114 BULLETIN 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Weddal says that the Fuegians barter pyrites with the Tehuelches, 

 which would indicate that the latter tribe also struck fire by this 

 method.^^ The Tehuelches are also known to have used flint and 

 steel. 



ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE FLINT AND STEEL STRIKE-A-LIGHT 



There is a general consensus in the use of the term firestone for 

 flint. The Assyrian "abanisati" has this meaning.^^ It may be 

 pointed out, however, that the name for the flint does not indicate 

 the other part of the strike-a-liglit was steel, as it is known that the 

 earliest typo employed pyrites. While the wider distribution of the 

 flint and steel strike-a-light clearly depends upon the production of 

 steel in sufficient quantity, it is not argued that an ancient and lim- 

 ited use of steel for fire making could not have existed in the early 

 Iron Age. There appears to be no evidence of such use older than 

 among the Romans of the later Iron Age, the first notice in Utera- 

 ture being by Lucretius, 95-51 B. C. The Assyrians of 800 B. C. 

 were proficient iron workers, as were the Hindus of an early date, 

 but no employment of steel in fire making is noted. Similarly, in 

 Egypt, where the Iron Age has its oldest date, no strike-a-light has 

 been found. The oldest surviving steel for the strike-a-light, if the 

 identification is correct, was found in the pile dwellings of Ueber- 

 linger See and dates from the late Iron Age." 



As stated previously, the flint and steel strike-a-light owes its use- 

 fulness to that metal and not to iron, which is loosely considered as 

 equivalent to steel. Soft iron is not suitable for the "steel," and like- 

 wise meteoric iron, tested on the Canyon Diablo, Arizona, and Du- 

 rango, Mexico, irons through the courtesy of Dr. George P. Merrill. 

 The flint and steel apparatus, therefore, must be discussed in regard 

 to the manufacture of the metal which has superseded iron. This is 

 a difficult problem on account of the scarcity and questionableness 

 of the data. It is thought that steel made from iron by the cement- 

 ation process originated in India. This process consists of heating 

 iron in a closed vessel in presence of animal matter, such as skin and 

 horn, the effect being to form a layer of steel upon the iron. The 

 common term for the process is casehardening, and knives so treated 

 were called case knives. If the treatment was continued the whole 

 mass of the iron was converted into steel. It is not probable that 

 steel became abundant enough for use in striking fire till compara- 

 tively late in the Iron Age. Weapons consumed most of the steel 

 made, and its use for tools was probably mainly limited to chisels and 

 files. The Romans employed steel for these purposes probably as 



« Voyage Toward the South Pole, p. 167. 



" F, Delitzsch. Assyrian Q rammer, New York, 1889, p. 57. 



« FerdiDand Keller. Swiss Lake Dwellings, 1878, fig. 29, pi. 28. 



