THE FIRE PISTON—BALFOUR. 5838 
tjatok; mentjatok=struck down quickly or with force. The word 
is the same as tjatoew given as the Malayan name of the instrument 
in Sumatra. 
Flores—F¥rom this island there is a fire piston in the Vienna 
Museum (fig. 42). It is made of horn, and is peculiar in having 
a rounded receptacle for tinder at the lower end of the cylinder, in- 
stead of in the knob of the piston. 
John Cameron says, as quoted above, that prior to 1865 he saw 
the fire piston in use in some of the islands to the eastward of Java, 
so that we may assume that other islands in the neighborhood of 
Flores possessed the instrument at that time. Unfortuately, he 
does not specify the localities. 
Philippine Islands.—The fire piston as it occurs in the Philippines 
appears to be restricted mainly to the wild non-Negrito tribes of 
north central Luzon, where it is used by natives of the so-called 
“Tndonesian” group. It is also recorded from Mindanao, however. 
H. Savage Landor says:* “ This instrument, called Bantin, gener- 
ally made of carabao horn, is found among various tribes of North 
Luzon, and also in South Luzon, among the curly-headed Aetas of 
the Gulf of Ragay. * * *” He does not specify the particular 
tribes in the north, and it is unfortunate that he does not say if his 
information regarding the Aetas is first-hand or not. I have found 
no other references to fire pistons among tribes of Negrito stock, 
and further information is required on this point. A. E. Jenks re- 
marks” that “the fire syringe, common west of Bontoc Province 
among the Tinguian, is not known in the Bontoc culture area.” 
Others extend the distribution into the Bontoc area, and beyond it 
into the more central portions of the interior of North Luzon. Doctor 
Schadenberg mentions ° their use by the Bontoc people, and describes 
the cylinder as of carabao (buffalo) horn tip, c. 9 em. long with a 
bore of about 1 cm. The fire piston, together with a box for grease 
and tinder of charred cotton, is carried in a pouch woven from 
bejuco. He adds that the natives value them very greatly and require 
a high equivalent in exchange. 
In the Dresden Museum there are two specimens. Of these, one, 
from the Igorrotes of Bontoe (fig. 43), has a cylinder of wood taper- 
ing from below upward; the other (fig. 44), from the Igorrotes of 
Tiagan, is very similar, but is made of horn. Each has a separate 
“ Gems of the East, 1904, IT, p. 3384. 
>The Bontok Igorrot, Manila, 1905, p. 134. (Department of the Interior, 
Ethnol. Survey Publications, Vol. I.) 
€ Verliandl. d. Berliner Gesell. f. Anthrop., 1886, p. [551], in Zeit. f. Ethnol., 
Vol, XVIII. 
41780—08—1 
