicles.


  A fire burned brightly on the floor, while the smoke rose slowly andwent out at a hole in the roof. The walls and the roof were blackenedby smoke.

  Strongarm's young wife was named Burr. She was glad when she saw themeat. She took her stone knife quickly and cut up the meat, and threwthe pieces on the hot coals. While the fire blazed and snapped andcooked 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 theirwhite teeth.

  "Um-m! how good and tender and juicy!" said the boys, grinning, andsmacking their lips.

  When the meat was all gone, the bones were broken and the sweet marrowscraped out and eaten; for that was good, too.

  While the family was still eating, a big black bear came along. Hesmelled the meat, and put his great rough head in at the door andsniffed.

  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. Strongarmsnatched 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 showedhis sharp teeth.

  Strongarm snatched his ax and made for the bear, but he had gone. Hisgrowls sounded farther and farther away. Still Strongarm stood withhis ax ready, his heart thumping and his eyes big. When he saw thatthe 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 alllaughed and talked at once, telling how scared they had been.

  The growls of the bear still sounded through the woods, so the boys ranto 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 oflimestone 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 awhile he held up the piece of limestone with the picture scratched onit.

  Then he sat down by the fire to make his picture of thebear]

  "O mother," said Pineknot, laughing hard, "see Thorn's picture of thebear. 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. Henow held up the picture, scratched on a piece of deer antler.

  "See, this horse has his ears up," he said. "He heard me coming. HereI am with my spear."

  Burr and the boys crowded round and said, "Oh!"

  While Strongarm and the boys were making pictures, the baby had beentumbling about on the floor. She crept around or pulled herself to herfeet by holding to the rough places in the wall. After a while shegrew 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 littlewhile Thorn lay beside him. Then Burr put ashes over the coals, whileStrongarm threw burning logs before the door. Soon all was quiet inthe cave. The cave folks had gone to sleep.

  Ram horns]

  CHAPTER II

  THE NEEDLE, THE CLUB, AND THE BOW

  Nearly every day Strongarm went out to hunt. But he did not alwaysbring 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 againit was that of mammoth or ox.

  Burr always took the meat when Strongarm brought it home, and sometimesshe cut tendons from it. A tendon is a strong white cord that fastensa muscle to a bone. There are long tendons in the backs of biganimals. 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 tendonapart with her fingers. It came to pieces in many little threads.Burr took some of the little threads and twisted them together and madea good strong thread for sewing.

  One day she sat before the door of her cave sewing together skins ofwild oxen.

  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 itrains, 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 theskins with a sharp stone. Then she threaded her needle. She put itthrough a hole in each of the skins and pulled it tight. She worked onin this way and sewed the skins together.

  "Where did you get the needle, mother?" Pineknot asked next, looking atit closely.

  "I made it," said Burr. "When your father brings birds or deer fromthe hunt, I sometimes take a little bone from the leg of a deer or thewing of a bird. This I put in the cave to dry. When it is dry, I rubit smooth with sandstone. Then I must have a hole in one end to carrythe thread. I take a sharp stone and turn it round and round on thelittle bone, pressing down. It is not hard work. In that way I make asmooth hole in my needle."

  A little bone]

  Bone needle]

  "But when my mother sewed," Burr went on, "she used a little bone topush the thread through the skins. One day she found a little bonewith a hole in it and took it home. She put her thread through thehole, wondering how it would do, and began to sew. Soon there was acrowd of women round her, pointing and saying, 'Oh, oh!' while thelittle 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 soonStrongarm came up dragging a little tree. He threw down his oldhunting club and said, "It is broken. I will make a new one."

  Broken hunting club]

  With his stone ax he hacked off the top and roots of the tree; then hestripped 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 whostood watching him.

  "In the old days," he said, rubbing away, "the cave men had nothing tofight 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 stonesnatched from the ground." Then laughing loud, he added, "No wonderthat in the old days people lived in trees, and ran if they saw awildcat."

  "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 thanwe do now."

  After they had gone into the cave, the boys began to play with thebaby. In fun they pushed her into the room behind the one they livedin. 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 itvery big?"

  "Yes, it goes far back into the hill," said Strongarm. "I have neverbeen 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 heldthe torch up high. The light looked small and dim in the darkness ofthe big room. They went on and came to room after room and to longhalls. Some places were narrow and low, so that they had to crawl onhands and knees to get through; and all the walls and floors were wetand slippery.

  Everywhere in the cave the limestone showed beautiful rough layers. Inall the rooms long pointed rocks hung from the roof or stood up fromthe floor. Water dripped from each pointed rock above, and fell on thepointed rock just beneath. In many places two pointed rocks touchedeach other and formed a great, rough, beautiful pillar. In some of therooms the walls and pillars
were lovely and white, glistening in thetorch 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," saidStrongarm, pointing to the smoke-hole. "But afterwards it went downanother way."

  He sat thinking for a while. Then he said, "When I fought with theother young hunters and carried off your mother, I wanted a cave tobring her to. I came to look at this one. Bears were living herethen. But one evening while they were all away, I came in and made afire 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 shouldhave seen the floor! It was covered with old bones that the bears hadbrought in to gnaw. I threw them all out and broke off the rocks thatstood up from the floor. That gave more room. Then I brought yourmother 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 throughthe forest and looked and listened. At last he saw bees go into a holein 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, andgoing in and coming out. Thorn could hear them humming from where hestood. He swung his torch from his arm; then, hand over hand, up thetree he went.