208 BULLETIN 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



SO put on that the torch in burning will not come unbound. At the 

 upper end the rattan is twisted in loops for ease in lighting (pi. 33, 

 fig. 4). 



Among the Bagobo of Mindanao, Philippines: "As soon as the 

 sun set great torches of almaciga (gum mastic) were lighted and 

 placed in crude but ingenious candlesticks round the circle. The 

 candlesticks were nothing more than three-pronged tree forks, wliich 

 when laid on the floor left one prong sticking up. This was split at 

 the end and the torch inserted at the necessary angle to insure its 

 burning." ^^ 



The Bagobo of Davao, eastern Mindanao, also make after the 

 Polynesian fashion torches of viao nuts, which the natives use as 

 candles by impaling a dozen or so of them upon a slender piece of 

 bamboo. These nuts are so full of oil that they burn readily. 



The Burmese use a torch made by wrapping rotten wood soaked 

 with native rock oil in palm leaf. It is bound as the dammar 

 torches with rattan withes. ^^ A Burmese resin-bundle torch is shown 

 in Plate 33, Figure 2. 



Dammar torch holders of several forms are found in the East Indies. 

 The Dyaks of Long Puti, Borneo, construct a cylindrical basket of 

 of bamboo for holding dammar torches kept constantly burning 

 beside the dead.^^ 



In Simalur Island a torch chandelier is hung up in houses, and in 

 Nias Island the dammar torch is clamped between two strips of wood 

 held in a wooden upright arising from a base. Torch holders vari- 

 ously devised are common in the Philippines. 



AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 



In Australia torches are made of bark or grass and used by the 

 aborigines when they travel at night. They are afraid of the dark. ^ 



Along the coast of New Zealand the mutton fish is burned as a 

 torch." 



CANDLES 



The use of a wick separates the candle from the torch. It is sug- 

 gested that the development of the torch at its proximal stages shows 

 inventions which may be regarded as prototypes of the candle, but 

 the development of the essential wick is never obscure. Beyond 

 doubt the wick is a result of many experiments during the stage when 

 the torch was being modified to produce a less objectionable light in 

 confined spaces, as in a habitation. 



33 Phelps Whitmarsh. The Ascent of Mount Apo, The Outlook, New York, Mar. 23, 1901, p. 679. 



8* Information by Kev. L. M. Luther. 



» Carl Bock. Head Hunters of Borneo, London, 1881, p. 142. 



8« Information by Carl Lumholtz. 



•'Information by I. B. Millner. 



