FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 205 



in the impedimenta of culture. Thus in 1893 the writer collected a 

 link consisting of a section of fiber rope dipped in resin, in use by the 

 repair gang in a tunnel on a Spanish railroad. It is probable that 

 such lighting device was an immemorial necessity in engineering 

 supplies and had been continued on the list of such supplies (pi. 33, 

 fig. 11). 



Link holders and extinguishers fastened in the wall near the en- 

 trances of great houses still may be seen in London, telling of the 

 time when the city was dependent on links for its lighting. The 

 flambeau of the Middle Ages was a twisted resin or wax soaked 

 torch 3 or 4 feet long. In the Biblia Pauperum, 1410, such a torch 

 is held in the hands of one of the celebrants of the Purification. " 

 The flambeau as illustrated in ancient sculpture appears to have 

 been a trumpet-shaped holder in the bell of which were thrust splints 

 of wood. Artemis holds such a flambeau. Properly the torch is a 

 larger flambeau, customarily in Europe made of cord soaked in resin, 

 as in the link. In Scotland an extemporized light was made by 

 twisting or plaiting cotton rags and dipping them in tallow. This 

 torch was called "ruffy," and when butter was used "butter ruffy." '* 

 The druid's torch is commonly represented of this form. Bog fir 

 was much used in Scotland for torches, and the splints when bm-nt 

 sepai'ately in iron holders were called fir candles. The bog fir was 

 found in the bog by probing. The fat pieces were selected, cut into 

 3 or 4 foot lengths, and these divided into strips an inch broad by a 

 knife called a fir gullie.^' 



An interesting chapter on obsolete illuminating devices may be 

 gathered from the dictionary. The Spanish word tea means candle- 

 wood, a resinous wood of any kind that burns hke a torch; teas ma- 

 ritates hymeneal torches, and tede'ro an iron candlestick for holding 

 burning fire or torch. The torch of flambeau or cresset type is an- 

 torcha and atorchero, a candlestick for tapers, etc. Hacha is a large 

 taper with four wicks, hacha de viento a flambeau, torch or link, and 

 pago de hacha a Hnk boy also the name of an ancient Spanish dance 

 in which probably torches were borne. Hacho denotes a fagot or 

 bundle of feather grass or straw covered with pitch or resin, for out- 

 door use. HacJion is also a large torch made of bass and pitch; it also 

 refers to a kind of altar on which bonfires are lighted for illumination. 

 Hachero is a torch stand or a large candlestick for tapers or torches. 



Devices for burning a mass of fuel for light were formerly used in 

 Europe. They were stationary, however, and not used as the basket 

 torches of the Near Eart. The fallot, of the fixed type, is a vessel in 

 which pitch, resin, and other combustibles are burnt. They were the 

 street fights of Paris in 1588. 



«' J. Ph. Berjean. London, 1849. Book 4. 



«8 D. Bruce Peebles. Trans. Roy. Scottish See. Arts, vol. 12, 1887, pt. 1, p. 96. 



« Idem, vol. 12, pt. 1, p. 92. 



