Archaeology -- Juvenile literature; Cave dwellers -- Juvenile literature
_Model in clay something which you might name "The Age of Combat."_
IV
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
How do you feel after you have had a long, hard chase?
What does your mother tell you to do when you come in dripping with
sweat?
How do you think the Cave-men learned to take care of themselves?
When they were lame and stiff, do you think they would know what
made them so? Think of as many things as you can that they might do
to make themselves feel better.
_After the Chase_
When the long, hard chase was over, the Cave-men were tired and
dripping with sweat. All but Scarface threw themselves upon the cold
ground to rest.
It was Scarface who blew the whistle which called the women to the
spot. It was he who guarded the carcasses until the women came. And
while the women skinned the horses he sat on a log to rest.
It was sunset when they reached the cave. All joined in a feast upon
horse flesh, then they slept until break of day. It was then that the
men groaned with pain. Their muscles ached, and they were so lame that
they could scarcely move. Scarface alone of all the men was not
suffering with pain.
Perhaps you can tell what made the men lame. None of the Cave-men
knew. Everybody thought that an angry god was trying to punish them.
And so the men tried to drive the god away by raising fearful shouts.
Then they asked Chew-chew's advice, and Chew-chew took her basket and
started up the dry ravine. There she found bitter roots which she
gathered and carried home.
No one knew at that time how to steep roots, for people had not
learned how to boil. So Chew-chew chopped the roots with a stone
chopper and laid them upon hot stones. And while the men breathed the
bitter fumes, Chew-chew threatened the angry god and commanded him to
go away.
In a few days the men were well and it was almost time to go hunting
again. Straightshaft feared the angry god. He talked with the men and
they wondered why it was that Scarface escaped. They looked at his
deep scar which a tiger's claw had made. And then they looked at the
trophies of Scarface which he wore about his neck.
Every Cave-man admired the deep scar of the bravest man in the clan.
Every man wished that he, too, could show such a scar as that. And the
men began to wonder if the scar was a kind of a charm.
[Illustration: "_Chew-chew took her basket and started up the dry
ravine._"]
The more the men talked about the scar, the more they wanted scars.
They talked with Chew-chew about it, and at last decided to let her
make scars.
So Chew-chew muttered prayers to the gods, and asked them not to hurt
the Cave-men. Then she took a flint point and scratched the men's arms
until she made big scars.
Years afterward, when people made scars, they stained them with all
sorts of things. Sometimes they stained the scars with juices of
plants, and sometimes they colored them with paints.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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