FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 55 



They build a large fire of dr}^ juniper, and when it has ceased to 

 flame and is reduced to a mass of glowing coals, they smother it well 

 with earth and leave it to cool. If the fire is kindled at sunset the 

 charcoal is ready for use the next morning."^" 



The Japanese use several kinds of charcoal, as hard charcoal, 

 ^'Icatadzumi"; soft charcoal, "dogama^\- and best charcoal, " kind- 

 zumi," which is artistically shaped in deference to the conventions 

 of the tea ceremony. They also use branch charcoal, " yedadzumi/^ 

 for arti.'^lic effect. The Japanese also prepare balls of powdered char- 

 coal with some binding medium for keeping fire overnight, thus 

 anticipating the briquette. 



Previous to the general introduction of coal charcoal was the fuel 

 common to many countries. In the Cuban cities, for instance, ''all 

 of the cooking and much of the manufacturing requiring heat are 

 done with charcoal." ^' 



Dung. — The diffusion of large ruminants and the domestication of 

 various species have much to do with the fuel problem. In fact, 

 many regions would long have remained uninhabitable or untrack- 

 able without this valuable material. 



"On the night after the first buffalo scamper we encamped upon a 

 woodless ravine, and were obliged to resort to 'buffalo chips' (dry 

 ordure) for fuel. It is amusing to witness the bustle which generally 

 takes place in collecting this offal. In dry weather it is an excellent 

 substitute for wood, than which it even makes a hotter fire; but 

 when moistened by rain the smouldering pile will smoke for hours 

 before it condescends to burn, if it does at all. The buffalo meat 

 which the hunter roasts or broils upon this fire he accounts more 

 savory than the steaks dressed by the most delicate cooks in civi- 

 lized life." 32 



This fuel was extensively used by the Plains Indians and other 

 tribes in the buffalo range. The Hopi Pueblo Indians formerly 

 used hgnite in burning their pottery; now they use sheep dung made 

 up into convenient cakes. When the pottery is burning two of 

 them control the draft by holding a blanket against the wind in 

 front of the kiln. These animals were introduced subsequent to 

 1520. 



The only domesticated animal in the Americas furnishing fuel is 

 the llama. Tliis fuel is very useful in the upper bolsones or valleys 

 of Peru, and formed one of the chief aids in the movement of popu- 

 lation into the treeless Andean highlands. 



Nansen says that a kind of guano provided by the gulls is used as 

 fuel by the east coast Eskimos, Greenland. ^^ 



•"Washington Matthews. 2nd Ann. Report Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1880-81, p. 175. 



" E. L. Wakeman. Chicago Inter-Ocean, May 2, 1888. 



•' Josiah Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, New York 1844, vol. 2, p. 26. 



M F. Nansen. First Crossing of Greenland, 1890, vol. 2, p. 293. 



