Archaeology -- Juvenile literature; Cave dwellers -- Juvenile literature
If they built a fire inside the cave do you think that
the smoke would pass out?
Where do you think that they would make their
fireplace? Where do we make our fireplaces?
How do we keep the smoke from getting into our rooms?
_How the Cave Was Made Ready for a Winter Home_
The morning after the feast Firekeeper built a fire inside the cave.
Then all went in to look at the cave, but the smoke soon drove them out.
So Firekeeper raked out the fire with a branch of spruce wood and
waited for the smoke to go out.
Then the Cave-men took firebrands and crept inside, and stood up and
walked around.
Bones of animals were strewn upon the rough rocky floor.
Pieces of rock shaped like icicles hung from the roof and stood up from
some parts of the floor.
Drops of water trickled down from the roof.
Layers of rock jutted out from the walls like shelves.
The Cave-men walked through the large dry cavern until they came to a
narrow passage.
Then they stopped to see where it led.
They peered into the darkness, but saw nothing.
They listened, but heard no sound.
Since no one wanted to creep through the passage, they turned back
toward the mouth.
The dry cavern near the mouth was large enough for a home, so the
Cave-men thought no more of the narrow passage.
Before the men went out of the cave they picked up armfuls of bones for
weapons.
They carried them out by the fire and sat down and worked upon them.
The women cleared away piles of bones, so as to make a smooth place to
sleep.
Then they went out among the trees to find something to cover the floor.
They broke off small branches of evergreens and carried them into the
cave.
The children brought armfuls of moss and leaves, and scattered them
over the hard rocky floor.
When the beds were finished they made a fireplace.
They dug a shallow hole just outside the cave and walled it around with
stones.
Perhaps you would not call this a good fireplace, but it was the best
fireplace any one had at that time.
[Illustration: “_The children brought armfuls of moss and leaves_”]
THINGS TO DO
_Visit a cave when you have a chance to do so._
_Collect pictures of caves._
_Model a cave in clay or make one in the ground._
_Find out what caves are used for nowadays._
_Make a fireplace out of doors and cook something in
the hot ashes._
VIII
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
What do you think the beads you wear are made of?
Can you think how they were made?
What do you think the Cave-men used for beads?
What did they wear for ornaments besides beads?
Can you think how they bored holes through their
ornaments?
What does the carpenter use to bore holes with?
How does the woodpecker bore holes?
_How the Cave-men Bored Holes Through Their Trophies_
For several days after the feast the Cave-men did not hunt.
As long as they had meat they stayed near the cave and worked upon
their trophies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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