HEATING AND LIGHTING UTENSILS IN NATIONAL MUSEUM 99 



Eugene Mead; 24.4 inches (63 cm.) long.) The southwestern tribes 

 generally used a spring tongs formed by bending a strip of wood 

 by fire into shape or by cutting out two tongues in a billet of wood. 

 The smaller implements of this character were useful in handling 

 spiny cactus fruit and the larger for coals of fire. The Apache speci- 

 men is strong and well made and has a good spring. It was col- 

 lected in 1869. (PI. 85, fig. 2; Cat. No. 9971, Arizona, Edward 

 Palmer; 20.9 inches (53 cm.) long.) The Havasupai specimen is 

 crude and strong. (PI. 85, fig. 3; Cat. No. 151901, Havasupai 

 Indians, Arizona; Maj. John G. Bourke, U. S. A.; 24.4 inches (62 

 cm.) long.) 



The earlier American and European tongs were hinged at the 

 handle and the two prongs bowed. The grasping ends were flattened 

 into disks. (PI. 86, fig. 7; Cat. No. 75357; Bainbridge, Pa.; George 

 Bean; 23.2 inches (59 cm.) long.) Improvements added a spring 

 to the pair of prongs and fingers for grasping. (PI. 86, fig. 6; Cat. 

 No. 284335; Lucy II. Baird; 16.2 inches (41 cm.) long.) A pair of 

 tongs called kinda^ coming from Denmark, is of bronze and was used 

 for carrying a coal of fire from a neighbor's hearth, following the 

 custom of fire borrowing. This rare specimen was given by Dr. 

 C. A. Q. Norton, of Hartford, Conn., one of the pioneer collectors 

 of illumination devices. (PI. 86, fig. 3; Cat. No. 151651; 8.7 inches 

 (22 cm.) long.) For handling coals a pincerlike tool of wrought 

 iron was employed in Spain. These were principally for use Avith 

 the brazier. (PI. 86, figs. 1, 2; Cat. Nos. 167001, 167068; Madrid,. 

 Spain; Walter Hough; 5.1 inches (13 cm.) and 12.6 inches (32 cm.) 

 long.) 



ORIDIBONS 



Grids of wood preceded grids of iron and were used in parts of 

 the world where iron was as yet unlinown. These picturesque grids 

 were erected on four posts over a fire and were made high enough 

 to prevent burning. On these were placed flesh or vegetable foods 

 to be semi-cooked and preserved by drying and smoking. (See pL 

 87.) More primitive than the wooden grids were the simple spits 

 consisting of a stick thrust into the substance to be cooked and 

 inclined before the fire. In the salmon area the split fish was fixed 

 on a spit and small sticks thrust across at right angles to hold the 

 fish flat. This suggests the gridiron. From the Bronze Age, so far 

 as may be ascertained, no grids have been found, but in the Iron 

 Age an iron strip bent to and fro appears to be such an object. 

 During the Iron Age it is presumed that the grid came more and 

 more into use, and the simple iron grids of our forefathers might well 

 stand for Iron Age examples. 



From Virginia comes a gridiron of honest ironwork which ap- 

 pears capable of surviving indefinitely the wear of time. (PI. 88^ 



