# The Aborigines of Victoria/Volume 1/Chapter 18

Methods of Producing Fire.
The Aborigines of the southern parts of Victoria obtain fire in the manner shown in Fig. 231. A flat piece of wood, ten inches in length, and one inch and a half in width, is placed on the ground and held firmly in a horizontal position by the toes of each foot of the operator. In his hands the man holds upright, and with one end of it fixed in a slight depression previously made in the flat piece of wood, a stick about half an inch in diameter and two feet in length, which he twirls by a rapid motion of his hands. The stick
* FIG. 231.
held between the palms of the hands is rubbed rapidly to and fro, and some pressure is exerted downwards. When the hands nearly touch the flat piece of wood, they are suddenly raised almost to the top of the vertical stick, but so skilfully as to keep the stick in its place (and this is a movement not easy to Europeans), and then again the twirl and downward pressure follow, and the movements are repeated until the charcoal-dust ignites. Fig. 232 shows the
* FIG. 232.
form of the sticks employed. When the sticks are dry, smoke and fire soon arise in the hole in the flat piece of wood. The native, having previously reduced to powder some dry leaves of the eucalyptus, which easily ignite, turns or tilts the flat piece of wood towards the powdered leaves at the moment when ​ignition occurs, and soon gets a fire. The operation, under favorable circumstances, occupies only a few minutes in the hands of a skilful Aboriginal; but, if the weather is damp and the man is clumsy, it is hard work for many minutes, and success does not always follow the first attempt. A European unaccustomed to the business might twirl the stick for a long time and scarcely raise a smoke by this method.
The Aborigines of the Yarra name the process of getting fire Werrgarrk; the name of the upright stick is Boo-bo-bo; the flat piece in which the upright stick revolves, Bab-a-noo; the dust which collects in the hole in which the vertical stick turns, Kan-an-doorr; the first fire, Man-noo-en; and the word for flame is Kool-kool-boo-noo-en.
The woods commonly used for making fire-sticks (Weenth-kalk-kalk) are the Djelwuk (Hedycarya Cunninghamii) and the Prostanthera lasianthos (Lab.).
The inhabitants of the Lower Murray, near Swan Hill, procure fire by a different method. Out of a suitable piece of wood the Aboriginal cuts a knife—in shape almost like a butcher's knife—and in another piece he cuts a long thin slit. In the slit he places finely-powdered dry gum leaves, or powdered dry grass, or some other inflammable substance. Placing the stick with the longitudinal slit in it in a secure position, he rubs the wooden knife across or at right-angles to the slit very rapidly, holding the knife generally with the right hand, and, for the purpose of giving greater energy and steadiness to his movements, keeping the right wrist firmly in the left hand. Instead of preparing a second stick with the longitudinal slit in it, he not seldom takes advantage of the cracks in the trunk of a dry fallen tree. Some dry substance carefully reduced to powder by the hand is put into the cracks, and the wooden knife, used in the same manner as above described, soon produces smoke and fire. The latter is the mode I saw successfully employed at Coranderrk by a native of the Murray. When the Yarra men had got fire by twirling the upright stick, Gulpie said that he knew of a quicker and better method of getting fire. This annoyed some of the old men of the Yarra ​tribe, who denied that any other means could be employed by an Aboriginal. Knowing well what he proposed to do, I encouraged Gulpie to make an experiment. He cut a wooden knife in a few moments, sat down beside a dry log, and having filled the longitudinal cracks with dry grass, which he had previously well rubbed in his hands, he commenced operations, and in a few seconds sent up a smoke. This method is shown in Fig. 233.
* FIG. 233.
In the north-eastern parts of Australia a very similar method, it is said, is adopted. In Fig. 234 the man is represented in a sitting posture. Having planted in the ground a strong stick, in which a longitudinal slit has been made, or in which there is a natural slit, and having filled the slit with dry powdered gum leaves or the like, he draws the stick towards him, and keeps it firmly in its place by pressing his chest against it. In his hand he holds the wooden knife, which he rubs rapidly across the stick until he gets fire.
* FIG. 234.
There are probably many other ways of using the fire-sticks known to the tribes in the interior; but all the evidence yet obtained shows that friction only—and no easier or better method—is resorted to by the Australians on the somewhat rare occasions when they have to practise the art of getting fire. Their habits, in the ordinary life of a tribe, would prevent the necessity of having recourse to the fire-sticks. Whether encamped or travelling, a tribe is always well provided with fire. It is the duty of the women to carry fire. A stick, a piece of decayed wood, or more often the beautiful seed-stem of the Banksia, is lighted at the fire the woman is leaving; and from her bag, which, in damp weather, she would keep filled with dry cones, or from materials collected in the forest, she would easily, during her journey, preserve the fire got at the last encampment.
Messengers, warriors on an expedition, and hunters, would sometimes have to use the fire-sticks, but in ordinary camp life rarely.
It happens, consequently, that white men who have lived with the Aborigines, and who have become acquainted with many of their practices, are unable to say how fire is procured; and when asked to describe the process, state vaguely that two sticks are rubbed together, and that, after some exertion, one of them bursts into a flame. In all the processes the knack consists in keeping the charcoal-powder exactly in the place where there is the most friction, and it is needless to say the stick does not burst into a flame.
