FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 69 



and allowing the sides to be stretched and held in place by cross 

 braces. At the same time the sides of the canoe were heated by 

 long strips of burning bark placed at the proper distance. " 



The southern Indians in burning out a wooden mortar regulated 

 the penetration and direction of the fire by means of clay. ®^ 



Fire was made much use of in bending wood. When a sapling, 

 for instance, is laid aside to dry it is found at a certain stage of the 

 drying if it is forcibly bent it wull retain the bend and not spring 

 back. Fire expedites this feature, and also renders it possible to 

 permanently bend seemingly drj' wood to the shape required. This 

 is shown in the Sioux method of shaping a bow. By this method 

 the bow, after it is dressed to shape, is bent into a graceful form by 

 rubbing oil on the portion designated and holding over the fire. 

 The wood becomes flexible, and when bent over the knee to shape 

 and held awhile till cool will retain its form. The double curve 

 "cupid's bow" is so bent by the Sioux to favor the bowstring, as 

 the thrust of a straight bow will break the string.^^ The curious 

 twisted pipestems made by the Sioux are examples of excellent bent 

 work. These pipestems, twisted after steeping in boiling water, are 

 held in the crotch of a tree and twisted. They were retained in 

 shape till cold, and would so remain. The Otoe and other Siouan 

 tribes along the Missouri River pursued this method. Ash is the best 

 material for pipestems.^ 



Among the southern Indians the practice was to bend wood with fire.* 



Another method is by heat and moisture, and still another by 

 steaming. The Mehave Indians of Arizona made excellent fishhooks 

 from cactus spines by bending them with heat and moisture.^ 



Steaming and bending wood was practiced by the Eskimo gen- 

 erally. In the manufacture of bark canoes by the Canadian Indians, 

 David Boyle says: 



"The two ends of this bottom strip, having been sharply doubled, 

 are forced between the end stakes, and the united pieces of bark are 

 shghtly hollow all along in consequence of this doubling at the ends. 

 A fire having been lighted close hy, stones are heated, and these are 

 placed in the hollowed bark, which has meanwhile been filled with 

 water. Very soon the bark has been sufficiently steamed to be forced 

 downward between the stakes to the ground. Strips to form the 

 upper portions of the sides are now added by the stitching method, 

 and by the application of pine pitch to all the joints." * 



"Carl W. Mitman. Catalogue of Watercraft Collection, Bull. 127,17. S. Nat. Mus., Washington, 

 p. 221. 



99 J. R. S wanton. Bull. 43, Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1911, p. 66. 



»» Information by Francis La Flesche. 



'Idem. 



'Lawson. History of Georgia, London, 1714, p. 176. 



'Edward Palmer. American Naturalist, vol. 12, 1878, p. 403. Specimoas in the U. S. National 

 Museum. 



« David Boyle. Amer. Anthrop., new ser., vol. 2, 1900, p. 189. 



