70 BULLETIN 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The use of heat as a means of bending and straightening timber 

 among the aborigines of northwest central Queensland is thus de- 

 scribed : 



"The aboriginals throughout all the different ethnographical dis- 

 tricts both know and practice various methods of bending or straight- 

 ening timber, either when already cut or in the rough. Thus, a dry 

 heat in ordinary sand, a moist heat from burning freshly gathered 

 gum leaves, or moisture in general, such as soaking in water, is em- 

 ployed for bending any of their wooden implements into shape as 

 required. In order to maintain and preserve the timber in the posi- 

 tion attained by one or other of the preceding processes, the whole 

 is covered thickly with grease and fat, saurian or mammalian." ^ 



Smoke seasoning of wood is practiced by some African tribes.® 



Preserving timber by baking was known to the Indians of Nic- 

 aragua. 



Mention must be made of the universal practice of sharpening and 

 hardening points of wood by fire. It is surmised that the first pierc- 

 ing weapon was made in this way, in fact a development of the fire 

 poker. Implements pointed by this means are found in the debris 

 of the cliff dwellers. 



HORN AND IVORY 



The shaping of horn by heat is widely known, and probably the 

 art is of great antiquity. The American tribes within the range of 

 horned animals formed spoons and various articles from the material 

 by application of heat. The northwest coast Indians and Eskimo 

 are especially skillful in working horn by heat, and remarkable speci- 

 mens of this work are in many museums. The Esldmo "soak horn 

 and ivory in hot urine and steam it. This is done before carving. 

 The urine is saved in a kantag and heated with hot stones."'' 



STONE ^ 



There is no foundation for the oft-repeated story that stone arrow- 

 heads are chipped to shape by fire, as extensive experiments by the 

 writer show. Dry stone of the material from which arrowheads are 

 made will not fracture on the application of water in any degree of 

 heat. In mining, the stone containing the natural "quarry water" 

 is fractured by the expansion action of steam. The removal of stony 

 obstructions in the way of Hannibal's progress over the Alps is prob- 

 ably apocryphal. 



In the Philippines the natives soften the (copper) rock by wood 

 fires and then excavate it and extract the ore. The furnaces are 



* Walter E. Roth. Ethnological Studies Among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines, p. 

 102. Published by Queensland Agent-Qeneral's Office, London, 1897. 



• Sir Harry JohnstOQ. Stauford's Compendiam of Africa, 18S0, p. 333. * 

 ' Information by Henry Elliott. 



