FIEE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 61 



of those of the wolves and dogs of Austraha. Surprise, stealth, and 

 cunning, as of the animals, the blow with rude weapon, or patient 

 labor to unearth the prey, were the means of early man for taking 

 game. 



Together with this state of rudeness of method was the inexpe- 

 rience of animals, so to express the habits of the denizens of nature 

 now too rarely seen in a state of unfamiharity with destroying man. 

 It is observed that the beasts have been educated by experience 

 almost more than their pursuers. 



Among the rude aids of primative hunters fire became one of the 

 most important. The advancing forest or prairie fire brought out 

 the terrified game better and more quickly than a line of beaters. 

 To this day the Navahos burn over large areas of the forests in the 

 White Mountains of Arizona in their annual hunts. The fascination 

 of fire by night is potent to the destruction of fish, bird, or beast, 

 and thick smoke drives any unwilling animal whatever from his im- 

 pregnable lair. 



At some time animals acquired an instinctive fear of fii'e. This is 

 shown by the use of hot irons in controlling animals in menageries. 

 In the work of circus men lions and tigers will cringe before a heated 

 poker, and no matter how restless and fretful they may have been, 

 the sight of the glowing iron immediately brings them to their best 

 of animal senses. 



A number of methods have been developed, based on a knowledge 

 of the habits and other characteristics of animals. Chief of these 

 are the lures of light, remarked on in another section, and probably 

 later than capture by smoke and heat. 



The question of repulsion, especially of insects, by fire agents may 

 be taken up first. 



The use of the smudge is almost universal. The Chukchi carry 

 attached to their wrist a small heater (censer) and put in it bits of 

 herbs or dry wood in order to smoke away the insects. The Lapps 

 make a smudge with fungi which grow on trees and which burn 

 slowly and make acrid smoke. "^ 



The Tunicas are said to have kindled fires in their palisaded 

 houses only twice a day, presumably to drive out noxious insects; 

 they did their cooking outside in earthen pots.^^ 



Gaffarel quaintly says of the Creek Indians that "they are often 

 bothered with little flies, which they caU in there language maringous, 

 and it is usually necessary for them to make fires in their houses, ab- 

 solutely under their beds, in order to be free from these vermin ; tind 



«i Cornelius de Paw. Philosophical Researches on the Americans, London, 1791, pp. 1, 247. 

 « J. G. Shea's Early French Voyages on the Mississippi, 1861, pp, 80, 81. 



