FIBE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 109 



art of preservation of fire was more important with them than that 

 of making it anew with sticks.-* 



Prof. Frederick Starr clearly describes the plowing method in the 

 Congo: 



" The Batiia we saw here were little, but well built. We measured 

 two of them, both below the 1,500 millimeter limit; they are the two 

 rubbing fire in our picture, and are the first in the following table. 

 These little people regularly make fire by friction of wood. The 

 implements are a section of branch about an inch in diameter, 6 or 8 

 inches long, split lengthwise, and a stick of the same wood, about the 

 same length, bluntly pointed at the ends; both are somewhat charred 

 and black with smoke. The section is laid upon the ground so as to 

 slope slightly; a man with a leaf folded to protect his foot stands 

 upon the lower end of this stick to hold it firmly; a second man, 

 kneeling, holding the rubbing stick with both hands, sets the point 

 in a longitudinal groove freshly cut in the lower piece of wood, applies 

 considerable pressure and rubs briskly to and fro, rapidly deepening 

 and wearing the groove; smoke appears almost immediately, and a 

 spark soon glows in the fine dust that is rubbed out. Ndombe's 

 Batua also make fire by friction, but by the more common method 

 of whirling an upright stick between the palms, the lower bluntly 

 pointed end resting with pressure in a notch cut in a lower stick laid 

 on the ground. From 30 seconds to a minute is ample time for the 

 production of fire. In both regions the larger neighbors of the Batua 

 look with contempt upon the making of fire b}^ friction, as suited 

 only to the despised Batua."" 



M. Maurice Reygasse has discovered a fire plow in use by Berbers 

 in Aures near the oasis of Negrine, 150 kilometers south of Tebessa, 

 Algeria. The apparatus is described and figured by A. de Mortillet,^* 

 who compares it with similar apparatus used elsewhere. The mate- 

 rial is the fruit stem of the date palm. The Berbers use sand to 

 increase friction when making fire with the plow. M. de Mortillet 

 also sayes that Frederick Starr has observed the fire plow among the 

 Batuas of Belgian Congo, a dwarfish people with brown skin. 



ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE FIRE PISTON 



"When a body has its density increased its capacity for heat is 

 diminished. The rapid reduction of air to one-fifth of its volume 

 evolves heat sufficient to inflame tinder." " 



*« H. Ling Roth, assisted by Marion E. Butler and Jas. B. Walker. The Aborigines of Tasmania. 

 Halifax, England, 1889, pp. 183-184. 



»5 Frederick Starr. Ethnographic Notei from the Con^o Free State, Proe. Davenport Acad. Sci., 

 vol. 12, 1909, pp. 96-222. 



'•Bull, et Mem. Soc. d'Anthropologie de Paris, ser. 7, vol. 1, 1920, Nos. 4, 5, 6. 



»" Haswell. Engineer's Pocket Book, ed. 4, 1855, p. 198. 



