Part 4

The hearth (fig. 21, pl. LXXIV) is of drift oak. It was collected at Frobisher Bay by Capt. Charles F. Hall. It has central holes, and appears to be very unfavorable wood for fire-making. The block hearth is also from Frobisher Bay (fig. 22, pl. LXXIV). It is an old piece of hemlock, with two central communicating holes. The mouth-piece is a block of ivory. Another mouth-piece is a bit of hard wood soaked in oil; it was used with a bone drill having an iron point. A very small, rude bow goes with this set (fig. 24).

Our knowledge of eastern Greenland has been very much increased by the explorations of Holm and Garde, who reached a village on the east coast never before visited by a white man. Extensive collections were made, both of information and specimens. In reference to fire-making, Mr. Holm reports:

“They make fire by turning a hard stick, of which the socket end is dipped in train oil, very rapidly around by means of a sealskin thong with handles. This stick is fixed at one end into a head set with bone, and the other end is pressed down into a cavity on the lower piece of wood (fig. 25). Therefore there must be two persons in order to make a fire. One turns the drill with the cord, while the other presses it down on the hearth; both support the block with their feet. As soon as the dust begins to burn they fan it with the hand. When it is ignited, they take it and put it into dried moss (_sphagnum_), blow it, and soon get a blaze. In this way they make a fire in an incredibly short time.”[34]

In the preliminary report, Mr. Holm gives the time at almost less than half a minute. It was made by the Eskimo, Illinguaki, and his wife, who, on being presented with a box of matches, gave up their drill, saying that they had no farther use for it.

In the same report Mr. Holm gives an interesting note. He says:

This fire apparatus is certainly better developed than that which has been described and drawn by Nordenskiöld from the Chukchis (Voy. of the _Vega_, II, p. 126). The principle is the same as the Greenlander’s drill, which they employ for making holes in wood and bone, and which is furnished with a bow and mouth-piece.[35] (fig. 26.)

The central holes of this hearth are worthy of note, occurring in the farthest eastern locality of the Eskimo, and in Labrador.

_Western Greenland._—The material in the Museum from western Greenland is very scanty. The southern coast has been settled for so long a time that the Eskimo and many of their arts have almost become extinct. No view of fire-making in Greenland would be complete without Davis’s quaint description of it, made three hundred years ago, but it was the upper end of the spindle that was wet in Trane. A Greenlander “begaune to kindle a fire in this manner: He tooke a piece of a boord wherein was a hole half thorow; into that hole he puts the end of a round sticke like unto a bedstaffe, wetting the end thereof in Trane, and in a fashion of a turner with a piece of lether, by his violent motion doeth very speedily produce fire.”[36]

Eskimo graves and village sites yield evidence also that the fire-making tools were not different from those at present used higher north along the coast, and on the east coast.

Dr. Bessels, speaking of Itah Eskimo of Foulke Fiord in Smith Sound, says: “The catkins of the arctic willow are used as tinder to catch the sparks produced by grinding two pieces of stone. Also the widely diffused ‘fire-drill’ is found here; the spindle is held between a piece of bone and a fragment of semi-decayed wood, and is set in motion by the well-known bow, and is turned until the wood begins to ignite.”[37]

The “fire-bag” is an accompaniment to all sorts of fire-making apparatus. The fire-bag shown (fig. 27, pl. LXXV) was collected by Captain Hall, at Holsteinberg, western Greenland in 1860. It is made of sealskin, and is a good specimen of the excellent needlework of these Eskimo. It was used to carry, more especially, the fire-drill and tinder which require to be kept very dry.

There is a wide gap in the collections of the Museum between the locality of the specimen just mentioned, and the fire hearth from the Mackenzie River (fig. 28). This specimen is from Fort Simpson presumably, where B. R. Ross collected. It is said to be difficult to discriminate the Eskimo from the Indian on the lower Mackenzie. This hearth may be Indian, as it has that appearance; besides, no Eskimo hearth yet observed has side holes and slots like this without the step. The Indians of this region are of the great Athapascan stock of the North. The close resemblance of this stick to the one from the Washoans of Nevada has been commented upon. (See fig. 6, p. 537.)

There is also a very fine old central-hole hearth from the Mackenzie River, collected also by Mr. Ross. It is a rough billet of branch wood, cut apparently with an axe, or hatchet (fig. 29). It is semi-decayed and worm-eaten. It has ten central holes where fire has been made; they are quite deep, forming a gutter in the middle of the hearth. There is, as can be seen, no need of a groove, as the dust falls over into the next hole, collects in a mass, and ignites.

Plate LXXV.

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-piece or bow. In this example there is a groove cut along the bottom of the hearth in order to facilitate tying the drill and hearth securely together. The hearth is a square block of soft wood with three central holes (fig. 30).

The other parts of this set are also worthy of consideration. The mouth-piece is set with a square piece of black stone. The part held in the mouth is very much chewed. One of the wings has a hole for tying, as has the hearth.

