CHAPTER X
THE FIRST BOAT
Tul the Swift, and Ni-Va the Fish, were always together.
It made them angry not to be allowed to leave the valley with the hunting men, so they planned in secret to make a trip by themselves. The weather was warm, now, for the spring had come, and they talked a great deal about the country outside the valley, where they had never been, and planned to see it.
Tul had a fine spear he had made, with a long sharp lizard's tooth for a point. He had found the tooth among some bones in the lower end of the valley, where the lake had once been, and was very proud of it. Ni-Va's spear was tipped with bone, for spearing fish. He had never killed one yet, but he wanted to very much, for he heard the older men talking about it, when they came back from the great marsh. He also carried a small stone-bladed axe, while Tul took a flint knife, such as the men used for skinning animals. Both had leather sandals, and belts from which the hair had been scraped with sharp stones.
They took no food with them when they went, and they did not tell any one that they were going, but one morning, very early, they crept out of the cave, before the sun was up, and made their way down the banks of the stream toward the lower end of the valley.
When they came to the waterfall, they climbed down over the path of rocks worn smooth by the feet of many hunting parties, and soon found themselves on the wide marshy plain which stretched out as far as their eyes could reach.
The river, after it emptied into the plain, spread out into many small winding streams, and that was what made the great marsh they saw before them. Off to the right, however, they found that the ground was higher, so instead of following the paths through the marsh which the hunting parties usually took, the two boys circled off toward the higher ground, as the walking was easier that way.
The ground was hard, and full of flat stones, between which the coarse grasses were springing up covering the Earth with a fresh coat of green.
Tul and Ni-Va travelled all day, without seeing much to interest them. The path led downward hour after hour, toward the lower country, and they soon left the marsh far behind them. Great flocks of water fowl flew overhead, going to and fro from the marsh; they threw stones at them, but did not hit any. There were few trees or bushes on the hillside, and the ground was stony and rough, with scarcely any animals about. Once some strange creatures like deer, without any horns, ran near them, and in the distance they saw some giant forms that looked like the mammoths they had heard the hunters speak about, but nothing that they could use for food came within their reach.
When night fell they were both hungry, and cold, without any fire, and as they lay alone on the bare ground, trying to sleep, they felt a little afraid, for they knew that there were many animals in the country about the great marsh that would gladly eat them up.
Morning came at last, and found them not only hungry, but very thirsty as well. Far off, at the foot of the hillside, they saw what looked like a line of trees.
It was after midday when they reached it, and found themselves on the banks of a wide river, flowing through a forest of tall bushes and trees.
It was much warmer here than it had been in the valley, for they had been travelling steadily downhill for nearly two days, and had reached the low country. There were many more living things about than there had been on the bare hillside, birds, and animals of various sorts that slipped noiselessly through the thick vines and bushes along the banks of the river.
The two boys threw themselves down at the edge of the stream and drank until their thirst was quenched. Then Ni-Va, with his bone-pointed spear, waded about along the shore and soon brought up a fine big fish. They ate it for breakfast, although they would have liked it better, if they had had a fire, in which to cook it, for they had come to like cooked food better than raw, now. After breakfast, they talked about what they should do.
Ni-Va, the swimmer, wanted to swim across the river and see what the country was like on the other side, but Tul could not swim, and when they saw the dark backs of some great reptiles, like crocodiles, cutting the surface of the water, they soon gave up the idea.
They were sitting on the bank, wondering whether they had not better go back, when Tul saw a log, the broken trunk of a tree, floating slowly down the stream, close to the shore. Climbing out on a low limb which hung over the water, he hooked the point of his spear into a broken branch on the log, and gently towed it up to the bank.
Ni-Va, when he saw what Tul had done, chattered with delight, and sprang upon the log. In a moment, Tul had joined him, pushing the log away from the shore with his spear. It floated slowly out into the stream, carried along by the current, and Tul and Ni-Va found themselves upon Man's first boat.
The two boys thought that they would be carried across the river on the log, but as soon as their clumsy craft drifted to the middle of the stream, the current caught it with full force, and began to sweep it at a great rate down the river. Tul, with his spear, tried to guide their boat by pushing against the bottom, but the water was far too deep for him to reach it and in his efforts he very nearly fell off the log. They knew nothing about paddling, even if they had had anything to paddle with, so they could only cling to the log and trust to some change in the current, to carry them to shore. To their dismay, however, they saw that the river was rapidly growing wider, and the banks getting further and further away.
