Can you think how people learned to use poison in hunting?
Does the poisoned weapon poison any part of the animal’s flesh? Why do people try to be careful not to leave poison around?
How Fleetfoot and Willow-grouse Spent the Winter
When Willow-grouse was living alone, she had to hunt for her own food. Sometimes she caught animals in traps, and sometimes she hunted with spears and harpoons. When the wounded animal escaped, Willow-grouse was disappointed. So she tried all sorts of ways to make sure of the game.
One day she happened to use a harpoon which had been thrust into a piece of decayed liver. She wounded a reindeer with the harpoon and the animal soon died.
Three views of a Cave-man’s spearhead with a groove to hold poison.
And so Willow-grouse soon learned to mix and to use poisons. When Fleetfoot made simple spearheads of antler, she helped him make grooves to hold the poison. When they used poison on their weapons, they were sure of the game without a long chase.
They lived happily in the rock shelter until the middle of winter. Then heavy snowstorms came and the wild animals went away. Fleetfoot and Willow-grouse were left without food. They ate a piece of sun-dried meat which Willow-grouse had left in a tree; and when that was gone, they put on their snowshoes and started toward the south.