Do you think that any of the young men and their wives would live
with Fleetfoot and Willow-grouse? Where do you think Flaker will
live?
Can you think why Willow-grouse would take great pains to embroider
her baby's clothing?
Why would Willow-grouse want pretty colors? Think of new ways she
might find of getting pretty colors. How could she get the color
out of plants into the stuff she wished to color?
Why was it easier to make pretty dyes after people knew how to
boil?
_The New Home_
A year or so passed and Fleetfoot and Willow-grouse were settled with
their kinsfolk in a new rock shelter. Its framework was covered with
heavy skins instead of woven branches. Heavy bone pegs and strong
thongs served to keep the skins in place.
Flaker and other young men with their wives lived in the rock shelter.
There were little children, too, and tiny babies.
[Illustration: _A baby's hood._]
Willow-grouse had a baby and she thought he was a wonderful child. She
dressed him in the softest skins which she embroidered with a prayer.
And she hung a bear's tooth about his neck because she thought it was
a charm. In winter she put him in a skin cradle and wrapped him in the
warmest furs. In summer he played in a basket cradle which
Willow-grouse wove on a forked stick.
In all that Willow-grouse did, she always asked the gods for help. The
baskets she made for boiling food, were also prayers to the gods.
[Illustration: "_In summer he played in the basket cradle which
Willow-grouse wove on a forked stick._"]
She searched for the choicest grasses and spread them on a clean spot
to dry. No one knew so well as Willow-grouse when to gather the twigs.
She knew the season when they were full-grown and gathered them before
the sap had hardened. She gathered them when the barks peeled easily
and when the rich juices flowed.
When the twigs were gathered the women soaked them and peeled off the
bark. They left some of the twigs round, but others they made into
flat splints. Sometimes they stained them with the green rind of
nuts, and sometimes they dyed them with pretty dyes.
[Illustration: _First step in coiled basketry._]
[Illustration: _Second step in coiled basketry._]
Instead of weaving the baskets, Willow-grouse sewed them with an
over-and-over stitch. In this way she made the soft grasses into a
firm basket. She began by taking a wisp of grass in the left hand and
a flat splint in the other. She wound the splint around the wisp a few
times then turned the wrapped portion upon itself. When she had
fastened it with a firm stitch, again she wound the splint around the
wisp and took another stitch.
[Illustration: _Three rows of coiled work._]
Sometimes Willow-grouse made baskets for boiling food, and sometimes
she made them for carrying water. The baskets she prized most were the
ones into which she put a prayer. The prayer was a little pattern
which she made for a picture of one of the gods. Sometimes it was a
wild animal and sometimes it was a bird. Sometimes it was the flowing
river and sometimes a mountain peak. And sometimes it was a flash of
lightning, and sometimes it was the sun.
All the Cave-men wanted the gods to be friendly and they wanted them
to stay near. That is why they took so much pains in making pictures
of them. That is why that soon after the rock shelter was made they
engraved a reindeer upon the wall.
[Illustration: "_Greybeard, now old and feeble, walked all the way to
the spot._"]
Greybeard, now old and feeble, walked all the way to the spot.
Fleetfoot and Flaker wanted him to perform the magic rites.
[Illustration: _A water basket._]
Not all the people who lived there were allowed to take part in the
ceremonies. Only the grown people were allowed to see the first part.
And only the wisest and bravest ones went into the dark shelter.
For a moment, those who went in stood in silence waiting for a sign.
Then, by the light of a torch, Fleetfoot chiseled a reindeer on the
hard rock, and Greybeard, holding a reindeer skull, murmured earnest
prayers.
A feeling of awe came over them while they worked. They began to feel
that the god of the reindeer was really there with them. They asked
the god to take good care of those who lived in the rock shelter, and
to send many herds of reindeer to the Cave-men's hunting grounds.
#THINGS TO DO#
_Make a rock shelter with walls of skin instead of plaited
branches. Use bone pegs to keep the curtains drawn tight._
_Find a forked stick and several smaller ones and make a framework
for a basket-cradle. If you cannot weave such a cradle as the one
shown in the picture, make one in some other way and fasten it to
the framework._
_Find grasses and splints and see if you can make a sewed mat or
basket. Make a simple pattern for your mat._
_Look at the picture of a water basket. Why do you think it was
made to bulge near the bottom? Why was the bottom made flat? Why
was the neck made narrow? Why were handles put on this basket? Tell
or write a story about this basket._
_Turn to the frontispiece and find a picture with this legend: "A
feeling of awe came over them while they worked."_