Longhead: The Story of the First Fire

by C. H. Robinson

While the hunters of the settlement at the fire-cave scoured the forest for animal food, and the women sought vegetables, nuts, berries and eggs, Longhead was by no means idle. True, he was, by the contributions exacted from the group, relieved from the necessity of daily effort to secure sustenance for himself, Broken Tooth and a bright-eyed little cave-boy who had been sent to the woman by the spirits, and he seldom joined in a hunting excursion; but, weapons were often broken or lost, and, as he still retained the secret of their manufacture, he was kept tolerably busy in replacing them. Continual experience in this work gave him greater skill and a truer eye for symmetry of form coupled with effectiveness for use, and he also learned to distinguish the best materials of the vicinage. He invented no new weapons, for the bow and arrow and even the stone axe, were to be the products of a much later epoch; but he discovered that a javelin could be thrown with much greater accuracy if the two sides of the flint point were exactly alike and evenly balanced. Experience had also demonstrated to him that the weapon had greater penetrative force if the flake for the flint head was thin and the edges and point very sharp. He became more careful, therefore, in the selection of his flakes, and when he found one suitable for his use, except one side was larger than the other or the edges too thick, he found that he could batter off small pieces with light blows of a pebble, or flake them by pressure with a bone, and thus bring it into shape. He discovered also that when the base of a flake had some notches near it, the fastenings remained more firm and the point was less likely to become detached from the shaft. He therefore began, by pecking and flaking, to form such notches where he did not find them to suit him, and soon his spear and javelin heads assumed a conventional form. There was a slow but continuous improvement in the weapons of the period, but eventually these spear and knive heads became much like those still found upon the village sites of primitive man all over the world.

The worst trouble Longhead had to overcome in the manufacture of weapons was the method of fastening the points to the shafts or handles. The small fibrous roots he used at first would fray and break when they became dry, and the points would be lost or fail the hunter at a critical moment. The stringy bark he cut from trees with his knife was little better, but, one day when cutting up a large animal for cooking, he found its hide so tough he could hardly penetrate it with the knife, an idea occurred to him, and he cut off a long narrow strip of the skin for an experiment. This he hung up until he should have time to make the test he had in mind, and when he came to try it he found that he could not break it even by exerting all his strength. From the skin of the next animal that came into his larder, he secured a number of long strips, and, having dried these, he wet them to make them more pliable, and used some of them in lashing a point to a javelin. This weapon he tested by frequent use, and was pleased to note that the new lashing did not fray or break when it became dry, nor did it loosen, but, on the contrary, the strings of rawhide shrank when drying and held the point the tighter. Thereafter the tough hides were removed, dried and prepared for strings for this and other purposes, and it was not long until he accidentally discovered that wet wood ashes placed on a skin for a few hours would loosen the hair and permit its removal, leaving the skin improved for making strings.

About this time Broken Tooth made a discovery and, like the others, it was also accidental. In her cooking operations, pieces of food were continually falling upon the ground or being laid upon it in course of preparation, and they became more or less covered with sand or fine particles of grit, which did not taste good, and, besides, they hurt her teeth. She had no idea of their uncleanliness; it was simply a matter of discomfort. One day she observed a long strip of bark hanging to a tree which had recently blown over, and the idea occurred to her that if she had some pieces of this bright, clean bark on which to place the food, the disagreeable sand might be avoided. She tried to break the bark, but it was too tough and stringy, so she went to the cave and returned with a flake of flint. It happened to have a sharp but very ragged edge, and she found that by drawing the edge back and forth across the grain of the bark and at the same time putting on some pressure, she could cut it rapidly. That evening she surprised Longhead by presenting his supper on a set of clean bark dishes. The man examined them curiously and asked how she had cut them. She produced the flint and demonstrated on one of the plates how it would cut. She had invented, or at least, she had made the first application of the saw.

