FIKE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 117 



Nordeiiskijold says: "They light fire by flint and steel of a form 

 of Siberian or Russ-Siberian origin. The flint is a beautiful chalced- 

 ony or agate. As tinder are used partly the woolly hair of various 

 animals, partly dry fragments of different kinds of plants. The 

 steel and a large number of pieces of flint are kept in a sldn pouch 

 suspended from the neck. Within this pouch there is a smaller one 

 containing the tinder. It is thus kept warm by the heat of the body 

 and protected from wet by its double envelope. Along with it the 

 men often carry on their persons a sort of match of white, well 

 dried, and crushed willows, which are plaited together and placed 

 in even rolls. This match bm-ns slowly, evenly, and well." ^^ 



The Buriats use the Chinese pouch form of strike-a-light : 



"The Buriat implements for striking fire used to be preferred to 

 European, and commanded a high price among the Russians. They 

 are made of plates of the best-tempered steel, from 4 to 6 inches long, 

 stitched to a bag for holding the tinder, the bag being of red leather 

 and tastefully ornamented with silver and steel bangles. The English 

 and Swedish matches have now driven them out of the Russian 

 market." ^« 



The northern Chinese strike-a-light consists of a steel of C shape, 

 a bit of worked flint, and a bamboo tube to hold yellow paper tinder. *'' 

 Another form consists of a curved steel with a perforation for a cord 

 by which it is secured to a knit bag containing the tinder and flints. 

 These strike-a-lights are purely local Chinese forms. The type used 

 pretty generally in China is a small leather pouch with a flap having 

 the steel fastened in the lower edge, and is much less ornate than 

 Mongolian specimens. 



The Japanese strike-a-light, such as is kept in the house, consists 

 of a blade of steel with two sharpened prongs driven into a block of 

 wood, a flint, and a bundle of splint matches tipped with sulphur, 

 all kept in an oblong box, one section having a wooden damper for 

 the tinder. The pocket form consists of a little bag containing 

 the necessary parts. A specimen collected among the Aino of 

 Hokkaido Island has a curved steel blade secured to a cylindrical 

 piece of wood with iron bands. A ring in the wooden part serves to 

 attach a cord bag and carved wood tinder box. The specimen is 

 evidently Japanese. The Aino strike-a-light has a steel resembling 

 an irregularly shaped lancehead with a hole near one edge for the 

 passage of a cord to which is attached a tinder box made of a section 

 of a stem with bark like a cherry tree. 



The Siamese strike-a— light seen has an oblong thick steel with 

 rounded ends, probably worked from a file. The steel is kept in a 



« Baron N. A. E. Nodenskijold. Voyage of the Vega, vol. 2, London, 1881, pp. 120-121. 

 *« Henry Lansdell. Through Siberia, Boston, 1882, pp. 368-309. 

 *' Information by W. W. Hockhill. 



