FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 121 



Heariie gives a detailed account of tlie tinder of tlie Athapascans 

 of western Canada: 



"Westward to procm-e birch rind for making two canoes, some 

 of the fungus that grows on the outside of the birch tree, which is 

 used by all the Indians in those parts for tinder. There are two 

 sorts of these funguses which grow on the birch tree; one is hard, 

 the useful part of which much resembles rhubarb, the other is soft 

 and smooth hke velvet on the outside, and when laid on hot ashes 

 for some time and well beaten between two stones is something like 

 spunk. The former is called by the northern Indians jolt-thee, and 

 is known all over the country bordering on Hudson's Bay by th8 

 name of pesogan, it being so called by the southern Indians. The 

 latter is onl}' used by the northern tribes, and is called by them 

 ' Clalte-ad-dec.' The Indians, both northern and southern, have 

 found by experience that by boiling the pesogan in water for a con- 

 siderable time the textui-e is so much improved that when thoroughly 

 dried some part of it will be nearly as soft as spunge. Some of those 

 funguses are as large as a man's head; the outside, which is very hard 

 and black, and much indented with deep cracks, being of no use, is 

 always chopped off with a hatchet. Besides the two sorts of touch- 

 wood already mentioned, there is another kind of it in those parts 

 that I think is infinitely preferable to either. This is foimd in old 

 decayed poplars and lies in flakes of various sizes and thickness; 

 some is not tliicker than shamoy leather, others are as thick as a 

 shoe sole. This like the fungus of the bu'ch tree, is always moist 

 when taken from tree, but when dry it is very soft and flexible and 

 takes fire readily from the spark of a steel; but it is much improved 

 by being kept dr}^ in a bag that has contained gunpowder. It is 

 rather surprising that the Indians, whose mode of life I have just 

 been describing, have never acquired the method of making fh-e by 

 friction, like the Esquimaux." ^^ 



In the region of the giant cedar the Indians often make tinder from 

 the finely shredded bark. The Tlinkit of Alaska prepared tinder from 

 a polyporus fungus. In the east the Iroquois use a species of fungus 

 wliich grows on the maple, or a kind that is considered inferior grow- 

 ing on the bu'ch. "^ 



The Sioux Indians collected a fungus which grows as a membrane 

 in the hollow of a decayed tree. This makes the best tinder.^* 



The Apache Indians of Ai'izona use tinder made from two varieties 

 of dried fungi, one gi-owing on trees and the other the common puff- 

 ball. The vSouthern Plains Indians struck sparks into soft, decayed 

 wood. In Mexico little packets of thin sheets of fungus steeped in 



"Samuel Hearne. Journey, etc., London, 1795, p. 278. 



"Sir Daniel Wilson. Prehistoric Man, vol. 1, London, I860, p. 132. 



''Information l)y Francis La Flesche. 



