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Why the Cave-men made Changes in their Weapons

While the Cave-men were resting from the hunt, they did a great many things. They practiced running; they hunted for stuff to make new weapons; they worked upon their weapons and trophies; they learned new hunting dances. No matter what they did, they always asked their gods to help.

All the later Cave-men learned to make light spears and javelins. The clumsy spear which served Strongarm so well was not what Scarface needed. But in the days of the early Cave-men the heavy spear was a good weapon. Strongarm cared as much for his spear as you do for your dog. It was like a friend in time of need. Few animals could withstand Strongarm’s blow when he grasped his spear in one or both hands and lunged forward with all his might. His spear was a powerful weapon. But Strongarm lived in the age of combat when people fought animals at close range.

The later Cave-men did not make light spears and javelins all at once. They began by throwing heavy spears. Chew-chew could tell of many a hunter who lost his life throwing a spear. Sometimes it was because the spear was too heavy to throw with enough force. Sometimes it was because the shaft was crooked and the spear did not go to the right spot.

When the Cave-men practiced throwing, they did not stand still and throw. They took aim and threw as they ran. That was the kind of practice they needed for the real chase.

The mark, too, was a moving mark. It was made of a bundle of branches, or an old skin stuffed with leaves. While one man dragged it by a long cord, the others ran after it, throwing their spears.

A Cave-man could wound an animal with a spear, but he could not give a deadly blow. There was always danger of the wounded animal turning upon the hunter. A skilled hunter with a good spear ran little risk in throwing it. But not all the Cave-men had enough skill. Not all of the Cave-men made good enough weapons to be thrown with a sure aim.

And so the Cave-men learned new ways of making and using spears. Perhaps they did not want to do it. But they had to do it or die. So you see why the men and boys spent most of their time in learning to follow the chase. Even the women and girls learned to hunt and to make all sorts of weapons.

Long before Scarface lived the Cave-men began to make lighter spears. The straighter they made the shaft, the easier it was to hit the mark. And so the Cave-men began to vie with one another in making the straightest and smoothest shafts.

When they cut the sticks for the shafts the Cave-men made gifts to the wood-gods, and asked for the straightest and toughest branches that grew on the trees. Then they cut the branches carefully and carried them home to the cave. There they peeled them from butt to tip and smoothed them with stone scrapers. Sometimes they rubbed them with fat and laid them away to dry. It was hard work to make a crooked stick straight. But the Cave-men tried many ways and at last they learned to make as beautiful shafts as ever have been made.

When the Cave-men pulled the shaft back and forth on the sandstone, they made deep grooves in it. We have found pieces of grooved sandstone that the later Cave-men used. Sometimes they would clamp a crooked stick between a grooved piece of sandstone and a flat bone. Then they would pull and twist, and pull and twist, and pull and twist that stick back and forth until the crooked place was made straight.

When Scarface was very old he made a shaft-straightener of a piece of reindeer horn. He carved the head of the reindeer upon it, and made a hole for the shaft. Then he thrust the crooked stick through the hole and turned the shaft-straightener round and round as we turn a wrench, until he straightened the shaft.

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