The man examined the flake thoughtfully, and, picking up a piece of stick, tried it on that. He soon sawed it off, and was greatly pleased. To get the staves of his spears and handles of javelins the right length, he had been burning them off in the fire, but now he would use a saw. He soon found that the more numerous and regular the notches the faster the implement would cut, and, as few, if any, of the flakes came off the nodules in this condition, he applied pecking and pressure, and soon had a saw with small and regular serrations or teeth, and found it very useful.

Up to this time, all his knives had been made of long flakes with a wrapping of roots at one end to protect the hand, but he had found it difficult to secure many flakes long enough for both blade and handle. One day he had the misfortune to break the shaft of his favorite spear. It had a thin blade which was very long and sharp, and the rawhide strings held it firmly. He attempted to untie the lashings, that he might use the blade for another shaft, but they had become so hard and dry that he could not succeed in untying them. He picked up his saw to cut them, but first began idly to draw it across the shaft. At once he noticed that if cut off at the point where he was sawing, the spear would become a knife with a wooden handle. The operation was quickly completed, and he found the new style of knife much superior to the old. Flakes of this size were much more frequently produced in breaking a nodule with fire and water, and all his knives were thereafter furnished with wooden handles.

The saw thus became one of the most useful of his few tools. Thus the flint saw, discovered by accident by a primitive woman, was the germ from which has been elaborated, with little change except for material, one of the most useful tools known to civilized man.

When the little cave-boy of their family was something over a year old, a small girl was brought by the spirits, and as the children grew and thrived, Broken Tooth began to suggest that their present home was becoming crowded. The cave was indeed a small one for two, three made it uncomfortable, and now four was certainly a crowd. Longhead first proposed searching for a cave of larger proportions, but to this Broken Tooth raised several objections. All the larger caves in the vicinity were already occupied, and, while they might no doubt use the authority of the spirits to compel the present occupants to vacate a cave for their use, this course was sure to create ill feeling which, sooner or later, might work to their disadvantage; and, besides, where could they find one with so large a platform in front and so well protected by overhanging rock. Could not some plan be devised to enlarge this one? and she called Longhead's attention to the fact that the rock inside was soft and friable, and that small pieces were continually falling down, which she carried out and threw over the edges of the platform.

The man undertook to make the cavity larger by pulling down and removing all the loose pieces, but, when this was done, little increase in the size of their home was apparent. On one side the man noticed that the rock was full of small cracks and seams, but these were so tightly fitted and irregular that he could remove but few of the stones with his hands. One piece that was quite loose he tried for a long time to pull out, but it pinched too tightly at one corner. In a rage, he picked up a large, sharp cornered piece of flint with both hands and struck it with all his might into the crack which held the tightest. The piece that bound it was broken and the stone fell out, followed by a number of others. Another discovery of the value of flint pieces had been made—a pick had been found, and daily both Longhead and Broken Tooth spent some hours digging at the loosened rocks until, in the course of time, they had a cave sufficiently large for their needs, and in succeeding years this was extended, as the growth of the family and their ideas of comfort demanded.

By the same means Longhead removed the irregularities of the floor and side walls, and finally he somewhat enlarged the doorway, gave it a more regular shape, and substituted strong wooden bars, held in place by notches cut in the stone, for the large stones they had formerly rolled into the opening at night to prevent the entrance of dangerous animals. The curious inhabitants of the settlement watched these operations, and it was not long until many other caves were thus enlarged and more comfort secured.

During the remainder of Longhead's life, little further progress was made in the manufacture of weapons and implements, other domestic arts or the conditions of the group; but the flint saw became a common implement and was applied to various uses; many of the families used bark dishes, and a sort of rude basket had been evolved from naturally curled cylinders of bark into which a bottom of bark or interlacing of rawhide strings had been inserted. These were used to transport nuts, berries, wild fruit, eggs, etc., to the caves and as receptacles in which to retain the same afterwards. No basketry or other weaving process had been thought of, nor had there been any attempt made to manufacture or use any kind of clothing, the skins of animals being used only for strings, or occasionally to carry food products.