How did people sew before they had needles? What bones do you think
the Cave-men would use first in making needles and awls? Why would
people want the hardest bones for needles?
[Illustration: _A bone pin._]
[Illustration: _A large bone needle._]
See if you can find out where the hardest bones are found.
See if you can think of all the things that would have to be done
in making a needle out of a piece of ivory or a large bone.
Why do we sometimes wax thread? What do you think the Cave-men
would use instead of wax?
Why did the Cave men make holes in their awls? What were the first
holes which they made in their needles used for?
How do you think they would think of carrying the thread through
the needle's eye?
Why do we use thimbles when we sew? When do you think people began
to use thimbles? What do you think the first thimbles were like?
_How Willow-grouse Learned to Make Needles_
[Illustration: _A bone awl._]
Willow-grouse soon made friends with the women. They admired the
clothing she wore, and they wanted to learn how to polish skins and to
make beautiful clothing. So Willow-grouse showed the women how to
polish skins and to make them into beautiful garments.
While the women sewed with bone awls, Willow-grouse watched Flaker,
who was sawing a bone with a flint saw.
It was soon after this that Willow-grouse learned to make needles of
large hard bones. The first ones she made were not very beautiful
needles. They were not so smooth nor so round as the awls she had made
of bird's bones. But she made a beginning and after a while all the
women learned to make fine needles.
[Illustration: _A bone from which the Cave-men have sawed out slender
rods for needles._]
[Illustration: _A piece of sandstone used by the Cave-men in making
needles._]
They made the needles of a hard bone which they took from the leg of a
horse. They traced out the lines they wished to cut just as Flaker
traced the harpoon. Then they sawed out slender rods and whittled one
end to a point. The other end they made thin and flat, for this was
the end where the hole was made.
They made the rods round and smooth by drawing them back and forth on
a piece of soft sandstone. This made long grooves in the sandstone,
which became deeper and deeper every time the sandstone was used. Then
they polished the rods by drawing them back and forth between the
teeth of a flint comb.
[Illustration: _A flint comb used in rounding and polishing needles._]
The first needles had no eyes. They were more like awls and pins, than
needles. Perhaps the first eyes were made in needles to keep them from
getting lost.
[Illustration: _A flint saw used in making needles of bone taken from
the leg of a horse._]
It was hard work to saw the bone rods and to round and polish them. No
wonder the women did not want to lose them. No wonder they bored
little holes in the thin flat end and hung them about their necks.
[Illustration: _A short needle of bone._]
It may have been Willow-grouse who first discovered that the eye of
the needle could carry the thread. She may have discovered it when she
was playing with a needle she carried on a cord. At any rate, the
women soon learned to sew with the thread through the needle's eye.
And then they began to make finer needles with very small eyes.
[Illustration: _A flint comb used in shredding fibers._]
These fine needles were used at first in sewing the softest skins.
They were used, too, in sewing trimming on beautiful garments. But
when the women sewed the hard skins, instead of a needle they used a
bone awl.
[Illustration: _A long fine needle of bone._]
At the meeting of the clans in the salmon season, the Cave-men wore
their most beautiful garments. And soon the clans began to vie with
one another in wearing the most beautiful skins. And the women hunted
for the choicest sands to use in polishing their needles. They still
gave the first polish with a piece of sandstone or a gritty pebble.
But when they gave the last polish the women used a powder of the
finest sand.
Instead of beeswax, the women used marrow which they kept in little
bags. Instead of a thimble, they used a small piece of leather. And
instead of pressing the seams with a hot iron, they made them smooth
with a rounded stone.
From the tough sinews of the large animals, every Cave-man made his
own thread. All the children learned to prepare sinew and to shred the
fibers with a jagged flint comb.
#THINGS TO DO#
_Find bones which you can make into needles. See if you can find a
piece of flint for a saw._
_Find a piece of sandstone with which you can polish your needle._
_Make a collection of the different kinds of sand in your
neighborhood and tell what they can be used for._
_Make a collection of needles and find out how they were made._