THE FIRE PISTON—BALFOUR. 571 
Burma.—In this region the fire piston is principally associated with 
the Kachin (Kachyen, Kakhyen, or Kakyen) people, and the forms 
vary as regards the materials used in their construction. The eylin- 
ders may be of bamboo, wood, or horn, the pistons or “ plungers ” 
are either of wood or horn, or are made of a combination of both 
materials. In all, the heat is produced by simple compression of the 
air in the tube, and I have seen no examples in which the air is forced 
~ through a duct. 
Four examples were collected for me by my friend, Mr. H. E. Leve- 
son, from the Kachins, on the Chinese border of the northern Shan 
States (lat. 24° 7° N., long. 98° 15’ E.), nearly due east of Bhamo. 
These are interesting on account of their rude and simple structure. 
Kach (figs. 8, 9,10) consists of a natural tube of stout-walled bamboo, 
closed near the lower end by a natural node. The “ plunger” is of 
wood, with a large roughly shaped head. One of the heads is hex- 
agonal, each facet being decorated with chip carving (fig. 10). The 
lower end is cupped to form a receptacle for the tinder, and is packed 
with fine thread coated with wax (?). Two very similar specimens 
from the Shans of upper Burma are in the Ethnological Museum at 
Cambridge. 
A better made example, though still composed of the same mate- 
rials (fig. 11), was collected for me by Mr. Leveson from the Wa 
villagers in East Mangliin (Mong-lem), on the Chinese frontier, 
22° 20’ N., 99° 10’ E. The bamboo tube is neatly finished off, and 
the “ plunger ” is of very hard wood, with exceptionally large head 
accurately shaped. Another specimen in my possession (fig. 12) 
having a cylinder of bamboo is somewhat more pretentious, the 
cylinder being carved in a decorative form; the wooden “ plunger ” 
is unusually long and tapering. This example was obtained by Mr. 
Frank Atlay at the Ruby mines, Mogok, and kindly given to me. 
A small cloth bag containing vegetable-floss tinder belongs to this 
specimen, with which I have been able to produce fire with consider- 
able ease on many occasions. 
In the Ethnological Museum at Rome aré several very rudely 
constructed examples of wood and horn, collected by Leonardo Fea 
from the Kachins (Cowlie Kachins) and Shans in the neighborhood 
of Bhamo, chiefly to the east of that town. These (figs. 13, 14, 15, 16 
on pl. m1) differ somewhat from the types most commonly seen from 
Burma. In all of them the cylinder is of stout buffalo horn, either 
light or dark colored, cut from the solid tip of the horn. In two 
of them (fig. 13) a pair of flanges are raised upon the surface near 
the top, and a carrying cord is knotted through these flanges. A 
similar pair of perforated flanges appear on a specimen in the British 
Museum. In these two examples the “plunger” is of hard wood, 