Hour after hour the log boat swept along in the swift current, and by the time the sun was ready to set, the river was so wide that they could hardly see the shore. There were no longer any thick woods, and all they could see were low sandy banks, with here and there clumps of bushes and tall grass. Suddenly the log, which had been drifting in a long curve around a point, came to a stop on a sand bar. Ni-Va slipped overboard, ready to swim, with Tul holding on to his shoulder, but to his surprise he found that the water came only up to his waist. Tul quickly joined him, and leaving their clumsy craft the two boys waded ashore.
When they reached the sandy bank, and climbed up on it, a wonderful sight met their eyes. As far as they could see, before them and to either side, stretched a great shining body of water. They had never supposed there was so much water in the world, and the sight of it for a moment frightened them. The vast sheet of water before them was the Ocean, and they were the very first Men in all the world to see it.
The bank on which they stood sloped down to a beach of shining white sand. The two boys crossed it eagerly, watching with wide eyes the great foaming breakers as they tumbled up on the shore. Tul, who was very thirsty, ran down to the edge of the water and scooping up a handful, tried to drink it. It was salt and bitter, however, and he quickly spat it out again.
Hungry and thirsty, the two adventurers sat on the sand and wondered what they could find to eat and drink. There might be fish, in this great wide water, but if there were, they soon saw that they could not get near enough to spear them, on account of the huge breakers. Presently Ni-Va, who had been idly digging in the wet sand with his fingers, brought up a round object that looked something like a nut. With the aid of two pebbles he cracked it open, and being very hungry, ate the soft meat he found inside. It tasted very good, and soon he and Tul had dug a large pile of the shell-fish, and made a hearty meal. The soft moist clams not only satisfied their hunger, but quenched their thirst a little, and as there was nothing else to eat, and the night was coming on, the two wanderers stretched themselves on the warm sand and soon fell asleep.
The rising sun waked them, and springing up, they looked eagerly about. Near them, on the beach, they saw a huge turtle, lying in the sun. The boys had seen turtles before, since the hunting men sometimes brought them home from the marshes, but they were small compared to this great animal. Creeping up to it in some fear, Tul and his companion managed to turn it over on its back with their spears, after which they killed it and made their breakfast of some of the meat. There was enough to have lasted for a week, but the boys soon saw that they could not stay where they were much longer without water. They could not understand why the water in the Ocean was so bitter and salt, and they went back to the place where they had left the log, hoping that the river water might be different. They soon found that it, too, was salt and the little they drank of it only made them more thirsty than before. There was nothing to do but get back to the forest country as quickly as possible, where they might find some juicy berries or fruits to quench their thirst.
Before they started Ni-Va tied some chunks of the turtle meat to his girdle with leather thongs, and Tul took a handful of the shells of the clams they had eaten and twisting some coarse grass about them, slung them around his neck. Then they went back to the log.
They thought, at first, that the current which had carried them down the stream would carry them back, but as soon as they had managed to push the log off the sand bar, it set out quickly for the sea, and they scrambled off it at once and waded back to the shore.
The only thing to do was to go back along the river bank to the place from which they had started, so they set out. At first the way was easy, with smooth banks of sand to walk on, but after a time they came to the forest, and found it very hard indeed to make their way through the bushes and trailing vines. When night came, they were tired out, and afraid, too, because they heard the cries and grunts of many animals in the dense woods all about them. Without knowing why, the two boys did as their ancestors had done, and climbing into the forks of a great tree, spent the night safe from harm. In the morning they resumed their journey, and this time, when they tried the water of the river, they found that it was only a little salt, and they were able to drink it and quench their thirst.
When the middle of the afternoon arrived, they saw the hills from which they had come rising against the sky to their left, and leaving the banks of the river they set out toward the higher country.
Several times they thought they had lost their way, but they kept on, and at last saw the surface of the great marsh stretching out before them. From here on, they had no trouble, and on the second night they reached the entrance to the valley. They were very tired, and hungry too, for the turtle meat they had brought along was all eaten up, but Ni-Va managed to spear some small fish along the edge of the marsh, so that their stomachs were not quite empty when they finally got home.
When they told their friends in the valley about the great water they had seen, stretching as far as their eyes could reach, the others would not believe them, and even the shells they had brought back did not convince the cave people that there could be a stream or river as big as that. Tul and Ni-Va offered to guide a party to the Ocean and show them, but the others only laughed, and thought the boys were not telling the truth. They were quite satisfied, in the valley, they said, and did not care to go to a place where the water was not fit to drink, and there was no fire, and no caves in which to sleep. But Tul and Ni-Va made up their minds that some day they would go back to the great water, and see it again.