This is an usual Eskimo precaution to prevent small objects from being lost in the snow. The drill is short, being only 7 inches long. The bow is the fibula of a deer, pierced at each end for the frayed thong of sealskin. It has a primitive look, but it admirably serves its purpose.

The Point Barrow set was collected by the most successful expedition under charge of Lieut. P. H. Ray, U. S. Army. The knuckle-bone of a deer serves as a mouth-piece, the cup cavity and its general shape fitting it for the purpose admirably.

The drill is regularly made of light pine wood; it is slightly smaller in the middle. The hearth is a rudely rounded piece of pine. A fragment has been split off, and on this surface a groove has been cut and three fire-holes bored along it. The thong is without handles; it is used to tie the parts together when they are not in use. A bunch of willow twigs, the down of which is used as tinder, is also shown (fig. 31).

This set is especially interesting, because it shows the degeneration of an art. The fire-drill is so rarely used at Point Barrow, Mr. John Murdoch says, that it was not possible to get a full set devoted to that purpose. Those here shown are a make-shift. The method only survives by the conservatism of a few old men of the tribe, who still cling to old usages. One of these made the drill for Lieutenant Ray, telling him that it was the kind used in old times. It seems primitive enough; the knuckle-bone might well have been the first mouth-piece. The Eskimo farther east sometimes use a fish vertebra for the same purpose; one from the Anderson River has this. The cord without handles is undoubtedly the earliest form also.

The small wooden and bone mouth-pieces of the Eskimo east of Point Barrow to Cumberland Gulf seem to be copies of the deer knuckle-bone. Another primitive adaptation is found in an Anderson River bow, which is made of the fibula of a deer (see fig. 30).

The fire-making drill collected from the Chukchis by the _Vega_ expedition in the Cape Wankerem region, in northeastern Siberia, about the same latitude as Point Barrow, is figured in Nordenskiöld’s Report.[38] It is worked by a bow, and the drill turns in a mouth-piece of a deer astragalus like the Point Barrow specimen. The block has central holes, with short grooves running into each one.

Nordenskiöld’s description of the manner of making fire is very detailed. He records that the “women appear to be more accustomed than the men to the use of this implement.”

He gives also a most interesting observation on the use of a weighted pump drill among the Chukchis. The Chukchis also use flint and steel.[39]

The drilling set from Point Barrow (pl. LXXVI, fig. 32), will show the appearance of the parts of the fire-drill if we substitute the round stick for the flint drill. Some of the old drill stocks are pointed with finely chipped flint heads. The length of these points varies from 2 to 4 inches; the transverse section of one would be a parabola. They are in general more finely wrought than any of the prehistoric drills found in various localities all over the world. Prehistoric man was an adept in the art of drilling stone, bone, and shell; the stone tubes, some of them 18 inches long, bored very truly, are triumphs of the American Indians. Without doubt the prehistoric drill points were mounted like the Eskimo specimen, and were, perhaps, twirled between the hands, the almost universal method of using the fire-drill. Japanese carpenters drill holes in this way.

The winged mouth-piece is also a good example of workmanship. It is set with a mottled, homogeneous stone that is tolerably soft, which gives a minimum friction. This stone is much affected by the tribes over quite an extent of coast for labrets, etc. It is probably an article of trade as are flints. The bow is of walrus tusk, accurately made, but poorly engraved in comparison with the life-like art work of the southern Eskimo.

Another drilling set is from Sledge Island (pl. LXXVII, fig. 33). The Museum has no fire-making specimen from this locality. The drill stock is set with a point of jadeite lashed in with sinew cord. The bow is of walrus ivory; it is rounded on the belly and flat on the back. All Eskimo bows of ivory have a like curve, no doubt determined by the shape of the walrus tusk. In another, the most common form of the bow, its section is nearly an isosceles triangle, one angle coming in the center of the belly of the bow. The head is intended to be held in one or both hands; it agrees in form with the rude St. Lawrence Island heads.

Mr. E. W. Nelson collected at Unalakleet, in Norton Sound, a fire-drill, and the native names of the parts. The name of the set is _ŏŏ-jŏŏ-gŭ-tat_; the mouth-piece, _nă-ghŏŏ-tuk_; the drill, _ŏŏ-jŏŏ-ga-tuk_; the hearth of tinder-wood, _athl-uk_; the bow, _arshu-lŏw-shuk-pish-ik-sin-uk_.

Plate LXXVI.

Plate LXXVII.

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. The bow is of wood, which also is quite the exception in other Eskimo regions, where it is of ivory. There are many bows of antler from Norton Sound in the Museum, some of them skillfully and truthfully engraved. The mouth-piece is plain; not very well made. It is set with a square block of marble. It has the usual hole in one of the wings for the passage of a thong.

