How the First Dishes Were Made.
Torod the Cave Boy.
A long long time ago there lived a little boy named Torod.
In those days there were no houses like ours, and Torod lived in a cave with his family.
They sat and slept on the floor of the cave, for they had no chairs or beds and no one knew what dishes were.
Torad liked to run and play with the other children, but best of all he liked to play with the soft yellow mud which he found along the bank of the river.
Sometimes he would sit for hours making mud balls, rolling them on a flat stone until they were round and smooth.
One day, Torad was playing with a big mud ball.
He took a sharp stick and dug a round hole in the ball.
This made it look like a small round bowl.
Torad thought it looked like one of the large nutshells which his mother used to carry water from the river.
He was just going to show the bowl to his mother when he heard his playmates calling him.
So he ran away to play and forgot all about the mud bowl.
The next day when Torad went to get the bowl, he found it dry and hard.
Mother might use this for carrying water instead of a nutshell, he said.
So he took the bowl to his mother.
When Torad's mother saw the bowl, she did not know what it was.
She held it in her hands and looked at it.
Where did you find this? she asked.
Torad smiled.
I made it myself, he said.
I made it out of mud.
I thought you might carry water in it.
Torad's mother was pleased.
We will see, she said.
Bring me some fresh cool water from the river.
I want a drink.
Taurad ran to the river and came back to the cave with a bowl full of water.
But when his mother took the bowl, she saw that the water was muddy.
Why do you bring me muddy water? she asked.
I cannot drink it.
Taurad was surprised.
It was clean when I got it from the river, he said.
We cannot carry water in this thing, said his mother.
It is made of mud and will always make the water muddy.
We had better throw it away.
She threw the bowl into the fire.
Poor Torad.
He was sorry to see his bowl in the fire.
But the fire was so hot that he could not get the bowl out.
So he ran away to play.
The Beautiful Red Bowl When Torad came back to the cave, the fire had burned down.
He raked his bowl out with a long stick.
As soon as the bowl was cool enough, Torad took it up in his hands and looked at it.
He was surprised to see that it was not the same color.
It had changed from yellow to a bright red.
Then Torad Torad saw that a piece of the bowl had been broken off.
I will hold the bowl in the water until it is soft, he said.
Then I will stick the broken piece on again.
Torad took the red bowl to the river and held it under the water for a while.
Then he let some water stand in it for a long time.
But the bowl did not get soft.
This seemed very strange to Tarat.
When he saw that the water did not get muddy, he was happy.
Now he knew how to make a bowl that his mother would like better than any nutshell.
So he got some more mud.
He made a larger bowl this time, taking great care to make it round and smooth.
Then he left it on a stone until it was dry.
That night, when everyone was asleep, Torad put his new bowl into the fire.
Next morning he raked it out of the fire.
The new bowl was not broken and had the same red color as the first one.
He carried it to the river and filled it with water.
Then he took it to the cave.
Look, mother, he cried.
This bowl does not make the water muddy.
Many people came to see the bowl.
Soon, Torad was busy teaching others how to make bowls like his and how to bake them in the fire.
So people began to make bowls, big ones and little ones, deep ones and flat ones.
These were used for eating and drinking, and they were the first dishes.
