Of course the cave men soon learned how to throw their spears, hurling them at the enemy with great force and skill. But they could not throw them very far, because they were so heavy, so they made smaller, lighter ones called javelins, which they could fling a great distance. The further they threw them, however, the less certain was their aim, so they often missed. On this account the early people tried in many ways to find out how to throw their sharp-pointed javelins a long distance, and at the same time with correct aim. One way was to use a throwing stick—a short piece of wood with a handle to it, and a groove along the top in which they laid the javelin or spear. With these throwing sticks they could hurl a spear a greater distance, than they could in the ordinary way. Some of these early peoples may have used the blow-gun, such as is used to-day by the savages of the forests in South America. These blow-guns are made of long, hollow tubes of wood, such as bamboo, and little poisoned darts are shot from them with great force by blowing through one end of the tube, just as boys to-day blow beans or bits of putty from a bean shooter. But it was not until man invented the bow and arrow that he found a really serviceable weapon for killing things at a distance. Just how the bow and arrow came to be invented we shall of course never know. Some people think it came from the use of bent saplings in making snares or traps. Such a sapling, springing back when released, would throw a small object a considerable distance. Some think the bow may have developed from the bow-drill. One of the first ways of making fire, as we have said, was by rubbing two sticks together. A simple way to do this was to twirl one stick between the palms of the hands, like a drill, while pressing it against a piece of softer wood. Later on, men found that by twisting a double cord between the ends of a bent stick, they could twirl the drill by moving the bent stick from side to side, and they used these bow-drills, as they are called, not only to make fire, but to drill holes in bone, or bits of wood, or even stone. But it is very likely that man discovered the bow for shooting with first, and later used the idea of the bent stick to make the bow-drill. [Illustration: BOWS AND ARROWS AND SLINGS With the bow and arrow, early man could kill his enemies at a distance.] Sometimes, when making and seasoning the long handles of their spears, the early men may have found that, if a spear shaft was crooked, it could be straightened by bending it like a bow in the opposite direction and tying the two ends together with a cord. This would have made a sort of bow, and it may be that in some such way as this man found that a string tied between the two ends of a bent piece of wood could be used to shoot a javelin or arrow a greater distance than it could be thrown by hand.