100 BULLETIN 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the fire sticks. The art, however, was extensively revived among the 

 Plains Indians as one of the features of the Ghost Dance religion. 



SOUTHWEST 



The southwestern tribes were skillful in making fire with the sim- 

 ple fire drill. In many cases they expedited the friction by intro- 

 ducing sand in the cavity in the hearth. For making fire in the New 

 Fire Ceremony the Hopi used a unique hearth made of sandstone."® 



Cosmos Mindeleff saw a Navaho Indian on the San Juan River 

 near Farmington, New Mexico, make in five minutes a complete fire 

 maker's outfit from the stems of bee weed {Cleome pungens). The 

 hearth or horizontal part is the stem broken off near the root, slightly 

 chamfered on the upper and the inner side. Four slight pits on top 

 receive the drill; these let out into gutters down the inner side. The 

 operator put a pinch of fine sand in the cavity and piled up sand 

 against the inner side of the hearth to receive the wood meal. The 

 same cavity is never used twice. Among the Shoshones the gesture 

 for fire is the rubbing of the palms. 



Among the Apache-Yumas and Apache-Mohaves : "A very small 

 fire suflSces them, and they never waste wood by building large ones, 

 even in winter or when wood is very abundant. When cold one 

 warms himself by squatting down and wrapping liis blanket around 

 him and the fire. To kindle a fire they resorted to the fire drill be- 

 fore the introduction of the flint and steel and matches, but usually 

 preserved coals in the ashes to avoid the labor of drilling, '0-oh'te- 

 kwa-te,' 'Make the fire blazy,' is the common expression still used 

 even when the fire is to be kindled by means of a match. A slow 

 torch made of dry deadwood was carried in traveling. It enabled 

 them to make fire or smoke signals, by means of which they could 

 communicate with their friends at pleasure, as well as to kindle a 

 fire at their next stopping place. For a drill they use a piece of the 

 stem of the 'o-oh kad-je,' or 'fire stick bush,' about 2 feet long and 

 half an inch thick. They dip one end in the sand, then pressing it 

 in a shallow depression made in a piece of dry, soft wood, such as 

 the stalk of the yucca, which is laid on the ground and held by 

 the foot, whirl it between the hands. In a few seconds the friction 

 produces a small quantity of very fine charcoal, which when rolled 

 out on some dry grass or bark fiber and given a light puft' or two, 

 bursts into a flame." ^ 



NORTHWEST COAST 



The northwest coast Indians used the simple fire drill and often 

 carved the hearth in the form of mythologic beings. The apparatus 

 is larger and more clumsy than observed elsewhere. 



••Dr. J. Walter Fewkes. Joum. Amer. Folk-Lore, vol. 18, 1905 p. 194. 

 •Stephen Q. Peet. Amer. Antiquairan, Chicago, 1886, vol. 8, p. 283. 