Cape Vancouver is represented by a fine old hearth. This object has evidently been prized by its owner; it has had two rows of fire-holes (fig. 35), one row bored on the step in front of the first holes made; some of the holes are bored clear through. The reason why this was valued is, because the wood is so tindery that it is easy to make fire upon it.

Chalitmute, in the Kuskokwim region, on the northern side of the bay of that name, opposite Nunivak Island, is the next locality southward, to be considered. The parts of this set are exceptionally well-finished. The hearth is (pl. LXXVIII, fig. 36) stepped. It has four holes prepared for use; on one, fire has been made. The drill is unusually thick. The mouth-piece has no teeth-grip, and there is no evidence that it was ever held in the mouth. It is intended to be held in the hand. This mouth-piece is set with an oval socket-stone of black obsidian, ground down into facets and polished. The cord handles are fine, large teeth of the sea lion. The centers of the circles so characteristic of Eskimo art, are inlaid with wood. The holes for the drill cord are narrow; they must have been dug through with a sharp, narrow instrument. As before remarked, this is the region where the hand rest is more used than the mouth-piece, and the bow is not used at all.

The fire-making set from the Togiak River, was collected in 1886, by Sergt. I. Applegate, of the U. S. Signal Corps. Kassianamute, from which village it comes, is in the Bristol Bay region, but this set has a different appearance from the former outfits (pl. LXXIX., fig. 37). The hearth is a block of wood worked out at one end into a handle. It is remarkable in having central holes not connecting, and with no connecting grooves. In this it closely resembles the block from East Greenland (fig. 25). This hearth is of soft, tindery wood, and doubtless when the holes became too deep to allow the powder to mass around the edge, the upper part of hearth was scarped down. The mouth-piece is large, and is in the form of a seal. It has only a shallow, crescentic teeth-grip; from the size of the mouth-piece, its shape, and the absence of a block to fasten between the teeth, it must have been nearly always held in the hand of one of the operators. It is set with a round pebble, mottled with green. The cord is a thong of rawhide with handles of wood.

The next locality is Koggiung, on the southern shore of Bristol Bay, near its head. Two sets are shown from this locality. From the hearths it will be seen that both fire-slots on the side and center holes are used here. These sets are called _nŭ-tshŭn_ (fig. 38). The apparatus shown in figure 38 has the stepped hearth. Both drill and hearth apparently have been made for sale. The mouth-piece is a good one, set with a large socket-piece of a black stone with green mottlings. This stone is tolerably soft. It is much used by the Bristol Bay Eskimo for making labrets, etc. The teeth-grip is very shallow. The hearth (fig. 39) is of a very peculiar shape; only one other has been noticed like it. The wood is of the best kind, and fire has been made on it a number of times. In several places the holes have been bored clear through. The mouth-piece bears no evidence that it has been held between the teeth. It is highly probable that fire was made on these outfits more often by two persons, one holding the mouth-piece, or rest, and fanning the flame, the other pulling the cord. This must be the method in Bristol Bay. Neither the true mouth-piece nor any bow has been procured by the Museum from this interesting region, from whence there are copious collections of ethnological objects. The cords without handles are worthy of notice.

Plate LXXVIII.

Plate LXXIX.

Plate LXXX.

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 regular block for the teeth-grip, but has a crescentic gash on each side instead. It is set with a socket of a rock resembling marble. Nearly all the mouth-pieces south of Norton Sound are in the shape of seals, or other long animals. Cord handles are used attached to a thick thong of buckskin. Fungus is used for tinder and a blaze is started with cones of the larch. These are kept in the box, the lid of which is tied on with a thong.

Kadiak, the lowest limit of the western Eskimo, is as far south as the four part fire-drill extends by specimens in the Museum (fig. 41). The hearth is of cedar wood with three central holes with a connecting groove. It is neatly finished. The drill is also of cedar and bears the marks of the use of the thong; the top has also been used in the socket of a rest. The drill approaches in length those used for twirling between the hands by the Indians.

While the Aleutians use flint and steel, or a stone containing quartz and pyrites, struck against another stone, they still make use of the four-part drill at certain times. Hunting parties, says Mr. L. M. Turner, carry the drill to use when their matches run out. It takes two men to work it, one holding the hand rest and the other pulling the thong. The spindle is made of harder wood, so as to wear the light dust which ignites, from the hearth. A moment only is necessary to get fire; this is fed with tinder made of willow catkins and powdered charcoal. Sometimes, in order to get fire, they hold tinder at the mouth of a gun and ignite it by firing off a light charge of loose powder.

Possessed of four methods of getting fire, the Aleutian is superior to more fortunately situated people who depend wholly on matches.

II. FIRE-MAKING BY SAWING.

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.

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:

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 grass.[45]

There is a close connection between the Malay sawing method and this, as there is a decided Malay preponderance in the make-up of the population of the Islands.

The fire-sticks shown (fig. 43) were procured by Mr. Harold M. Sewall, at Samoa, and deposited in the museum by him.