There are three or four forms of fire-drill, but the palm-drill—that is, the kind that was rotated between the palms of the hands—was the earliest, most widespread, and most compact and portable of all. It consisted of a shaft of wood, or reed with a piece of some harder wood attached to it; or, where the hard wood was not long enough, it was spliced on to another piece of wood. The illustration above shows a drill and hearth I obtained from the Pai Utes of Arizona in 1875. These Amerinds were using such drills for fire-making at that lime. The other portion of the apparatus, the hearth, is made of cedar, or any soft and suitable wood. It has cavities cut into it to receive the rounded, blunt end of the shaft, and on the sides of these cavities a little notch is cut to allow the air to get at the superheated wood dust and to permit the dust to be quickly thrust into the tinder which is placed beside and beneath the hearth. This hearth, which is an inch or so in width and about a quarter of an inch thick, is held securely down by the foot or knee, and the drill stick rapidly revolved back and forth in an upright position, with the lower end in one of the cavities. The revolving motion is secured by the palms of the hands, which are allowed to slide down the shaft to gain downward pressure, each time being brought quickly back to the top for a repetition of the motion, so that it is practically continuous. A pinch of sand is sometimes added to increase the friction and create dust more speedily. The superheated dust, or spark, is skilfully flung into the tinder of moss or rubbed-up bark and a few puffs of breath bring a flame. All the materials are kept very dry, and an expert will secure a fire in a few seconds under favourable conditions.[222] This was the common form of fire-drill throughout the continent. The “_new-fire_” of the Aztecs,[223] produced at the termination of their fifty-two-year cycle, when all fires were permitted to die out, was obtained with a fire-drill similar to the one described. Even when a tribe had better means of obtaining fire, it would preserve the primitive method in its religious ceremonies. Before the invention of the fire-drill it was of the greatest importance to guard and preserve the fire that had perhaps been procured from a great distance or from some forest conflagration which had passed away. Hence it assumed a sacred character, and those who were entrusted with its preservation were high priests. Eternal fires, or undying fires, were the result at first of the necessity of preserving fire, and later, when the friction-drill was discovered, those who possessed the knowledge of it were correspondingly endowed with power over the remainder. [Illustration: THE PALM-DRILL (FIRE-MAKING)] [Illustration: THE PUMP-DRILL (FIRE-MAKING)] [Illustration: ESKIMO STRING-DRILL. (FOR FIRE-MAKING WITH MOUTHPIECE) ] [Illustration: PUEBLO PUMP-DRILL. (FOR BORING)] [Illustration: DRILL-POINT OF CHIPPED FLINT]