When they used shafts with knobs and large joints, it was easy to keep a firm hold. So the men made shafts with larger knobs and they put girdles around the smooth shafts.
Chipper using a spear-noose.
At their games of throwing spears and javelins, Bighorn was almost sure to win. It was partly because he had large hands and very strong fingers. By bending one finger like a hook and striking the butt of the shaft, he could send a harpoon straight to the mark.
Chipper’s hands were not very large. His fingers were not so strong as Bighorn’s. But Chipper was a bright young man, and he found a way of using a spear-noose so that he could throw as well as Bighorn.
The spear-noose was a simple thing. Chipper made it by tying a noose in each end of a cord. When he used it, he slipped one noose around his thumb and the other around one finger. Then he grasped the spear near the butt and slipped the cord around the knob. The spear-noose was a great help to hunters whose hands were not large and strong.
Every time the Cave-men made new weapons, they worked very well for a short time. But as soon as the animals learned about them, they became more cunning in getting away. Wild horses kept sentinels on knolls and hilltops so that they could see an enemy from afar. They guarded their herds so carefully that the Cave-men could scarcely get near enough to hit them with their harpoons.
And so the Cave-men returned many times bearing no trophies. They returned many times giving no signal for the women to come for fresh meat.
THINGS TO DO
Take a harpoon and show how the shaft would swing against the feet of an animal that had been hit by the head.