222 NOTE ON A WEST AFRICAN " STRIKE-A-LIGHT." 



The tangs of the iron portitjn of the yVfrican specimen are 

 pierced in order to hinge it to a wire running through the lower 

 edge of the bag. I have not noticed that any of the Romano- 

 British period objects are similarly pierced, but it is easy to con- 

 ceive many ways in which these might have been fastened to a 

 leather bag or some similar object. The object shewn as Fig. 5 

 is especially suggestive of sucIt fastening. Moreover these 

 ancient iron objects are so rusted that any piercing would in all 

 probability be filled up. 



Most of the Asiatic strike-a-lights appear to have straight 

 blades ri vetted to the bag, along its length, with several small 

 rivets, the joint being covered with a band of brass. But I have 

 recently seen in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology a 

 specimen from Kashmir, which was presented by Mr. Edward 

 Lovett. 



Its native name is Chiie Iiiiw, or Fire pouch. By the kindness 

 of the Curator, Baron A. von Hiigel, I was able to examine it, 

 and was delighted to find, that, although rivetted like most 

 Asiastic specimens that I have seen, the blade has two tangs 

 exactly like the West African specimen, or the Romano-British 

 objects to which I have already referred. It is by means of 

 rivets, which pass from front to back, through the two tangs, 

 that the blade is fastened to the pouch. 



Whether the idea of the formation of the African specimen 

 is of native origin, or whether it has been introduced, it is still I 

 think an equally suggestive explanation of the objects belonging 

 to the Romano-British period.' 



I have also figured (Fig. 9) a Strike-a-light from China, 

 which was presented to the Geological Museum, Jermyn Street, 

 by the late Er. William Eockhart and was pointed out to me 

 by Mr Rudler. Not that this specimen bears directly on the 

 subject, but it is analogous in the form of the blade and serves 

 to show how widely this shape is distributed. A very similar 

 Fire Steel was found in a grave in GoUand, and is figured in 

 The Viking Age, Du Chaillu, Vol. 2, fig. 1361, p. 478. 



I Mr. Reader has kindly presented this object to the Club's Museum.— Ed. 



