POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



427 



How Yakuts make a Fire The process 

 of starting a fire employed by the Yakuts 

 and Tungmses of Northern Siberia is quite 

 elaborate, and is thus described by Com- 

 mander Mellville in his " The Lena Delta " : 

 " To start the fire, a dry piece of wood is 

 procured from the high river-banks, many 

 sticks being cut with the axe and rejected 

 until one entirely free from moisture and 

 fit for kindling is found, which is then 

 carefully split and kept dry. The best of 

 the drift-wood is next selected and also split 

 up and chopped into proper lengths. Thus 

 far, so good : but the natives are ignorant 

 of matches, and with only their flint and 

 steel it would seem a difficult matter to start 

 a fire, since they have no rags, either cotton 

 or flax, or any highly inflammable material 

 like sulphur-sticks. But here is where the 

 Yakut and Tunguse ingenuity asserts it- 

 self. The buds of the Arctic willow are 

 forever trying to peep from beneath their 

 thin blanket of snow, and within these buds 

 is a light flossy substance in the nature of 

 thistle-down. Whenever he can, the native 

 gathers a handful of these, and robs them 

 of their down, which he then moistens slight- 

 ly and mixes with ground charcoal, prepared 

 by cooling a lighted piece of birch-wood in 

 the ashes of his hearth. The dampened 

 floss heavily rolled through the charcoal is 

 next covered up and dried before the fire on 

 the same board whereon it was pounded and 

 the charcoal powdered. It is now an excel- 

 lent tinder, igniting quickly into a hot and 

 durable point of fire. But, in addition to it, 

 some light match-stuff is necessary, and, to 

 supply this need, a bundle of fine soft sticks, 

 about thirty inches long, is always kept dry- 

 ing over the fireplace. Before the native 

 sets out on a journey, or, indeed, as often 

 as material is required, the old women of 

 the house take down several of these sticks 

 and carefully shape them into sword-blades. 

 They then rest their knives in beveled notches 

 cut in the flat sides of small pieces of wood, 

 about three eighths of an inch broad, one 

 eighth of an inch thick, and one inch and a 

 half long, and the operation proper begins. 

 Along the wooden sword, which is held 

 against the shoulder like a violin, the knife 

 in its gauge is drawn continuously and rap- 

 idly, and at each draught a thin coiling 

 shaving drops to the floor or into the lap of 



the operator. A bag full of these fine curls 

 which, when matted together, very much 

 resemble the American manufactured mate- 

 rial known to upholsterers as ' excelsior ' is 

 always ready for the traveling native, pre- 

 served dry in the huts beneath the sleeping- 

 skins, and carried in a fish-skin bag on the 

 journey. So, now, with the materials at 

 hand, we will start a fire. The native takes 

 from his skin pouch a bunch of the ' excel- 

 sior ' about the size of a robin's nest, rolls 

 it into a ball, punches a hole in it, and then 

 lays it carefully in the snow. Next, taking 

 a pinch of tinder from the bag which al- 

 ways hangs at his hip, he places it on his 

 flint, and with a quick sharp stroke ignites 

 and incloses it in the center of his nest of 

 shavings, which he then lifts up, holding 

 it lightly with his fingers spread apart for 

 the passage of air, and whirls rapidly around 

 his head at arm's length. At first, a faint, 

 pleasing odor of burning birch steals upon 

 the air, then a light streak of smoke follows 

 the revolving arm, and then the heat within 

 his hand notifies the native that a proper de- 

 gree of ignition has been attained ; he sud- 

 denly ceases his gyrations, tears open the 

 smoking nest, and with a quick puff blows 

 it into flame. Then depositing the blazing 

 ball on the snow, he soon piles his fagots 

 over and around it, and in few seconds his 

 fire is in full blast." 



Religion and Inebriety. Dr. T. D. 



Crothers, considering the question whether 

 faith and prayer, or honest intention on the 

 part of the patient, can alone save him from 

 inebriety, expresses his opinion as in the 

 negative, and says : " In a study of ten cases 

 on this point, I found that seven had been, 

 before and after the beginning of inebriety, 

 active church - members, had experienced 

 conversion and led active lives of faith and 

 prayer for longer or shorter intervals, de- 

 pending on circumstances. Two of these 

 were periodical inebriates, and had, during 

 the free intervals between the attacks, led a 

 most consistent Christian life of faith and 

 prayer. One of the seven exhibited the 

 strange delusion of religious mania when 

 drinking; at all other times he was a quiet 

 skeptic and doubter, but, when once under 

 the influence of alcohol, he was the most 

 ardent religious devotee, exhorting with 



