Part 44

For a while the only boiling pot Pigeon used was a hole in the ground which she lined with a skin. Then she used a water-tight basket for boiling little things.

Pigeon always boiled by dropping hot stones into the water. She had never heard of a boiling-pot which could be hung over the fire. She had never heard of a stove. The Cave-men knew nothing about such things as stoves. It would have done them no good if they had, for their boiling-pots could not stand the heat. So instead of putting the boiling-pot over the fire, the Cave-men brought the fire to the boiling-pot by means of hot stones.

In times of famine, Pigeon learned to boil all sorts of roots and leaves. Many bitter plants, when boiled, were changed so that they tasted very well. Some plants which were poison when eaten raw were changed to good foods by being boiled.

And so the young women had their share in procuring food for the clans. While the young men invented new weapons for hunting, and tried to control the animals by magic, the young women learned to preserve foods and to keep them for times when game was scarce.

When the end of the salmon feast came, the people had dried many salmon. It was soon after this that the young men captured wives and took them to new hunting grounds. And one of the very bravest young men was the one who captured Pigeon.

#THINGS TO DO#

Find some kind of raw food which you can dry. Dry it and tell what happens. What dried foods do we eat? In what kind of a place do we keep dried foods?

Find the best way of boiling bitter vegetables. Tell what happens when you boil them. Find the best way of boiling sweet vegetables.

Draw one of these pictures:-- Catching salmon just below the rapids. Drying salmon. Pigeon boiling meat for the Cave-men.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Do you think that any of the young men and their wives would live with Fleetfoot and Willow-grouse? Where do you think Flaker will live?

Can you think why Willow-grouse would take great pains to embroider her baby's clothing?

Why would Willow-grouse want pretty colors? Think of new ways she might find of getting pretty colors. How could she get the color out of plants into the stuff she wished to color?

Why was it easier to make pretty dyes after people knew how to boil?

The New Home

A year or so passed and Fleetfoot and Willow-grouse were settled with their kinsfolk in a new rock shelter. Its framework was covered with heavy skins instead of woven branches. Heavy bone pegs and strong thongs served to keep the skins in place.

Flaker and other young men with their wives lived in the rock shelter. There were little children, too, and tiny babies.

Willow-grouse had a baby and she thought he was a wonderful child. She dressed him in the softest skins which she embroidered with a prayer. And she hung a bear's tooth about his neck because she thought it was a charm. In winter she put him in a skin cradle and wrapped him in the warmest furs. In summer he played in a basket cradle which Willow-grouse wove on a forked stick.

In all that Willow-grouse did, she always asked the gods for help. The baskets she made for boiling food, were also prayers to the gods.

She searched for the choicest grasses and spread them on a clean spot to dry. No one knew so well as Willow-grouse when to gather the twigs. She knew the season when they were full-grown and gathered them before the sap had hardened. She gathered them when the barks peeled easily and when the rich juices flowed.

When the twigs were gathered the women soaked them and peeled off the bark. They left some of the twigs round, but others they made into flat splints. Sometimes they stained them with the green rind of nuts, and sometimes they dyed them with pretty dyes.

Instead of weaving the baskets, Willow-grouse sewed them with an over-and-over stitch. In this way she made the soft grasses into a firm basket. She began by taking a wisp of grass in the left hand and a flat splint in the other. She wound the splint around the wisp a few times then turned the wrapped portion upon itself. When she had fastened it with a firm stitch, again she wound the splint around the wisp and took another stitch.

Sometimes Willow-grouse made baskets for boiling food, and sometimes she made them for carrying water. The baskets she prized most were the ones into which she put a prayer. The prayer was a little pattern which she made for a picture of one of the gods. Sometimes it was a wild animal and sometimes it was a bird. Sometimes it was the flowing river and sometimes a mountain peak. And sometimes it was a flash of lightning, and sometimes it was the sun.

All the Cave-men wanted the gods to be friendly and they wanted them to stay near. That is why they took so much pains in making pictures of them. That is why that soon after the rock shelter was made they engraved a reindeer upon the wall.

Greybeard, now old and feeble, walked all the way to the spot. Fleetfoot and Flaker wanted him to perform the magic rites.

Not all the people who lived there were allowed to take part in the ceremonies. Only the grown people were allowed to see the first part. And only the wisest and bravest ones went into the dark shelter.

For a moment, those who went in stood in silence waiting for a sign. Then, by the light of a torch, Fleetfoot chiseled a reindeer on the hard rock, and Greybeard, holding a reindeer skull, murmured earnest prayers.

A feeling of awe came over them while they worked. They began to feel that the god of the reindeer was really there with them. They asked the god to take good care of those who lived in the rock shelter, and to send many herds of reindeer to the Cave-men's hunting grounds.