FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTUEE 115 



early as the third century B. C. It is seen on examination of a large 

 series of strike-a-lights that the file has been an important agency in 

 furnishing the necessary metal in all corners of the earth. From a 

 general review of the subject it may be concluded that in earlier times 

 the fhnt and steel was quite limited, and that its wider adoption was 

 due to trade and intercourse. 



America. — The strike-a-light in the Western Hemisphere is an 

 example of the recent introduction of flint and steel. Explorers, 

 traders, and settlers brought it from Europe, and the older methods 

 rapidly passed out of use except in isolated places and for cult pur- 

 poses. Matches still further displaced the native method and also 

 the flint and steel, so that there is no tribe in. North America relying 

 upon wood friction to produce common fire. 



The Eskimo of Alaska, on account of their isolation, had little 

 opportunity to acquire steels, and there are few instances of its use 

 among these tribes before the great gold rush which introduced 

 matches as a substitute for the fire drill. The Tinne and North- 

 west coast tribes had become familiar with flint and steel, the first 

 tribe through commerce with the Hudson Bay Company and the 

 second by way of the sea. The Algonkians to the east had the flint and 

 steel early from the French explorers, traders, and missionaries, and 

 under similar influences the Plains tribes discarded fire sticks and 

 took up this new method and rapidly made it their own. The tribes 

 of the East also curly received the flint and steel from the Enghsh 

 and French, and discarded the old methods with the same facility as 

 the stone arrowhead. A similar state of affairs is seen among the 

 southern tribes, where French influence was prominent. In the vast 

 extent of Texas steels were not easily obtained, and some tribes 

 possessed them while others continued the use of fire sticks. The 

 Pueblo region, which was the first touched by white men, proved 

 most conservative and never adopted the flint and steel. Here only 

 recently fire sticks were supplanted by matches. As a rule, in CaU- 

 fornia and on the Pacific coast generally the flint and steel was not 

 used, and fire sticks remained in vogue among the Indians later in 

 this region than in any other part of North America. 



In Mexico among the more modified peoples the flint and steel 

 was common, and among the wild tribes it was rarely found. Here 

 the apparatus shows its Spanish origin. 



In Central and South America the steel was found mainly in the 

 possession of the people of European antecedents, and was rarely 

 employed by the uncivilized tribes, and then by those living on the 

 routes of commerce. 



In the New World the commerce in steels and flints of European 

 origin was important. The great bulk of flints for guns, pistols, and 

 102837—26 9 