The art of making fire is, without doubt, known to all races of men. The legends and stories and some curious practices of the highly-civilized peoples of Europe, show that their remote ancestors procured fire exactly in the same way as the Australian gets it, i.e., by friction.
​In considering and determining the position of the Australian in the great families of mankind, it is interesting to compare his practices with those of other men whose lives are spent in the forest, and who know nothing of cities, and whose discoveries go not so far as to change the mode of life, but simply to render the life that is natural to them safer and more pleasurable.
In procuring fire it is probable that the only method known to the earliest races was that of rubbing two sticks together, an art suggested possibly, as my friend the Rev. Richard Taylor observes, by some man having noticed the accidental production of fire due to the friction of dry branches of trees in a gale. Getting fire by friction is known to many uncivilized peoples.
"The Kaffir blacksmith never need trouble himself about the means of obtaining a fire. Should he set up his forge in the vicinity of a kraal, the simplest plan is to send his assistant for a fire-brand from one of the huts. But if he should prefer, as is often the case, to work at some distance from the huts, he can procure fire with perfect certainty, though not without some labor. He first procures two sticks, one of them taken from a soft-wood tree, and the ​other from an acacia, or some other tree that furnishes a hard wood. Of course both the sticks must be thoroughly dry, a condition about which there is little difficulty in so hot a climate. His next care is to shape one end of the hard stick into a point, and to bore a small hole in the middle of the soft stick. He now squats down . . . . . places the pointed tip of the hard stick in the hole of the soft stick, and, taking the former between his hands, twirls it backwards and forwards with extreme rapidity. As he goes on, the hole becomes enlarged, and a small quantity of very fine dust falls into it, being rubbed away by the friction. Presently the dust is seen to darken in color, then to become nearly black, and presently a very slight smoke is seen to rise. The Kaffir now redoubles his efforts, he aids the effect of the revolving stick by his breath, and in a few more seconds the dust bursts into a flame. The exertion required in this operation is very severe, and by the time that the fire manifests itself the producer is bathed in perspiration.
"Usually two men, at least, take part in fire-making, and, by dividing the labor, very much shorten the process. It is evident that, if the perpendicular ​stick be thus worked, the hands must gradually slide down it until they reach the point. The solitary Kaffir would then be obliged to stop the stick, shift his hands to the top, and begin again, thus losing much valuable time. But when two Kaffirs unite in fire-making, one sits opposite the other, and as soon as he sees that his comrade's hands have nearly worked themselves down to the bottom of the stick, he places his own hands on the top, continues the movement, and relieves his friend. Thus the movement of the stick is never checked for a moment, and the operation is consequently hastened. Moreover, considerable assistance is given by the second Kaffir keeping the dust properly arranged round the point of the stick, and by taking the part of the bellows, so as to allow his comrade to expend all his strength in twirling the stick. . . . . Some of my readers may, perhaps, remember that English blacksmiths are equally independent of lucifer matches, flint and steel, and other recognised modes of fire-raising. They place a small piece of soft iron on the anvil, together with some charcoal-dust, and hammer it furiously. The result is that enough heat is evolved to light the charcoal, and so to enable the blacksmith to set to work."
In many other parts of Africa the method of obtaining fire by twirling the upright stick is known and practised.
The Maori gets fire by using the wooden knife. He pushes the knife backward and forward along a groove previously made in a flat piece of wood, and the fine charcoal-dust which collects at the extremity of the groove, when ignited, is placed in a lump of soft flax, and waved to and fro until it bursts into a flame.
The names for fire in New Zealand are Kora, Kapura, Ahi, Mapura, Maute, Ngiha, Pahunu, Mura, and Kanaka. The sticks used in rubbing are named Kauati and Kaureureu, and the name for both sticks Rororu. The dust caused by rubbing is named Para, the process of rubbing Kauoti, and the flame Pukuroa.
The Tahitian procures fire by rubbing the fire-sticks exactly after the manner of the Maori.
The Dyak of Borneo twirls the upright stick. "There is, however, one improvement on the ordinary mode. Instead of merely causing a pointed stick to revolve upon another, the Dyaks use instead of the lower stick a thick slab of very dry wood, with a deep groove cut on one side of it, and a small hole on the other bored down to the groove. . . . . He places the wooden slab on the ground with the groove undermost, and inserts his pointed stick in the little hole, and twirls it rapidly between his hands. The revolution of the stick soon causes a current of air to pass through the groove, and, in consequence, the fire is rapidly blown up as soon as the wood is heated to the proper extent. . . . . Some tribes merely cut two cross grooves on the lower piece of wood, and insert the point of the fire-stick at their intersection."
​In Java, fire is sometimes procured by friction. D'Almeida says:—"Before starting on our return I felt desirous to smoke a cigar, in order to 'keep the cold out;' but finding I had forgotten my fusees, I asked one of the men if he could give me a light. He immediately picked up a dried piece of wood, and holding it fixed on the ground, asked one of his companions to rub another across it. This being quickly done, in less than five minutes the friction caused the upright piece to burn. The man soon blew it into a flame, and handed it to me."
