98 BULLETIN 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ceremonies. A specimen made from well-seasoned slippery elm was 

 obtained by J. N. B. Hewitt among the Onondagua on the Grand 

 River Reservation, Canada. The name is "ye yen ta ka nye tha" 

 (one rubs wood by which). This weighted drill is described by 

 Morgan: 



" This is an Indian invention and of gi-eat antiquity. Its rudeness 

 may excite a smile in this day of lucifer matches, but yet the step 

 backward to the steel and flint is about the same as from the latter 

 to the contrivance in question. Not knowing the use of metals 

 or of chemicals, it was the only method of creating fire known to 

 the red man. It consisted of an upright shaft about 4 feet in length 

 and an inch in diameter, with a small wheel set upon the lower 

 part to give it momentum. In a notch at the top of the shaft was 

 set a string attached to a bow about three feet in length. The lower 

 point rested upon pieces of punk. When ready to use the string is 

 first coiled around the shaft by turning it with the hand. The bow 

 is then pulled downwards, thus uncoiling the string and revolving 

 the shaft towards the left. By the momentum given to the wheel 

 the string is again drawn up. The bow is again pulled downwards, 

 recoiling it as before. This alternate revolution of the shaft is con- 

 tinued until sparks are emitted from the point, where it rests upon 

 the piece of dry wood below. Sparks are produced in a few moments 

 of the intensity of the friction, and ignite the punk, which speedily 

 furnishes a fire" '' (pi. 29, fig. 2). 



The simple drill was known by the Iroquois and served for ordi- 

 nary occasions. 



The Tinne Indians on the Yukon River near Holy Cross Mission 

 cut a cleft in the lower end of the drill spindle in which they press 

 tinder. The rotation of the drill is as usual, but the tinder ignites 

 instead of the ground-off wood meal and renders the getting of a 

 blaze somewhat easier and surer." 



EASTERN AND SOUTHERN INDIANS 



Roger WiUiams succinctly remarks that the Connecticut Indians 

 strike fire either with stones or sticks. John Smith says of the Vir- 

 ginia Indians: 



" Their fire they kindle presently by chafing a dry pointed stick in 

 a hole of a little square piece of wood that firing itself will so fire 

 mosse, leaves, or any such like dry thing that will quickly burn."^^ 



The Cherokees of North Carolinia made fire with a driU of reed 

 like an arrow. No trace of a pump drill occurs among these south- 

 ern Iroquois, giving rise to the assumption that this implement is of 

 modem introduction among the northern Iroquois, probably from 



« Lewis H. Morgan. League of the Iroquois, Rochester, 1851, pp. 381-382. 



M Information by P. B. Randolph, Seattle, Wash., 1899. 



•' English Scholars Library, No. 16, Capt. J. Smith's Works, p. 58. 



