104 BULLETIN 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE FIRE SAW 



The fire saw, like the fire plow, to which it appears to be related, 

 is a rather circumscribed method, also centered in the East Indies, 

 but with a more or less erratic distribution, to Australia on the one 

 hand and to the Asiatic mainland on the other. Alfred Russell 

 Wallace describes fire making among the Malays by this method, 

 stating that a sharp-edged piece of bamboo is rubbed on a convex 

 piece on which a small notch is cut. In the course of the work the 

 convex piece is sawed through and the dust falls through on tinder 

 placed below (pi. 30, fig. 1).^^ 



D'Almeida says: "Referring to Javanese customs, before starting 

 on our return I felt desirous to smoke a cigar in order to 'keep the 

 cold out' but finding I had forgotten my fusee, I asked one of the 

 men if he could give me a fight. He immediately picked up a dried 

 piece of wood, and holding it fixed on the ground, asked one of his 

 companions to rub another across it. This being quickly done, in 

 less than five minutes the friction caused the upright piece to burn. 

 The man soon blew it into a flame and handed it to me. " ^^ 



PHILIPPINES 



Observations first hand on the details of the method among some 

 Philippine tribes bring out the following: The saw is usually held in 

 the hand and worked with a free-arm motion, as among some Negritos. 

 The Zambales Negritos reverse the order and rub the convex piece 

 on the saw. This reversal is often practiced among other Philippine 

 tribes using the method, and has much to recommend it in preventing 

 the loss of the coal of fire. The convex piece or hearth is nicked to 

 about the depth that will be cut through at the time of greatest 

 friction. Beneath the nick some slivers are started up, forming a 

 support for a bit of tinder. In working, the saw becomes dark brown 

 from friction and fibers silver off and are crowded through the slit 

 and impinge in a mass upon the tinder. The tinder is bamboo 

 scrapings rubbed well between the hands. For the fire saw bamboos 

 differ in quality, a thin-walled bamboo called "buyo" being best. 



The Negrito fire maker begins by scraping shavings from a bam- 

 boo post. He scoops a shallow depression in the ground and lays 

 the bamboo hearth across it, puts shavings underneath, puts his feet, 

 legs extended, across the ends, and saws with wonderfully quick 

 motion. The position seems very awkward, but it is not for the 

 Negrito. The Bagobos and Moros make fire this way. 



Sometimes the bamboo hearth is laid on a round stick, which gives 

 the operator better command of the spark. 



» A. R. Wallace. The Malay Archipelago, 1890, p. 332. 



" Wm. Barrington D'Almeida. Life in Java, vol.2, p. 277. Quoted in R. BrouKh Smyth's Aborig- 

 ines of Victoria, vol. 1, 1878, p. 399. 



