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PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 



VOL. 73 



Fig. 8. — Fike-mak- 

 iNG SET. Cat. 

 No. 119 7 6, 

 U.S.N.M. Pai- 

 Ute Indians. 

 SooTHBHN Utah. 

 Collected by J. 

 W. Powell 



head. It is suggested that the reason for sphcing 

 the drill is that the hardwood of the kind used for 

 the head (grease-wood) can not be procured in pieces 

 long enough to make the whole drill. This set is 

 apparently one used as a fixture in the Ute domestic 

 economy, the squaws having to light the fire. The 

 duty is mainly relegated to the females in several 

 other Indian tribes and among the Eskimo. Mr. 

 Catlin says that the Sioux objected to letting the 

 squaws have their portraits painted, saying that 

 their women had never taken scalps nor done any- 

 thing better than make fires and dress skins. ^ The 

 hearth and drill last figured are, respectively, 20 

 and 23 inches long, while in the hunting set (fig. 

 8) the length is 7 and 18 inches. 



The Wind River Shoshones are also represented. 

 (Fig. 9.) The hearth is of hardwood, rudely hacked 

 out and rounded. Upon the slanting edge are 

 eight holes or shallow depressions, prepared for the 

 drill, with notches cut in to meet them from the 

 sides. The drill is a willow branch, 25 inches long, 

 with a hardwood head mortised in, and served with 

 buckskin. It is most probable that sand was used 

 with this set, because, if the parts are not models, it 

 would be necessary to use it on sticks of equal hard- 

 ness like these. I am inclined to believe that they 

 are models, from their appearance and from the 

 difficulty of setting up a pyrogenic friction upon 

 them even with sand. They were collected more 

 than 50 years ago by Maj. J. W. Powell. 



The Hopi are the most differentiated members 

 of the Shoshonian stock. Mrs. M. C. Stevenson 

 collected the two excellent fire-making sets in the 

 Museum from the Hopi Pueblos. The hearth is a 

 branch of the very best quahty of softwood (cotton- 

 wood). In one hearth an end has been broken off, 

 but there still remain 18 fire holes, showing that it 

 was in use for a long time and highly prized. (Fig. 

 10.) The drill is a roughly dressed branch of 

 hardwood. It is comparatively easy to make fire 

 on this apparatus. In the set numbered 126694 

 these conditions are reversed; the hearth is toler- 

 ably hard wood and the drill soft wood. 



The Hopi fire tools are used now principally in 

 the estufas to light the sacred fire and the new fire 



' Smithsonian Report, 1885, pt. 2. p. 723. 



