106 BULLETIN 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



by a spark or two, soon appears; with some very dry grass and a 

 little 'blowing' this is soon fanned into a flame. 



"6. Rubbing one stick over another like a saw (fig. 245). The 

 fixed piece of the preceding is here replaced by a piece split at its 

 extremity, into which a wedge (a) is placed so as to allow of some 

 fine dry grass, etc., (b) being placed and firmly clutched in the fork 

 (c) so produced. Across the edges of the split a more or less deep 

 notch (d) is cut, along which another piece of wood with an angular 

 edge made to fit is rapidly rubbed forwards and backwards. The 

 horizontal piece, what with the attrition, becomes pulverized and 

 heated at the notch, so that sparks soon arise and catch on to the 

 grass which thus becomes ignited. 



"As a rule these fire sticks ('Pitta-Pitta toor-kin-je') are thrown 

 aside or discarded after use. They are made only as they are wanted, 

 and in these districts are certainly not to be seen carried about for 

 future use. The particular timber of which they are made seems to 

 vary, though the root portion is said to be usually requisitioned. It 

 is said to be a kind of 'boxwood,' at other times 'lavender' wood, 

 sometimes 'wild orange.""^ 



The aboriginals of New South Wales saw across a billet of wood 

 in which a longitudinal groove has been cut, and the friction thus 

 occurs on the two margins of the hearth. J. F, Hobbs informs the 

 writer that it is customary to tie shredded grass to the sides of the 

 hearth and to put tinder in the groove. The method is described 

 by John Frazer. ^* 



The combination of the saw and groove in the Austrahan specimen 

 is suggestive of an ancestral invention. 



ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE FIRE THONG 



Following the fire saw is another method in which a thong of rat- 

 tan or other flexible liana is used to produce fire by friction. This 

 subject has been monographed in a most praiseworthy piece of work 

 by Henry Balfour. ^^ Mr. Balfour traces and illustrates the method 

 in Asia, Africa, and Europe. The eastern area extends from Assam 

 to New Guinea; a doubtful occurrence among the Ba Kele of the 

 Ogowe River district, West Africa; and a rather extensive use in 

 folk practice in northern Europe. Mr. Balfour regards the rigid 

 fire saw and the thong as closely related, the former probably the 

 original method. 



"Walter E. Roth. Ethnological Studies Among the North- West-Central Queensland Aborigines. 

 Published by Queensland Agent General's OflBce, London, 1897, p. 105. 



15 The Aborigines of New South Wales, Sydney, 1892, pp. 57-58. 



'9 Frictional Fire-Making With a Flexible Sawing Thong. Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vol. 44, January-June, 

 1914, pp. 32-64. 



