Now Ma-Ra had begun to think quite a good deal, and he remembered that when the skin was soft, the day before, it had been moist, so he took it down to the bank of the stream and washed it over and over in the water, scrubbing it with sand, and pounding it between two round stones, until it had become quite soft again. Then he put it in the sun to dry.
Again it dried stiff and hard, and Ma-Ra was about to throw it away. Then he remembered how the grease and fat of the animals he killed softened the rough hard skin of his hands, so he got a lump of grease and rubbed the bear skin over and over with it, working the grease into all the pores. This time, the skin stayed soft, and Ma-Ra, although he did not know it, was the first Man to make leather.
He threw the heavy piece of fur about his shoulders, and fastened it with a sharp thorn, and walked about very proud of his new fur cloak. After that, the cave people did not call him Ma-Ra any longer, but Han, which in their language meant the skin of an animal.
THE BEAR SKIN
Ma-Ra threw the heavy piece of fur about his shoulders, and fastened it with a sharp thorn, and walked about very proud of his new fur cloak.
Other very useful things, too, the cave people found in the bodies of the animals they killed. Some of the bones, after they had cracked them open and eaten the marrow, they used for knives, or for spear points, and the women made coarse needles from them, with which they later on sewed together pieces of skins for belts, to hold the men's clubs and knives when hunting. Sinews, drawn from the animals' muscles, gave them strong cords or thread, and after a time they made sandals, or moccasins, out of the tough hides, to protect their feet when running over the sharp stones. The teeth they often strung on bits of sinew and hung around their necks, to show what great hunters they were.