What do you think Chew-chew might learn by dropping the meat into
the hot water?
What kind of boiling-pots did people first use?
Why didn't they hang their boiling-pots over the fire?
_Why the Children Began to Eat Boiled Meat_
The more Chew-chew thought about the bubbling sound, the more she
wanted to hear it again. She wondered what the god wanted to say, and
if he was asking for food. She wondered if she could make friends with
him by giving him something to eat.
Chew-chew talked with Eagle-eye and at length they tried to make
friends with the god. They prepared a place for the water by making a
skin-lined hole. Eagle-eye poured the water into the hole, while
Chew-chew dropped in a piece of meat. Then they looked and listened
for a sign, but no sign was made. They tried it again and again, but
still there was no sign.
At length Chew-chew thought of the hot stones she had dropped when she
heard the voice. So she and Eagle-eye heated stones and dropped them
into the water. As they did it they muttered prayers to the gods and
asked them to protect the Cave-men.
Before the women had dropped many stones, the children crowded around.
Nobody was frightened this time when the hissing sound was heard. But
their eyes opened wide when the water began to bubble.
Chew-chew dropped the meat into the water as an offering to the god.
Everybody watched as she dropped the meat. Everybody breathed more
freely when the bubbling ceased. And Chew-chew said, "The god is
pleased with the offering of meat."
Many times after that Chew-chew dropped hot stones into the water, and
offered meat to the god. But when she did it she never thought that
she was cooking meat. She thought she was helping the Cave-men by
winning the favor of the god.
Sometimes when the children were hungry, Chew-chew let them tear off
strips of partly boiled meat. Sometimes she let them drink the broth
from bone dippers and horns.
The children liked to eat the boiled meat and to drink the rich broth.
But they always thought the meat and broth were what the god had left.
#THINGS TO DO#
_Make tongs out of sticks and see if you can lift small objects
with them._
_Watch water when it boils, and tell where the steam comes from._
_Where does it go? Hold a cold plate over the steam and see what
happens. Where do the drops of water on the plate come from?_
_When water stands in the open air, what becomes of part of it?_
_Why do we hang clothes out on the clothes-line to dry?_
_What becomes of the water that was in the clothes?_
_Tell what you think happens just as clouds form. See if you can do
something that will show what happens at the time._
_What happens to the clouds just as it begins to rain?_