This very nearly resembles the mode of getting "fire" as practised by some of the Aborigines of New South Wales.
The Japanese, it is said, followed the system employed by the Australians.
The Lepcha get fire after the manner of the Yarra tribe of Victoria. This method of obtaining sacred fire, somewhat modified, is practised daily in the Hindu temples.
​The Tongusy, inhabiting country eastward of the Lena, and who are the representatives of the ancient inhabitants of Siberia, rub two pieces of wood against each other to get fire when the tinder-box is not at hand.
The Dacotah or Sioux Indians, Philander Prescott says, use the Australian method, and twirl the upright stick. A piece of punk is kept ready to apply to the charcoal-dust when ignited.
Fire is procured by friction—when either their necessities or their superstitious observances require it—by all the tribes of America.
* FIG. 235.
The usual mode of obtaining fire as practised by the Red Indians is shown in Fig. 235. A piece of wood placed perpendicularly to two other pieces of wood is made to revolve rapidly by moving a bow. Fire is soon got by this method. There is, however, a modification of this apparatus.
"At the sacrifice of the white dog, which was the New Year's festival and great jubilee of the Iroquois, the proceedings extended over six days. . . . The fire was kindled by swiftly revolving, by means of a bow and cord, an upright shaft of wood with a perforated stone attached to it as a fly-wheel. The lower point rested on a block of dry wood, surrounded by tinder, which was speedily ignited. This is the ordinary process still in use among many of the Indian tribes."
Mr. Paul Kane gives the following account of the process employed by the Chinooks:—"The fire is obtained by means of a flat piece of dry cedar, in which a small hollow is cut with a channel for the ignited charcoal to run over; this piece the Indian sits on, to hold it steady, while he rapidly twirls a round stick of the same wood between the palms of his hands, with the point pressed into the hollow of the flat piece. In a very short time sparks begin to fall through the channel upon finely-frayed cedar bark placed underneath, which they soon ignite. There is a great deal of knack in doing this; but those who are used to it will light a fire in a very short time. The men usually carry these sticks about with them, as after they have been once used they produce the fire more quickly."
The Aztecs and Peruvians used the fire-sticks very much in the same way as the natives of Australia use them. Great as these peoples were in arts, in arms, and in all that makes the difference between the savage who lives in the forest—scarcely as well sheltered as the birds—and the inhabitant of palaces—these peoples, in the height and fulness of their glory, cast back to the times when they too were wandering tribes; and they elevated into a religious festival the practice of an art which first raised them from a ​condition, in some respects, little superior to that of the animals on which they fed.
To complete this brief sketch, it is necessary to describe the mode of procuring fire as practised by the Esquimaux, and the natives of Tierra del Fuego— peoples separated from each other by the whole extent of the globe. And it is in the similarity and not in the difference of their methods that the chief interest exists. It is true that both these families of mankind occasionally resort to friction, but the practice common to both of getting fire by the use of pyrites and quartz—striking fire as the Europeans do, by flint and steel—is more startling than anything I have related of other races.
Both races, inhabiting very cold and very damp tracts, could not, as a rule, depend in all seasons on fire-sticks for obtaining fire. Their necessities apparently have driven them to have recourse to quartz and pyrites. Just as the heavy pressure of a dense population leads to the invention of new methods of preparing clothing, new methods of preserving and preparing food, new methods of travelling, new methods of transmitting messages, so—amongst savage peoples—a damp climate causes the savages to resort to surer means than those common to their progenitors in another clime of getting fire when they need it.
​Twirling the stick or using the wooden knife or file to procure fire is regarded by many as a sign of the inferiority of the Australian tribes; that they have no better or readier method of getting it is commonly cited as a proof that they are not ingenious. I have shown, however, that this method, variously modified, is practised in many parts of Polynesia, is used by some tribes in Asia, is known in Japan, is to this day practised by Brahmans in India, is the only mode known to tribes in America, and that in Africa the Kaffir has exactly the same sticks, and uses them in precisely the same manner as the Aborigines of the Yarra. They are not then, as regards this art, in any degree inferior to savage, barbarous, or even partially-civilized peoples. Even the pseudo-civilization of Peru and Mexico knew of this art, and it was resorted to when the necessity arose. It borrowed its splendour from the religious rites associated with the practice of the art; and had these peoples been permitted to prosper, and had they advanced to a higher state of civilization, the simple art would never have been forgotten.
The practice of the art is common to all uncivilized peoples; and more than that, any evidence of its having existed at any time amongst any people—however high they may have been or are now amongst the races of the world, and however far removed from barbarism—must be regarded as a proof that that people had at one time the same habits, if not the same instincts and the same origin, as those amongst whom the art is still practised.
When, and how, and where the first improvement on the commonly practised method of twirling the upright stick by the hand was made known to men of our own race is not in any record, because it preceded that epoch in which records became possible.
Any method better than that known to the Australian must have been welcomed by the people amongst whom there were probably some other signs of civilization, and in their minds that craving for a better condition which is only satisfied by new discoveries and the promulgation of new truths.
