that, and claiming to have wonderful powers given to them by the gods. They became very cruel, too, and not only frightened the people by clever tricks, which to these simple creatures seemed like wonderful miracles, but told them to make all sorts of sacrifices to the gods, sometimes even human beings, men, women and children, who, they said, had to be killed and offered upon altars so that the gods would not be angry. All this work by the priests soon changed the simple religion of the people, worshipping God through His great forces into a brutal kind of religion which we call Paganism. This rule by the priests lasted for a very long time; it was found among all the ancient peoples, in Nineveh and Babylon, in Egypt, Greece and Rome, and it was only when Christ came to teach people a better way to worship the Divine Creator that people began to understand that God is not cruel and angry, asking sacrifices, but a God of Love. CHAPTER XIII THE FIRST BOW AND ARROW AMONG a people whose whole life was spent in fighting, and in killing animals for food, weapons were the most important things. We have seen how the cave men used clubs and spears, and later stone axes and knives. But as the tribe increased in numbers, so that the whole valley was filled with them, it became harder and harder to get enough food. The cave men were very swift runners, and often pursued and overtook the smaller beasts, but there were many that they could not overtake. There were also great flocks of waterfowl that flew over the marshes. The hunters tried in every way to kill these, but it was hard work. Sometimes they would manage to hit one with a well-aimed pebble or stone, but even though they became skilful throwers, it was not easy to throw a stone far enough, or with enough force, to kill an animal or a large bird. So they all tried to think of some way to kill birds and animals at a distance. One of the first things they did was to invent the sling. Some early hunter found out, that by placing a smooth round pebble in a leather thong, and whirling it about his head, he could throw the pebble much further and harder than he could by hand. It was not long before the cave men became very skilful in the use of the sling. They found out just the right moment to let go one end of the thong, so that the pebble would fly straight and hard toward the mark, and soon they were able to hit and kill the marsh birds, something like our ducks, or geese, without much trouble. But the sling, although useful against such small game, did very little harm to animals of larger size. A wolf or a bear paid no attention to the pebbles that hit him, and either ran away, or turned against the hunters and attacked them.