558 MODES OF OBTAINING FIRE. 



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.* In the " Ethnography of the United 

 States' Exploring Expedition," Hale gives a list of Fakaafo 

 words, in which we find a-fi for " fire." This is evidently the 

 same word as the New Zealand alii ; 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 cer- 

 tainly 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 



o 



peculiarity. The fact, if established, would be most impor- 

 tant ; 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. 



On the other hand, as already mentioned, some of the Tas- 

 manian and Australian tribes, and of the Andaman Islanders, 



* Early History of Mankind, p. 230. 