The discovery of a new fire-generator was perhaps the beginning of civilization amongst the peoples of the Aryan race—or if not that, at least an indication that they had emerged from barbarism.
​The Greeks and Romans followed the practice of their remote ancestors when they made their sacred fire; and the English and the Germans have preserved in their religious and superstitions observances a record of the period when they were wanderers in wild forests, depending on the unassisted soil for sustenance.
Kelly tells us that the holy fires of the Germanic races are of two classes. In the first are included those which the church, finding herself powerless to suppress, appropriated and made part of her ceremonial rites. The new or sacred fire was generally got by flint and steel, but sometimes by friction.
The second class embraces those which are used as preservatives against epidemics, cures for witchcraft and the like—all pagan in their origin and character.
"The need-fire, nydfyr, new German noth feuer, was called, from the mode of its production, confrictione de lignis, and, though probably common to the Kelts as well as Teutons, was long and well known to all the German races at a certain period. All the fires in the village were to be re-lighted from the virgin flame produced by the rubbing together of wood, and in the highlands of Scotland and Ireland it was usual to drive the cattle through it by way of lustration, and as a preservative against disease."
To this is added the following interesting note:—"In the Mirror of 24th June 1826 is an account of this having been done in Perthshire on occasion of a cattle epidemic. 'A wealthy old farmer having lost several of his cattle by some disease very prevalent at present, and being able to account for it in no way so rationally as by witchcraft, had recourse to the following remedy, recommended to him by a weird sister in his neighbourhood, as an effectual protection from the attacks of the foul fiend. A few stones were piled together in the barn-yard, and wood-coals having been laid thereon, the fuel was ignited by will-fire—that is, fire obtained by friction; the neighbours having been called in to witness the solemnity, the cattle were made to pass through the flames in the order of their dignity and age, commencing with the horses, and ending ​with the swine. The ceremony having been duly and decorously gone through, a neighbouring farmer observed to the enlightened owner of the herd that he, along with his family, ought to have followed the example of the cattle, and the sacrifice to Baal would have been complete.'"
Grimm mentions the making of will-fire by means of the wheel as having been practised by the people of the island of Mull, in 1767, for the purpose of curing their cattle of some disease then prevalent.
In the Scottish highlands, according to Logan, the need-fire is still made for the same purpose; and old superstitions connected with fire yet linger in Ireland.
I have been thus particular in describing these practices, because it is too commonly supposed, when we find any practice curious or not, simple or not, amongst savage peoples, that these peoples have derived the practice from some civilized race. Surely it is but reasonable to believe that the universal practice of getting fire by friction amongst all the civilized nations has its origin in the customs of the past, when the men of these nations were uncivilized. It is indeed a proof that it was once their usual, if not their only method of getting fire. High civilization, culture, and the possession of much knowledge, in Athens or in Rome, could consist with the existence, in the near neighbourhood, of men who were little above the savage state, and who would have had to resort to fire-sticks whenever they needed fire. Perhaps not one man in ten thousand in London knows how to get fire by friction, but less than five hundred miles from the capital there are men living who practise the art.
How did the Aborigines of Australia first get fire? Probably they were never without it. Far back in geological times there were active volcanoes in Victoria; and in the Miocene and Pliocene periods the southern and western parts formed an archipelago; the Pliocene sea was dotted with islands, and many active points sent upwards tall columns of smoke. Immense rivers of molten lava flowed towards the ocean with which they were at war. Yet we know from the fossils found in the Pliocene and post-Pliocene drifts that there were many spots covered with a rich vegetation—with trees bearing probably edible fruits—and that the climate was more like that of Queensland than that now prevailing in those parts of Australia lying to the south of the River Murray. Whether or not these islands were peopled, we shall, in all likelihood, never know. Coming to the Recent period, we find, in the places where the volcanic fires lingered until the land took the shape we now see, thin beds of volcanic ash overlying the natural grass-grown surface; and it is not impossible​—it is even probable—that in such spots there may be discovered relics of the ancient inhabitants of the soil.
The Aborigines point to some of the recently extinct volcanoes, and say that fire came from them once. Whether they have learnt anything of the nature of these hills from the whites, or whether their forefathers had, and transmitted to their descendants, any knowledge of a period when they were active points, is not determinable.
Some amongst those who came first to the colony assure me that the Aborigines designated hills known to have been once active points as Willum-a-weenth—the place of fire—and described them as in former times giving forth smoke and steam.
In the most of cases—in nearly all—the geological evidence is certainly against the supposition that the Aborigines could ever have had knowledge of these points as once active volcanoes.
Assuming, however, that Australia was not peopled until long after the extinction of the volcanic fires, it is not probable that the Aborigines were unacquainted with fire. The rubbing together of two branches in a gale of wind—as suggested by the Rev. Mr. Taylor—might have caused a destructive conflagration in a climate as dry as this of Victoria. The fall of a heavy bough on a mass of pyritous quartz rock might have lighted the grass; a flash of lightning might have kindled the dry bark of a gum-tree; or the slipping of a mass of rock in summer might have ignited the withered ferns. On some days in summer the air at Melbourne is very dry and very hot.
