ART. 14 riBE-MAKING APPARATUS HOUGH 7 



the culmination of the effort the rubbing stick is raised to a higher 

 angle so that it will bite more strongly. 



The fire saw offers another curious method which is nearer to the fire 

 plow than to the drill. The fire saw is almost invariably of bamboo, 

 to which the method conveniently adapts itself. A bamboo joint is 

 split into halves; from one is fashioned the sawing part in form of a 

 strip with a sharpened edge. In the concave of the other half a few 

 slivers are raised to hold a piece of tinder. This is set on the ground 

 convex side up and the saw is swiftly rubbed across at right angles and 

 over the the cage holding the tinder. The saw soon cuts through the 

 wall of the bamboo and at its hottest comes into contact with the 

 tinder, which is ignited. 



A related form is the fire-thong apparatus, which consists of a stick 

 either split and wedged apart, as shown in Plate 9, or having a horizontal 

 slot cut through the middle. A bit of tinder is stuck in the slot; the 

 cord, which is a rattan length, is passed under the stick at the tinder 

 and pulled up and down, shortly igniting the tinder. 



QUALITIES OF WOOD 



It is found by experience that the qualities rendering wood suitable 

 or not for fire making are as follows: Wood with fine grain, or without 

 grain, as in deadwood, and wood decomposed to a certain extent, and 

 stalks of yucca and other vascular flower stalks are to be chosen; 

 new wood, or wood containing certain products of growth, such as 

 gums, resins, starches, sugars, and tannic acid, will not produce a fine, 

 dry, inflammable powder; and, in general, hardwoods are to be 

 rejected. 



In selecting wood judgment must be exercised after the manner of 

 aboriginal man, who desired wood that was dry, soft, of proper grain, 

 and inflammable, and as a result his selection was nearly always of 

 deadwood. Some woods, however, thoroughly dried and seasoned, 

 will answ^er very well. In many cases wood must be tested with the 

 drill and discarded if the dust rubbed between the fingers is gritty. 

 Also, one part only of the chosen wood may be good. 



The following American woods are suggested for fire making. 

 Those queried may be valuable if in proper condition as mentioned. 

 Hemlock, willow, elm, soft maple, sycamore, tulip (?), cedar, cotton- 

 wood, balsam (?) ; poplar, silver, Lombardy ; white pine (?) and yucca, 

 flowering stalk. 



There are introduced here the explanation of two plates of a series 

 exhibited in the United States National Museum illustrating the pre- 

 sumed development of the art of fire making.^ 



» Extracted from Proceedings, U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 60, No. 2404, 1922, pis. 1 and 2. 



