Fire-making Apparatus in the U. S. National Museum — John Shaqi
Fire-making Apparatus in the U. S. National MuseumHough, Walter
History
Fire-making Apparatus in the U. S. National Museum
Hough, Walter
Firemaking; Indians of North America -- Implements
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
tinder held with it against the outside of a piece of bamboo, the
siliceous coating of the latter yielding a spark like flint. Both of the
methods mentioned are in use at different points in the area affected by
Malay influence.
The Chittagong hill tribes, on the eastern frontier of British India,
use sand on the sawing knife to increase the friction.[41]
The Karens of Burma, Dr. R. M. Luther informs the writer, hollow out a
branch of the _Dipterocarpus_ tree like the lower piece of bamboo spoken
of, cut a transverse notch, and saw across in it with a rubber of
iron-wood. The wood fibers ground off form the tinder; the coal is
wrapped up in a dry leaf and swung around the head till it blazes. It
takes only two or three minutes to get a blaze this way.
Bearing upon the origin of this method of sawing in these localities,
nature is alleged to suggest the way and to repeat the process that
would give to tireless man the hint. Mr. W. T. Hornaday relates that
many fires are started in the jungle by bamboo rubbing together in a
high wind-storm. The creaking is indescribable; the noise of the rasping
and grinding of the horny stems is almost unendurable.
In many tribes it is found that often there is more than one method of
fire-making practiced. For instance, in Borneo, as we have seen, the
Tungaras use the sawing method, the Saribus Dyaks the _besiapi_, or fire
syringe, a most interesting fact,[42] other Dyaks the rotary drill,[43]
while the Rev. Dr. Taylor says that the Dyaks are acquainted with the
use of the bow and string and the upright stick and cord (pump drill).
In connection with all these methods probably flint and steel were used.
[Illustration: Fig. 42. Malay Fire Sticks.
(Cat. No. 129775, U. S. N. M. Models in bamboo made by Mr. Hough
after Prof. A. R. Wallace’s description. The Malay Archipelago, p.
332.)]
So in Australia, while the rotary drill is the usual way, some tribes
have acquired the art of producing fire with knife or rubber, that is,
the sawing method presumably under foreign influence.[44]
III.—FIRE-MAKING BY PLOWING.
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:
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