Solar radiation, as measured by a black-bulb thermometer, is sometimes on a clear day in summer as much as 160·2°; the temperature in the shade has been as high as 114°; and on one day, when a fierce hot-wind blew (23rd December 1857), the highest temperature in shade was 109·2° ; and the wind-gauge registered a force of 12½lbs. per square foot. It is conceivable that over a vast tract covered with dry grass, dry ferns, and withered and powdered gum leaves (which, owing to the oil they contain, are highly inflammable); the long rubbing together of dry boughs, agitated by the wind; or the tread of a heavy animal, such as the kangaroo or the native bear, on masses of hard pyritous quartz rocks, causing them to strike and grind against one another—might cause a conflagration.
Whether these things happened or not, in the winter there would be no fires. Necessity must have compelled the Aborigines to strain their faculties in invention during that season. How they came to invent a means so simple and efficacious as the fire-sticks we can only conjecture.
The Aboriginal tells us in his own words how fire was first obtained; and in the proper place the reader will find the story.
* ↑ Even with such instructions as the Australians have given me, I cannot get fire by either of the methods they have taught me, though with some exertion I can cause smoke to rise by twirling the stick or using the wooden knife. Procuring fire by means of fire-sticks is a laborious and difficult operation to the unskilful. A European wandering in the bush would be incapable of getting fire by rubbing two sticks together. Even if provided with fire-sticks, he would accomplish nothing more than the blistering of his hands. In the city we may despise the Aboriginal and contemn his habits, but in the forest he is our superior; and when we seek his help, he is invariably an intelligent and skilful teacher.
* ↑ The manner in which the Aborigines procured fire before the Europeans came amongst them was thus:—They cut a piece of wood about eight or nine inches in length, and one inch or more in thickness, and made it oblong, about one inch and a half or two inches in breadth. Two or three holes were made on one side of its flat surface, and a thin round stick was worked by the hands upwards and downwards—as a mechanic would work a drill-bow—in one of these holes until the friction ignited the pith, which, dropping on some dried stringybark or other fine vehicle, caused the latter to smoulder. At a puff, the smouldering bark burst into flame. One minute or less was required for the operation. The upright stick was made of the young plant of a tree called by them Tale-wurk (Djelwuk).—William Thomas, MS.
* ↑ Mr. Robert Hughan says that the Aborigines of the Burnett, in New South Wales, get fire in the following manner:—They cut with the hatchet a hole in a dry fallen tree. They fill this hole with part of the dry ripe head of the flower-stalk of the xanthorrhœa, well powdered between the hands, and then turn the stem head downwards into the hole and twirl it. In a few seconds they get fire. Mr. H. E. A. Meyer, writing of the Aborigines of the Encounter Bay tribe, in South Australia, says that they obtain fire by using the grass-tree. A split piece of the flower-stem of the grass-tree is placed upon the ground, the flat side uppermost, and the lower end of a thinner piece pressed upon it, while the upper part is held between the palms of the hands, and an alternate revolving motion is given to it by rubbing the hands backwards and forwards until it ignites. Mr. Alfred Howitt states, in a letter to me, that the Aborigines of Gippsland used to get fire by twirling the peduncle of the grass-tree; and the Rev. Mr. Taplin, in his paper on the Narrinyeri tribe of Aborigines, says that the people of the Lower Murray get fire in the same way.
* ↑ The statements made in the Life and Adventures of William Buckley lead one to suppose that getting fire by twirling the upright stick was rare. Men and women, when they left a camp, always carried a lighted piece of bark or a brand. In one part of his narrative he says that "in the winter months they are often much distressed for fire, and suffer greatly from hunger and cold." It is probable that experts only used the sticks for getting fire; and that small parties wandering from the main camp, and unaccompanied by fighting-men, may have had often to endure cold, when by carelessness or accident the fire they carried was extinguished.
