  THINGS TO THINK ABOUT If Flaker is lame, how will he be able to get food? What do you think he can do that will be useful to the clan? Do you think the Cave-men took as good care of the sick, and the lame, and the old people, as we do? What could they do for them? Why did the men use weapons more than tools? Why did the women use tools more than weapons? Think of as many tools as you can that the women used. How Flaker Learned to Make Weapons of Bone Before Flaker was hurt he and Fleetfoot had planned to do many things. But now Flaker was lame, and all the Cave-men knew he would never be able to hunt. When Flaker first knew it, he was very sad. And so Fleetfoot tried to comfort him. Each day he brought him a bird or a rabbit, and he told him all that had happened. For a while Flaker thought that if a man could not hunt, there was nothing else for him to do. But soon he found there were many things to do besides going out to hunt. Flaker began by doing a few little things to help Fleetfoot. He helped him flake heads for harpoons and javelins and make strong shafts. When Flaker was tired he would look at the trophies which were fastened on the wall near the cave. He was always glad to see the locked antlers of the two stags. As he looked at the strong antlers, he could almost see the handsome stags. He thought of them standing head to head ready to strike deadly blows. And he wished he had had such powerful weapons to meet the bison’s charge. The children wanted to be good to Flaker and so they brought him the antlers they found. They liked to play with the antlers, and their mothers used them in many ways. They had learned to cut them with choppers and chisels, and sometimes they cut them with stone knives. All the women used the small prongs of the antlers. They used them as wedges in prying the bark loose from the sap-wood of young trees. All the women had learned to make hammers of antler by making two cuts near the base. And sometimes they used the broad end of the brow antler instead of a stone chisel. image The head of a javelin. Once when Flaker was watching Antler, he thought she was making a dagger. But Antler had not thought of making a dagger. She was Flaker kept his eyes fixed upon the long beam. The more he looked at it, the more it looked like a dagger. At length he reached and picked it up. Then he took his knife and began to cut it. That night when Fleetfoot came home, Flaker gave him a dagger of reindeer horn. Fleetfoot showed it to Bighorn, who took it, then tossed it on the ground. Bighorn had never seen such a dagger. He thought a good dagger had to be made of stone. So he made fun of Flaker’s weapon, then thought no more about it. But Greybeard and Chipper did not make fun of the weapons Flaker made. They tried the dagger next day, and found that it stood the test. So they asked Flaker to make each of them daggers and javelins of reindeer horn. THINGS TO DO Tell all you know about the antlers of full-grown stags. Tell all you know about the antlers of other reindeer. Look at the antlers in the pictures on pages 16, 17, 108, and 121. Find the part that would make such a wedge as is shown on page 119. Find the part that would make such a hammer as is shown on page 74. Find a part for a chisel or scraper. Find the long beam that was used in making such a dagger as is shown on page 123. Do you think that Flaker’s first dagger was carved in this way? Can you tell why the Cave-men carved their weapons? Act out the part of this story you like best. Draw one of these pictures:— Make as many simple tools as you can out of bone or horn. Find ways of using them. |
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