The two boys were never tired of telling about their adventures, and were very proud of the necklaces they made of the shells Tul had brought back with him. They tried to make a log boat, like the one they had used to float down the great river, and because they could not find a log on the banks of the stream big enough to hold them, they got several smaller logs, and fastened them together with twisted ropes of grass, and in this way made a raft, and had great fun with it, riding down the swift-flowing stream that ran through the valley.
The Sun, who was watching them, laughed.
"Your little Men will never conquer the Ocean on a thing like that," he said, looking at the clumsy raft.
"Wait," said Mother Nature. "They will surprise you. That log, drifting in the river, was their first boat, and that raft, which is a little better, is their second. Some day, my children will take a log, and burn it out with fire, and make a canoe. And others will make strong frameworks of wood, or the bones of the whale, or twisted reeds, and cover these frameworks with the bark of trees, or skins, or pitch that they will find in the earth, and make canoes, and kyaks, and coracles. And later on, they will cover the frames of their boats with planks of wood, and put sails on them, and make ships that will carry them to the ends of the Earth. And they will even make ships of iron, and put great engines in them, and laugh at the storms of the Ocean, and conquer them, because they have brains with which to understand my laws."
"It sounds like a fairy tale," said the Sun.
"It is," said Mother Nature. "The most wonderful fairy tale in the world, because it is true."
CHAPTER XI
TOR-AD THE POTTER
Tor-Ad lived many hundreds of years after Tul and Ni-Va made the first boat. He was not called Tor-Ad at first, but just Tor, which in the language of the cave people meant a Turtle. They called him this because he was very slow and lazy, and liked to lie half asleep in the sun while the other boys made spears, or practised throwing them at a mark, to make themselves more skilful in hunting.
Tor did not care for throwing spears. He preferred to sit among the rocks and dream. Sometimes he would sit still for hours, scratching little lines on the flat stones with a sharp piece of flint.
Long before that, some of the hunters, in making handles for their knives out of bone, or wood, had carved these handles into rude shapes, that looked something like an animal, or a man, but Tor had never seen any drawings, because none had been made. Sometimes he would find a flat piece of rock with weather marks, or cracks on it that reminded him of things he had seen – fish, or the heads of bears, or men. He would look at these for a long time, and try to copy them with his sharp bit of flint, but it was very hard for him to make anything that looked like the objects he saw about him.
Still, Tor kept on trying, while the other boys laughed at him, because he would not go with them to swim, or hunt, or look for fish in the shallow pools at the head of the great marsh, but Tor did not mind, for he was happy scratching on his rocks in the sun.
One day, after many trials, he at last drew something on a flat stone that looked a little like a fish, and he ran to the cave with it and showed it to his father. Tor's father, instead of being pleased, was angry with him, and told him he had better go with the other boys and learn to spear fish, and not waste his time trying to make pictures of them. Tor's mother, however, liked the little drawing, and kept it in the cave.
As Tor grew older he learned to draw many things with his sharp piece of flint – figures of animals and birds, and some of them were so good that his friends could tell what they were, and got him to scratch others for them on bits of bone, or the handles of their knives. He made larger drawings, too, on the walls of the caves, that looked like bears, and mammoths, and wild boars.
After a time, he found a bed of smooth red and yellow clay along the river bank, and used it, and the juice of berries, to colour the figures he drew upon the cave walls. Some of these coloured drawings we find even to-day, on the walls of caves in France and other countries, and protected as they have been from the wind and rain, the colours of these early crude pictures are as bright and clear as when they were first made, fifty thousand years ago.
One day, while playing with some of the clay he had found along the river bank, Tor began to roll a lump of it between his fingers, pleased because it was so smooth and easy to shape. At first he made only round balls, rolling them under his hand on the top of a flat stone, but presently he found that he could press a hollow in the lumps of soft clay, making something that looked like the cup-shaped shells of the large nuts which the tribe used for carrying water. Very carefully Tor smoothed and patted his lump of clay until he had formed a little round bowl, thick and clumsy, but still large enough to hold several drinks of water. The thought that he had made something new pleased him, and he took it home with him and put it on a ledge of rock in the cave. Then he forgot all about it.
When his mother found it, in the morning, it was quite hard and dry. She did not know what it was, at first, but Tor told her how he had made it from the river clay, and she was so pleased that she took it down to the stream with her, and showed it to some of the other women, who had come to fetch drinking water in bowls made of the shells of large nuts. But when Tor's mother came back to the cave with the clay bowl full of drinking water, it got soft and began to lose its shape, which made the other women laugh at her, and at Tor, for trying to make a drinking cup out of mud. Then Tor's mother became angry, and threw the bowl into the fire which she had made before the cave, to cook fish for breakfast. And Tor she sent away to the hills about the valley, to gather eggs from the nests of the wild fowl which lived there.