* ↑ It is believed by some that the natives of Tasmania did not know how to obtain fire. It is considered proper in Europe to describe these and the natives of Australia as the most degraded amongst all the races of mankind. Speaking of the Tasmanians, Lubbock says:—"They have no means of expressing abstract ideas; they have not even a word for a 'tree.' Although fire was well known to them, some tribes at least appear to have been ignorant whence it was originally obtaiued, or how, if extinguished, it could be re-lighted. 'In all their wanderings,' says Mr. Dove, 'they were particularly careful to bear in their hands the materials for kindling a fire. Their memory supplies them with no instances of a period in which they were obliged to draw on their inventive powers for the means of resuscitating an element so essential to their health and comfort as flame. How it came originally into their possession is unknown. Whether it may be viewed as the gift of nature, or the product of art and sagacity, they cannot recollect a period when it was a desideratum. . . . . . . It was the part of the females especially to carry a fire-brand in their hands, which was studiously refreshed from time to time as it became dull and evanescent.'"—Pre-Historic Times, p. 355. Mr. Dove's statement is so important that it is to be regretted he did not give the facts on which he based the inference that the Tasmanians did not know how to procure fire. The skill displayed by the natives in the fabrication of weapons and utensils, their habits, and certain words in their language, would lead one to suppose that the art of making fire was known to them as to other savage peoples in a similar condition, but that, as amongst the Australians, it was not, probably, very often practised. Mr. Dove was possibly not very careful in making observations, or perhaps rash in drawing inferences. Mr. James Scott, M.H.A., of Launceston, who is well acquainted with the habits of the Tasmanians, states, in a letter read at a meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania on the 8th July 1873, "that the Aborigines, in moving from camp to camp, if possible, carried a fire with them, to save the labor of getting it by friction of two pieces of wood, the use of which was known to them." The word for "fire" at Oyster Bay was, according to Dr. Milligan's vocabulary, Tonna; in South Tasmania, 'Ngune; and in the western and north-western parts, Winnaleah. The word for "tree" was Loatta; and for touch-wood (rotten wood), Weitree ouriatta and Weeawanghratta. "In his history of the Ladrone Islands, Father Gobien asserts that fire, 'an element of such universal use, was utterly unknown to them, till Magellan, provoked by their repeated thefts, burned one of their villages. When they saw their wooden houses blazing, they first thought the fire a beast which fed upon wood, and some of them who came too near, being burnt, the rest stood afar off, lest they should be devoured, or poisoned, by the violent breathings of this terrible animal.' This fact is not mentioned in the original account of Magellan's voyage. Freycinet believes that the assertion of Father Gobien is entirely without foundation. The language, he says, of the inhabitants contains words for fire, burning charcoal, oven, grilling, boiling, &c.; and even before the advent of the Europeans pottery was well known. It is difficult, however, to get over the distinct assertion made by Gobien, which, moreover, derives some support from similar statements made by other travellers. Thus Alvaro do Saavedra states that the inhabitants of certain small islands in the Pacific, which he called 'Los Jardines,' but which cannot now be satisfactorily determined, stood in terror of fire because they had never seen it (Hackluyt Society, 1862, p. 178). Again, Wilkes tells us (United States Expl. Exped., vol. V., p. 18) that on the island of Fakaafo, which he calls 'Bowditch,' 'there was no sign of places for cooking nor any appearance of fire.' The natives also were very much alarmed when they saw sparks struck from flint and steel. Here, at least, we might have thought was a case beyond question or suspicion; the presence of fire could hardly have escaped observation—the marks it leaves are very conspicuous. If we cannot depend on such a statement as this, made by an officer in the United States Navy, in the official report of an expedition sent out especially for scientific purposes, we may well be disheartened and lose confidence in ethnological investigations. Yet the assertions of Wilkes are questioned, and with much appearance of justice, by Mr. Tylor (Early History of Mankind, p. 230). In the 'Ethnography of the United States Exploring Expedition,' Hale gives a list of Fakaafo words, in which we find Afi for 'fire.' This is evidently the same word as the New Zealand Ahi; but as it denotes light and heat, as well as fire, we might suppose that it thus found its way into the Fakaafo vocabulary. I should not, therefore, attribute to this argument quite so much force as does Mr. Tylor. It is, however, evident that Captain Wilkes did not perceive the importance of the observation, or he would certainly have taken steps to determine the question; and as Hale, in his special work on the ethnology of the expedition, does not say a word on the subject, it is clear he had no idea that the inhabitants of Fakaafo exhibited such an interesting phenomenon. The fact, if established, would be most important; but it cannot be said to be satisfactorily proved that there is at present, or has been within historical times, any race of men entirely ignorant of fire. It is at least certain that as far back as the earliest Swiss lake-villages and Danish shell-mounds the use of fire was well known in Europe."—Pre-Historic Times, pp. 453–4. Mr. George French Angas repeats this statement, and says that the inhabitants of Bowditch Island knew nothing of fire until the arrival of foreigners amongst them.—Polynesia, p. 402. Probably the statements in the cases cited amount to no more than this: That the observers were not able to ascertain—had not, in fact, the means of discovering—in what way the natives procured fire. Hunters and warriors, whose necessities compel them to range through the forests, separated for many days from their tribe, could not well secure game, or pursue their enemies, without having at hand the means of kindling a fire. Under pressing necessity, a warrior or a hunter might remain for days without seeing fire; but warfare, hunting, and other well-known practices of savages, could not be successfully followed constantly unless they had some method of getting fire. With habits different from those of now existing savage peoples, life might be maintained and prolonged without any knowledge of the art of procuring fire. Without tribal laws compelling warriors to follow enemies; living in a state of degradation, far below that of the Tasmanians; and guided to the places where there was food, by intelligence scarcely surpassing that of the kangaroo, or the wombat—it is conceivable that life might be passed in ignorance of the element which is so highly prized by man. If it be true that any races having the use of fire are yet ignorant of the mode of producing it, it should not lead us to regard them as inferior to other races that resort to friction or percussion. The habit of carrying fire-sticks continually, or the practice of getting fire from some near source, as a volcano, might result in the disuse of the fire-sticks and forgetfulness of the art; but that would not necessarily prove inferiority. If procuring fire is in any tribe among the artes perditæ, it would be well for the observer to be more careful than Mr. Dove and Captain Wilkes, who seem not to have appreciated the importance of the question on which they have written so decidedly.
