Do you think the Cave-men will learn how to boil food?
_How the Cave-men Learned to Boil and to Dry Foods_
Again the salmon feast came, and again the neighboring clans camped at
the rapids. This time they caught more salmon than they had ever
caught before. And this was the summer that the Cave-men began to dry
salmon and to fish with harpoons.
It was Willow-grouse who thought of drying salmon, and carrying it to
the caves. She remembered the berries dried on the bushes, and the
dried meat she found in a tree. No doubt all the Cave-men had eaten
dried meat many times before. Often the Cave-men left strips of meat
hanging from the trees.
Anybody could leave meat which he did not care to eat. Anybody could
eat meat which had been dried in the sun. But not every one was bright
enough to think of drying meat.
Chew-chew had never dried meat, nor had any of the women. It was
enough for them to prepare the meat which they needed day by day. Few
of the people ever thought of laying up stores for the morrow. They
lived a "hand-to-mouth" life.
But Willow-grouse remembered the famines. She knew food was scarce in
the early spring. And when she saw the river full of salmon, she
thought of the sun-dried meat.
And so Willow-grouse caught some salmon and cleaned them and hung them
on the branches of a tree. And when they had dried, she took them down
and the Cave-men said that dried salmon were good. And so all the
people caught salmon and dried them in the sun.
The first few days the people fished as they had fished before. They
waded in the water and caught salmon with their hands, or they stunned
them with clubs or with stones. But soon the men began to catch salmon
by spearing them with barbed harpoons.
[Illustration: _Harpoons of reindeer antler used for fishing._]
Afterward the Cave-men fished with harpoons which had barbs on only
one side. Perhaps they first used a broken harpoon. Perhaps they found
they could throw with a surer aim when the barbs were on only one
side. At any rate, the Cave-men used harpoons with barbs on one side
for fishing, while they used harpoons with barbs on both sides when
they went out to hunt.
It was about the time of the salmon feast that people began to boil
food. Pigeon first boiled food to eat. She remembered the broth and
partly boiled meat which Chew-chew said the gods had left. And she
boiled meat and gave it to the men, and they all sounded her praises.
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.
[Illustration: _A flint harpoon with one barb._]
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.
[Illustration: _A spoon-shaped stone made and used by the Cave-men._]
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._