By Walter Hough. Man in his originals seems to be a thing unarmed and naked, and unable to help itself, as needing the aid of many things; therefore Prometheus makes haste to find out fire, which suppediates and yields comfort and help in a manner to all human wants and necessities; so that if the soul be the form of forms, and the hand be the instrument of instruments, fire deserves well to be called the succor of succors, or the help of helps, that infinite ways afford aid and assistance to al

This method may be said to have a world-wide distribution, and to have had no narrow range in time. It is a very interesting study to observe the many different practices that have been superadded to the simple task of twirling two sticks with the design of creating fire. It is also instructive to note how fixed have become tribal characters in so small a thing as the shaping of the elements of the fire drill. It has well been said by Dr. Schweinfurth, that— A people, as long as they are on the

The Iroquois are unique in America, and perhaps in the world, in making fire with the pump-drill. Several other tribes in America use the pump drill to pierce stone and shell, for which purpose it is an excellent tool, but the mechanical difficulties lying in the way of making fire with it have only been overcome by the Iroquois. Pump-drills are intended for light, fine work, with uniform, light pressure; hence, with little friction. The Iroquois have added this element by increasing the size of

The arts of the Eskimo yield more satisfactory results to students of comparative ethnology than those of any other people. In all their range the culture is uniform; one finds this fact forced upon his observation who has examined the series of specimens in the National Museum, where they are arranged in order by localities from Labrador to southern Alaska. Prof. Otis T. Mason’s paper on Eskimo throwing-sticks [29] gave a new interpretation to this fact and powerfully forwarded the study of eth

Figs. 21, 22. Fire-making Set and Extra Hearth. Cat. No. 10258, U. S. N. M. Frobisher Bay. Collected by Capt. C. F. Hall. Fig. 22. Fig. 23. Moss in a Leathern Case. Cat. No. 10191, U. S. N. M. Collected by Capt. C. F. Hall. Fig. 24. Boring-set. Cat. No. 34114, U. S. N. M. Cumberland Gulf. Collected by L. Kumlein. The difference between these features is, that it is found to be more difficult to get fire by a single hole without groove, or slot, than when the latter features are added. The powder

Fig. 27. Fire-bag. Cat. No. 10128, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Holsteinberg, West Greenland. Collected by Capt. C. F. Hall. The Anderson River set is a very complete and interesting outfit. It was collected many years ago by C. P. Gaudet. The parts are small for convenience of carrying. It is the custom of those who live in snow-covered regions to wrap the drill and hearth together very carefully to keep them dry, as these are the essential parts of the apparatus. It does not matter about the mouth-pi

Fig. 32. Boring-set. Cat. Nos. 89400, 89424, and 89630, U. S. N. M. Point Barrow, Alaska. Collected by Lieut. P. H. Ray, U. S. A....

Fig. 33. Drilling-set. Cat. Nos. 25021, 44978, and 45108, U. S. N. M. Sledge Island, Alaska. Collected by E. W. Nelson. This is a complete set ( fig. 34 ) in first-rate order. The hearth has central holes along a deep median groove. Its bottom is flat, and it is rounded off on the sides and ends. All the parts are of pine wood, decorated in places with red paint. The drill is quite long, much longer than in any Eskimo set observed. It resembles more the Indian drill for rubbing between the hands

Fig. 36. Fire-making set. Cat. Nos. 36325 and 37961. U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Chalitmute (Kuskokwim Region), Alaska. Collected by E. W. Nelson....

Fig. 37. Fire-making Set. Cat. No. 127520, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Kassianamute (Togiak Region), Alaska. Collected by S. Applegate. Fig. 38. Fire-making Set (hearth with step and five slots). (Cat. No. 127819 a , U. S. N. M. Koggiung, Bristol Bay, Alaska. Collected by W. J. Fisher.) Fig. 39. Fire-Making Set (hearth with central holes and end step). (Cat. No. 127819b, U. S. N. M. Koggiung, Bristol Bay, Alaska. Collected by W. J. Fisher.)...

Fig. 40. Fire-making Set. Cat. No. 55938, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Collected by Charles McKay. Another set from Bristol Bay is said by its collector, Charles McKay, to be used by both Eskimo and Indians. It is a very valuable outfit because of its completeness (pl. LXXX , fig. 40 ). The hearth is a rounded piece of wood with four large holes opening by slots onto the step. The drill is a thick, tolerably hard piece of close-grained wood like the hearth. The mouth-piece has no r

Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace has noted the method by sawing in his work entitled “The Malay Archipelago,” p. 332: Two pieces of bamboo are used; a sharp edge piece like a knife is rubbed across a convex piece in which a notch is cut, nearly severing the bamboo ( fig. 42 ); after sawing across for awhile the bamboo is pierced, and the heated particles fall below and ignite. The Ternate Malays and the Tungaras of British North Borneo [40] have improved upon this by striking a piece of china with ti

One of the most marked of fire-making methods in its distribution is that pursued by the Pacific Islanders, confined almost entirely to the Polynesian cultural area. It has spread to other islands, however, being met with among the Negritos of New Britain: They rub a sharpened piece of hard stick against the inside of a piece of dried split bamboo. This has a natural dust that soon ignites. They use soft wood when no bamboo can be procured, but it takes longer to ignite. The flame is fed with gr

Ac primum silici scintillam excudit Achates Suscepitque ignum foliis atque arida circum Nutrimenta dedit, rapuitque in fomite flammam. (Æneid B. 1, 174-176.) One of the oldest methods of fire-making that we know of is, that by the percussion of flint and pyrites. It is believed to have been the original discovery. If there is any difference in the difficulties of conception and execution in either of the inventions, it lies in favor of the sticks of wood. The distribution of the flint and pyrite

The flint and pyrites method is the ancestor of the flint and steel. The latter method came in with the Iron Age. It is found in the early settlements of that period. A steel for striking fire was found in the pile dwellings of the Ueberlinger See. [58] The Archæological Department of the Museum has a specimen of a strike-a-light of the early age of iron in Scandinavia. It is a flat, oval quartz stone with a groove around the edge; it is thought to be for holding a strap by which it could be hel

Fig. 57. Strike-a-light. Flint, steel, tinder-box, and rush-pouch. Cat. No. 22257, U. S. N. M. Ainos of Yezo, Japan. Collected by B. S. Lyman. Fig. 58. Fig. 59. Tinder-Box (showing mounted steel, flint, and bundle of shaving matches; box one-third natural size). (Cat. No. 127137, U. S. N. M. Japan. Gift of the Japanese Department of Education, Tokio.) To strike a light the Aino takes out the cork with the steel attached and stirs up the tinder with the sharp point. He then holds up the flint in