* ↑ The Natural History of Man. J. G. Wood, vol. I., p. 101.
* ↑ Te Ika A Maui, by the Rev. Richard Taylor, M.A., F.G.S., p. 370.
* ↑ Polynesia, by G. F. Angas, p. 286.
* ↑ The Natural History of Man, by J. G. Wood, vol. II., p. 502. Other methods of procuring fire are used by the Dyaks. The besiapi, as described by Mr. Wood, "consists of a metal tube about three inches in length, with a piston working nearly air-tight in it. A piece of dry stuff, by way of tinder, is introduced into the tube, the piston-rod is slapped smartly down and withdrawn with a jerk, when the tinder is seen to be on fire." Sometimes a case of bamboo and a leaden piston, with a hole at the end for the reception of the tinder, are employed. They light tinder also by percussion, after a method not yet explained. In the Mechanics' Magazine of the 18th August 1832 a description is given of an instrument exactly resembling the besiapi by a correspondent. The editor remarks that it is well known on the continent by the name of the "Instantaneous Light-giving Syringe." This method is mentioned also in the Intellectual Observer (September 1865) by A. S. Herschel, B.A. The Rev, Mr. Taylor says the Dyaks are acquainted with the methods of the Red Indians, namely, the bow and string and the upright stick and cord. The Dyaks, who can smelt iron, construct good bridges, and forge useful tools, can scarcely be regarded as an uncivilized people. Fire is thus obtained by the people of Sararak:—"One of the men strikes fire by means of a small branch of soft wood placed on the ground. Squatting opposite it, he holds it in its place by one of his toes, whilst some one places a foot on the opposite end for the same purpose. This piece of stick having been previously cut flat on the upper side, a pointed piece of harder wood, when it can be procured, is held in the right hand obliquely against the lower piece, somewhat as we hold a pen, with the left hand pressing on the fingers of the right to add force to it. It is at first gently moved along the line, the motion being gradually quickened, till some brown dust is scraped up at one end of the incision thus made, and the friction being then increased in velocity, the wood finally smokes and takes fire. A dry piece of poro or husk, brought from the house, where it is kept for the purpose, readily ignites when the burning dust is deposited in it, and being waved backwards and forwards, is soon in a blaze."—Wild Life among the Pacific Islanders. E. H. Lament, p. 156.
* ↑ Life in Java, by Wm. Barrington D'Almeida, vol. II., p. 277.
* ↑ Taylor, p. 368.
* ↑ Descriptive Ethnology. Latham, vol. I., p. 89.
* ↑ Stevenson. Sâma Veda, pref. VII. Quoted by Kelly. "I know not if the Hindus ever possessed the art of concentrating the sun's rays by a lens, so as to obtain fire by that process: that used by Brahmans for cooking, and for religious ceremonies, is produced by the friction of two pieces of hard wood; one about five inches diameter, with a small conical hole, or socket, in the upper part, into which the other, shaped like a pin, is introduced, and whirled about backward and forward by a bow; the pin and socket {{SIC|fittiog|fitting}, the great attrition soon produces fire. This machine, which every Brahman ought to possess, is called Arani, and should be made of the Sami tree (Adenanthera aculeata or Prosopis aculeata), it being sacred to DÉVI in the character of SAMA DÉVI; or if that be not procurable, of the Pipala, resembling in appearance and name some species of our poplar."—The Hindu Pantheon. Moor, p. 214.
* ↑ Latham, vol. I., p. 283.
* ↑ Pre-Historic Man. Wilson, Vol. I., p. 132.
* ↑ Ibid, p. 128.
* ↑ Mr. Gilbert Malcolm Sproat, in his Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, says that the Ahts usu fire-sticks of cedar nearly in the manner described by Mr. Kane.
* ↑ "Among the Aztecs and Peruvians a peculiar sanctity was associated with the familiar service of fire. At the close of the great cycle of the Aztecs, when the calendar was corrected to true solar time, at the end of the fifty-second year, a high religious festival was held, on the eve of which they broke in pieces their household gods, destroyed their furniture, and extinguished every fire. In the reconstruction of the ritual calendar which then took place, the intercalated days were regarded as belonging to no month or year. They were held as though non-existent, and were dedicated to no gods, on which account they were reputed unfortunate. It was a period of fasting and penitence, during which no fire smoked, and no warm food could be eaten throughout the whole land. At the close of that dreary interval, during which they dreaded the final extinction of the Sun, the ceremony of the new fire was celebrated. After sunset the priests of the great temple went forth to a neighbouring mountain, and there, at midnight, the sacred flame was re-kindled which was to light up the national fires for another great cycle. The process by which the fire was procured, by revolving one piece of dry wood in the hollow of another, is repeatedly illustrated in the Mexican paintings of Lord Kingsborough's great work."—Pre-Historic Man. Wilson, vol. I., p. 125. Women were not allowed to witness the ceremony. If by accident one should have chanced to see it, she, it was believed, would have been transformed into some beast. The Peruvian Sun-worshippers got fire by means of a spherical mirror of bright metal, the sun's rays being made to inflame a heap of cotton. If the sun's rays were obscured, they resorted to friction. The Inca, surrounded by his nobles, joined in the solemn celebration in the great square of the capital.
