524 



BOATS. FIRE. 



rivers. They are about eight feet long, and made of reeds, 

 but there is no attempt to make them water-tight. Other 

 tribes, however, have much better canoes, made either of bark 

 or of a log hollowed out. The pipes are large, and the bowl 

 is generally of fuller's-earth, or of soap-stone. The mats are 

 about four feet long, are made of rushes, and are used either 

 as beds, or in the construction of wigwams. 



They obtain fire by rubbing a piece of wood in a hole. The 

 Chippeways and Natchez tribes had an institution for keeping 

 up a perpetual fire, certain persons being set aside and devoted 

 to this occupation. 



The Dacotahs used a drill bow (fig. 224) for the purpose of 

 obtaining fire. This instrument, as shown in the accompany- 

 ing figure, is a small stiff bow, the string of which forms a 

 loop round the upright stick, and thus, when the bow is 

 moved backwards and forwards, gives it a rotatory movement. 

 The Iroquois had effected a still further improvement, and 

 worked with an instrument (fig. 225) closely resembling that 



FIG. 225. 



FIG. 224. 



Daeotah Fire Drill Bow. 



Iroquois Fire Pump Drill. 



used in Western Europe, and also in Samoa,* and Ceylon,-f- to 

 drill holes in earthenware and metal. 



* Turner, Nineteen Years in t Davy's Ceylon, p. 263. 

 Polynesia, p. 274. 



