Among the Bunun this takes the form of the “fire-drill”--the twirling of a pointed stick of hard wood of some sort in a depression made in a stick of softer wood, until the friction heats the flakes of soft wood, thus “eaten away,” to a point where flame can be produced by placing against this hot wood-dust bits of very dry grass or leaves, and blowing upon it. In order thus to produce fire, the chief of the tribal group--among the Bunun usually a man--shuts himself up alone in his hut, which for the time being it is tabu for his subjects to approach, twirling the fire-drill and blowing upon the wood-dust and tinder, until the sacred fire is “born.” From the flame thus kindled is lighted first his own domestic fire; then those of all the other members of the village or group, who, after the actual kindling of the flame, are invited into the hut of the chief. The Taiyal method of lighting the sacred fire is a little different from that employed by the Bunun. Among the Taiyal the duty of producing the ceremonial “new fire” devolves upon the priestesses. These “vestals of the flame,” however, are not virgins. Only middle-aged and elderly women are priestesses; and all those whom I saw--or of whom I heard when among the Taiyal--were widows, and usually the mothers of children. What becomes of the Taiyal spinsters one wonders; there seem to be none. Yet they are a strictly monogamous people; and considering how frequently the men of this tribe lose their heads--in a very literal sense--a disproportion of women, consequently a number of unmarried ones, might be expected. But this does not seem to be the case, judging both from my own observation and also from the reply to questions put to the Japanese _Aiyu_ (military police) stationed at various points among the Taiyal. It may be that those anthropologists[73] are right who hold that the so-called hardships of savage life--frequent insufficiency of food, necessity of hard physical toil on the part of the women, and similar conditions--result in a greater number of male infants being born than is the case under conditions of civilization.[74] (A not impossible hypothesis: since many stock-breeders hold that the relative leanness or fatness of cattle has a decided effect upon the sex of the offspring--“lean years,” i.e. those of scarcity of food, more males; “fat years,” those of plenty, more females. This fact--if it be a fact--may also be the basis of the popular idea that shortly after wars a greater number of males among the _genus homo_ are born than at other times.)