It was Scarface who blew the whistle which called the women to the spot. It was he who guarded the carcasses until the women came. And while the women skinned the horses he sat on a log to rest.
It was sunset when they reached the cave. All joined in a feast upon horse flesh, then they slept until break of day. It was then that the men groaned with pain. Their muscles ached, and they were so lame that they could scarcely move. Scarface alone of all the men was not suffering with pain.
Perhaps you can tell what made the men lame. None of the Cave-men knew. Everybody thought that an angry god was trying to punish them.
And so the men tried to drive the god away by raising fearful shouts. Then they asked Chew-chew’s advice, and Chew-chew took her basket and started up the dry ravine. There she found bitter roots which she gathered and carried home.
No one knew at that time how to steep roots, for people had not learned how to boil. So Chew-chew chopped the roots with a stone chopper and laid them upon hot stones. And while the men breathed the bitter fumes, Chew-chew threatened the angry god and commanded him to go away.
In a few days the men were well and it was almost time to go hunting again. Straightshaft feared the angry god. He talked with the men and they wondered why it was that Scarface escaped. They looked at his deep scar which a tiger’s claw had made. And then they looked at the trophies of Scarface which he wore about his neck.
Every Cave-man admired the deep scar of the bravest man in the clan. Every man wished that he, too, could show such a scar as that. And the men began to wonder if the scar was a kind of a charm.
Chew-chew took her basket and started up the dry ravine.