ART. 14 



FIEE-MAKING APPARATUS — HOUGH 



27 



part, "fire cuts wood Meiji 35 years November 

 27," the probable date of thft Harvest Festival of 

 thanksgiving and production of new fire. (PI. 3, 

 Figs. 1, 2.) 



In the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan 

 for 1876 (vol. 2, p. 223) a sacred fire hearth is de- 

 scribed as having a step as observed in some Eskimo 

 forms. This feature has been taken to be a usage 

 required by the environment of the high north. In 

 Japan, however, it may refer to the collecting and 

 saving of the ground-off dust for healing or other 

 esoteric purposes. 



In reference to the use of the sacred fire drill, the 

 following data have been supplied by Romyn Hitch- 

 cock : 



The fire drill is used at the festivals of the Oyashiro to pro- 

 duce fire for use in cooking the food offered to the gods. 

 Until the temple was examined officially in 1872 the head 

 priest used it for preparing his private meals at all times. 

 Since then it has been used only at festivals and in the head 

 priest's house on the eve of festivals, when he purifies himself 

 for their celebration in the Imbidous, or room for preparing 

 holy fire, where he makes the fire and prepares the food. 



The art of fire making by sticks of wood by the 

 method of rotation is, or has been, as far as we know, 

 universal on the African Continent as it was in the 

 two Americas at the time of the discovery. It is 

 presumable that the ancient Egyptians who had the 

 bow drill used this implement and previous to its 

 invention used the simple drill. 



The Somalis are a pastoral people of Arab extrac- 

 tion, inhabiting a large maritime country south of 

 the Gulf of Aden. Their fire sticks (fig. 17) are 

 pieces of branches of brownish "wood of equal tex- 

 ture, in fact the hearth has formerly been used as a 

 drill, as may be seen by its regularly formed and 

 charred end. This is another proof that it is not nec- 

 essary that the sticks should be of different degrees 

 of hardness. The grain of the wood, that of the 

 drill being against and the hearth with the grain, 

 in effect accomplishes what the use of wood of differ- 

 ent qualities results in. The hearth and drill are in 

 the neighborhood of 12 inches long, the former with 

 a diameter of three-eighths of an inch and the latter 

 one-fourth of an inch. They were collected by Dr. 

 Charles Pickering in 1843. 



It is possible that the Somalis may have car- 

 ried this method with them from Arabia. They 



Fig. 17. — Fikb-mak- 

 iNG SET. Cat, 

 No. 12 9 9 7 1, 

 U.S.N.M. Somal- 

 is, East Africa. 

 Collected b t 

 Dr. Charles 

 Pickering. Lent 

 BT Peabody Mu- 

 seum THROUGH 



F. W. Putnam 



