14 



PEOCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 



VOL. 73 



Fio. 6.— Fire-mar 



INGSET. Cat. No. 

 19640. U.S.N. M. 

 Washoe Indians, 

 Nevada. Col- 

 lected BY Ste- 

 phen Powers 



custom of the Zunis and Apaches. This device, in a 

 measure, obviates the necessity of having tinderlike 

 wood, or wood in a state of partial decay. For the 

 drill any hardwood cylindrical stick might be employed. 

 A strip of buckskin about an inch wide is passed 

 around the hearth over the fireholes to keep them dry. 

 (Fig. 6.) 



At the end of the hearth is a mass of cement made of 

 the resin of a pine mLxed with sand, apparently, a kind 

 of material used by the Indians over a large area in the 

 Great Basin and southward to fix their arrowheads, 

 pitch the water bottles, and for other purposes. It is 

 quite probable that this stick was the property of an 

 arrow m.aker whose need of fire to melt the some- 

 what intractable cement caused him to combine these 

 functions in one tool. 



It has a better finish and displays greater skill in its 

 manufacture than the fire tools of the neighboring 

 tribes of Shoshonian (Utes) and Moquelumnian stocks. 

 In fact, it has a close affinity in appearance to those 

 of the very near Athapascan (Hupa, etc.) stock. It 

 is a matter of very great interest to compare with this 

 a stick from the Mackenzie River. (See fig. 26.) The 

 resemblance is striking ; it is as though one found a 

 word of familiar sound and import in an unexpected 

 place. The related tribes of the Indians dwelling on 

 the Mackenzie have a wider range than the distance 

 between the localities whence the respective sticks 

 came; in fact, the Athapascans range about 50° 

 in latitude and the southern colonies of this great 

 family are only about 250 miles southeast of the Wash- 

 oans, while, as has been stated, the Hupas are quite 

 near. 



It would be presumptuous to say at present that 

 this tool is a remnant of the influence of the Atha- 

 pascan wave that swept along the Great Interior 

 Basin, leaving groups here and there in California 

 and other parts to mark its progress, but there is 

 more to its credit than a coincidence of form and 

 function. 



The museum is in possession of a complete collection 

 of fire-making material from the tribes of the Shos- 

 honian stock. They were collected by Maj. J. W. 

 Powell. The native name for the Ute fire set is whu-tu 

 ni-weap. While the lower member of the set — the 



