84 BULLETIN 139^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



assembly have taken their seats in order. The exterior extremity or 

 outer end of the spiral circle takes fire and immediately rises into a 

 bright flame (but how this is effected I did not plainly apprehend; 1 

 saw no person set fire to it ; there might have been fire left on the 

 earth; however, I neither saw or smelt fire or smoke until the blaze 

 instantly ascended upwards) , which gradually and slowly creeps round 

 the center pillow with the course of the sun, feeding on the dry canes, 

 and affords a cheerful, gentle, and sufficient light until the circle is 

 consumed, when the council breaks up." ^® 



Other tribes of southern Indians observed this custom, which is in 

 advance of the practices of any of the tribes of the Eastern Hemisphere 

 so far as noted. ^^ 



FIRE MAKING BY ARTIFICIAL MEANS 



The presumed systematic order of the processes by which fire is 

 gotten artificially is shown in a synoptic series exhibited in the 

 United States National Museum. This series patently assembles a 

 number of devices each having an independent liistory, and therefore 

 can only be regarded as suggestive of the order of development based 

 on the grade of inventive ability expressed in their structure and 

 function. The series is described as follows: 



1. Volcano in action. Lava setting fire to forest (pi. 27, fig. 1). 



2. Lightning setting a forest on fire (pi. 27, fig. 2). 



3. Camp fire. Man borrowing fire (pi. 27, fig. 3). 



4. Fire saw. Strip of bamboo drawn across a section of bamboo. 

 Dyaks of Borneo and other Malays. 



5. Fire thong. Rattan thong drawn over a grooved piece of wood. 

 Dyaks of Borneo. 



6. Fire plow. Blunt stick worked along a groove in a lower stick. 

 Polynesians. 



7. Fire drill. Slender rod twirled between the hands upon a lower 

 stick having a cavity with slot. Indians of the United States and 

 widely diffused in the world. 



8. Fire drill. Rod held in a socket and gyrated by means of a 

 cord. The lower piece of wood has a cavity with slot, opening upon 

 a shelf. Eskimo of Alaska. 



9. Fire drill. Rod held in a socket and gyrated with a bow and 

 cord. Lower piece with cavities on a central groove. Eskimo of 

 Alaska, 



10. Fire drill. Pump drill used specially for sacred fire. Iroquois 

 Indians, Canada. 



11. Strike-a-light. Flint and iron pyrites struck together as the 

 ordinary fhnt and steel. Eskimo of Alaska. 



'■•John Bartram's Travels. Dublin, 1793, pp, 449-450. The lighting of the fire which mystified Bartram 

 was from the fire buried under the council house, mentioned on p. 31. 

 «" See paper on this subject in Amer. Anthrop., vol. 6, April, 1893. 