Tor felt very badly at the loss of his little bowl, and when he got back to the caves that night, and his mother was busy with the eggs he had brought, he took a stick and began to poke about in the hot ashes of the fire, hoping to find the bowl again.
At last he discovered it, among the coals at the bottom of the fire, and dragged it out with the stick, for it was too hot to touch with his hand.
When it got cool, he took it up. A piece had been broken from one side of it, when his mother threw it down, but otherwise it was not much hurt. Tor was surprised to find, when he had brushed the ashes from it, that while before it had been yellow, it had now turned a bright red.
This pleased him, although he did not understand it, so he took the bowl down to the river-bank, and put it in the water, thinking to soften the clay by wetting it, as he had often done before, and then mould it over again into something else. To his surprise, the water would not soften the clay, but it did wash it clean, and made it seem redder and prettier than ever. Then he struck it against a stone, and at once it broke into many sharp pieces, just as a flower-pot would be shivered to bits, if you were to strike it against something hard.
All this puzzled Tor for a long time, but he decided at last that the heat of the fire had dried and burned his clay and changed it so that it became hard and red. He made up his mind to make another bowl for his mother, and this time to burn it in the fire first, before he gave it to her.
Very early the next day he got another lump of clay, and made a larger bowl, taking great care this time to shape it carefully, so that it was round and smooth. Then he drew the picture of a turtle on one side, to mark it with his name, and a fish on the other, and hid it away among the rocks until he should have time to make a fire and burn it.
That night, when every one was asleep, he took some hot coals from the fire before the cave, and carrying these coals in the clay bowl, he made a new fire at a hiding place he knew of among the rocks. All night he sat beside the fire, watching it, heaping on fresh wood to keep it blazing hot. In the morning, very sleepy and tired, he took the bowl out of the fire with a crooked stick, cooled, washed and dried it, and filling it with water, carried it proudly to his mother.
At first she would have nothing to do with it, because the first one had been such a failure, but after awhile, when she saw that the water did not soften it, and that it had such a pretty red colour, she was very much pleased, and called Tor's father and some of the others to come and look at it.
They did not see much use in it at first, since the nut shells they used for carrying water they thought quite good enough. They did, however, like the pretty red colour of the pottery, and Tor's mother was so proud of the bowl that she kept it in the cave, and would not let any one drink out of it but herself.
Soon Tor found that he could make much larger bowls and jars out of the smooth soft clay, and after a time, the cave people used these jars for storing nuts, or roots, or berries, when they had more than they needed at the moment. But still the thought had not occurred to them to store away food for use during the winter. Even in the coldest weather, they were able to kill animals, and fish, and they supposed they would always be able to do so.
Tor also made queer little figures, out of the clay, and red beads, with holes through them, which the women strung on bits of leather, or sinew, and used for ornaments, about their necks. And because in their simple language, Ad was the word for earth, or clay, they began to call the clay worker Tor-Ad, instead of just Tor.
It took the cave dwellers many many hundreds of years to learn how to ornament the bowls and jars they made with pictures and patterns in colours, and a much longer time, to find out a way of making them smooth and round by whirling them about on a flat wheel and pressing their fingers, or a wooden tool, against them as they turned. We must remember that the minds of the first men grew very slowly, and it often took them a very long time to think out what seem to us very simple ideas indeed. Even now, although many thousands of years had passed, since the days of Adh, they knew nothing at all about metals; their weapons and tools were made of stone, but as time went on, they made them better and better, so that among the relics we find of the later stone age are axes, beautifully polished and strong and sharp enough to be used in working wood, knives, with keen edges, spear and arrow heads, scrapers, for scraping the hair from hides in making leather, and even such fine things as razors, all made of stone. Some of the tribes during the latter part of the stone age were wonderful workers in both wood and stone. With tools of the very hardest flint they cut softer stones into great building blocks, built palaces and temples, and monuments of all sorts, some of which are found even to-day, buried in the sand or earth, and well preserved in spite of their great age. Whenever men of science dig up the ruins of these ancient villages and towns, they find weapons of flint and bone, the ashes of fires, and many pieces of broken pottery, showing that the use of fire, the making of stone implements, and the burning of clay pottery, were the first three great steps taken by Man in his progress toward what we call civilisation.