Ethnography of Mifronesia. 



135 



Caroline Islands, some kinds of vessels such as the water-bottle of 

 coconut shell which cannot stand, are hung by means of strings ; 

 while in Palau almost all vessels for the table are hung on wooden 

 pegs. For this purpose, each house has a rack consisting of two 

 wooden bars with wooden pegs on them. The rack is also paint- 

 ed hke the taro-table. 



2. Method of Fire-making. — In Yap and Palau, as in the 

 East Caroline Islands, the natives use imported matches. It is 

 needless to say, however, that in former times they had theii' 

 own method of kindling Are. According to a tradition in Yap, 

 the god of thunder once came down to the island and taught a 

 woman how to make fire and to make pottery. 

 This method of hre-making of divine origin is the 

 twirling method. The wood employed for this pur- 

 pose is that of a tree called arr, wliicli has more 

 or less the same smell as the elder tree. As already 

 noted, in fire-making the natives of Truk use the 

 wood of an aromatic tree which they call umukan. 

 The arr may be of the same species as the umukan 

 or 1)0 closely ahied to it. But the islanders of 

 Truk and Yap kindle fire in different ways, for the 

 twirling method is unknown to the former. Flint 

 is also used. In Palau, they formerly produced fire 

 from bamboo and wood by the twirling method. 



In Yap, the natives have bamboo vessels with 



wooden lids, in which they keep tinder safe from 



moisture. It is 19 to 32 cm. long and 2-5 cm. in 



Fig. S9-^^-™^ diameter (Fig. 59). Some, however, have bamboo 



vessel for 

 Yfip. 



lids instead of wooden ones. 