* ↑ For obtaining fire, the Esquimaux generally use lumps of iron pyrites and quartz, from which they strike sparks on to moss which has been well dried and rubbed between the hands. They are also acquainted with the method of obtaining it by friction, which is a slower and more laborious process."—Pre-Historic Times. Lubbock, p. 400.
* ↑ In Tierra del Fuego, Weddell says that the Fuegians procure fire by means of iron pyrites and a flinty stone. They catch the sparks in a dry substance resembling moss. It is fashionable to speak of the Australians as the most degraded amongst all the races of mankind: consider the condition of the Fuegians, and decide. "Dr. Hooker informs us that at the extreme south of Tierra del Fuego, and in mid-winter, he has often seen the men lying asleep in their wigwams, without a scrap of clothing; and the women standing naked, and some with children at their breasts, in the water up to their middles, gathering limpets and other shell-fish, while the snow fell thickly on them and on their equally naked babies. In fact, fire does not appear to be a necessary with them, nor do they use it to warm the air of their huts as we do, though sometimes as a luxury they take advantage of it to toast their hands or feet."—Pre-Historic Times. Lubbock, p. 438.
* ↑ "The Invention of the chark," says Kelly, "was an event of immeasurable importance in the history of Aryan civilization. Scattered through the traditions of the race there are glimpses of a time when the progenitors of those who were 'to carry to their fullest growth all the elements of active life with which our nature is endowed' had not yet acquired the art of kindling fire at will. From that most abject condition of savage life they were partially raised by the discovery that two dry sticks could be set on fire by long rubbing together. But the work of kindling two sticks by parallel friction effected by the hand alone was slow and laborious, and at best of but uncertain efficacy. A little mechanical contrivance of the simplest and rudest kind completely changed the character of the operation. The chark was invented, and from that moment the destiny of the Aryan race was secured. Never again could the extinction of a solitary fire become an appalling calamity under which a whole tribe might have to sit down helpless, naked, and famishing until relief was brought them by the eruption of a volcano, or the spontaneous combustion of a forest. The most terrible of elements, and yet the kindliest and most genial, had become the submissive servant of man, punctual at his call, and ready to do whatever work he required of it. Abroad, it helped him to subdue the earth and have dominion over it; at home, it was the minister to his household wants, the centre aud the guardian genius of his domestic affections."—Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore. Kelly, p. 40. Eloquent as these words are, and true as they are—if we note the time and the circumstances to which they have reference—it is but just to observe that the chark could only do more easily what the palms of the hands can do as effectively. Time and labor perhaps were saved, and that was all. But any invention which saves time and labor leads to culture and refinement, and affords the opportunity and prepares the way for other labor and time saving inventions.
* ↑ "The Aryan method of kindling sacred fire was practised by the Greeks and Romans down to a late period of their respective histories. The Greeks called the instrument used for the purpose pyreia, and the drilling stick trupanon. The kinds of wood which were fittest to form one or other of the two parts of which the instrument consisted are specified by Theophrastus and Pliny; both of whom agree that the laurel (daphne) made the best trupanon, and next to it thorn and some other kinds of hard wood; whilst ivy, athragene, and vitis sylvestris were to be preferred for the lower part of the pyreia. Festns states that when the vestal fire at Rome happened to go out, it was to be re-kindled with fire obtained by drilling a flat piece of auspicious wood (tabulam felicis materiæ)."—Kelly, p. 44-5. The scholar need not be reminded of the many references to this practice in classics, and how largely language has profited by appropriating various modifications of the two words—Ηυρειον and Τρυρανον.
* ↑ Folk-lore, p. 46.
* ↑ The Saxons in England. Kemble, vol. I., p. 360.
* ↑ "Until lately, fires of straw were kindled on the 1st of May, in the milking yards, throughout many parts of Ireland. Men, women, and children passed through, or leaped over their flames, while cattle were driven through them. . . . . . . "In the south-western parts of Ireland, many persons yet living remember to have seen fire asked from a priest's house when any disease or epidemic broke out in the country. With this fire, other fires, first quenched, were afterwards re-kindled in the peasants' houses. Such practice was thought to avert the pestilence. But if the priest refused the fire—as he usually did, to discountenance an old superstition—the people then sought it from the 'happiest man'—supposed to be the best-living person in the parish. This curious custom is worthy of being recorded, for it seems to have come down from a very remote period."—Irish Folk-lore.
* ↑ Fires due to meteoric agencies are not rare in Australia. In the Age of the 8th December 1874 it is stated that during a thunderstorm two large cocks of hay on the farm of Mr. V. Anketell, at Coburg, were struck by lightning and took fire; and that at Bolingbroke a farmer had a cock of hay set on fire in like manner during the same storm. In the Geelong Advertiser of the 2nd February 1875 mention is made of a severe thunderstorm, when a tree was struck and shattered by lightning and a log fence set on fire.