32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.73 



Cat. No. 167094, Somalis, East Africa; William Astor Chanler; 24)4 

 inches long (61.5 cm.).) 



It is an anomaly that the African, to light the fire to smelt the iron 

 out of which he forges his remarkable weapons, should use sticks of 

 wood. 



An Australian fire set from New South Wales, collected in 1890 by 

 William Villiers Brown, is an example of the careful manner with which 

 the natives prepared and conserved their fire tools. The hearth is cut 

 from soft, worm-eaten wood in a presumably human outline. Three 

 sticks with vascular pith are tied to the hearth. The cut of such sticks 

 leaves a core in the center of the drilled cavity. (PI. 4, fig. 2, Cat. 

 No. 168116; hearth, 14)^ inches long, drills, 21 inches long.) 



2. Eslcimo four-part apparatus. — The arts of the Eskimo yield more 

 satisfactory results to students of comparative ethnology than those 

 of any other people. 



In all their range the culture is uniform; one finds this fact forced 

 upon his observation who has examined the series of specimens in the 

 National Museum, where they are arranged in order by localities from 

 Labrador to southern Alaska. Prof. Otis T. Mason's paper on Eskimo 

 throwing sticks ^^ gave a new interpretation to this fact and powerfully 

 forwarded the study of ethnology by showing the classificatory value 

 of the distribution of an art. 



Professor Mason points out that though the Eskimo culture is uni- 

 form in general, in particular the arts show the modification wrought 

 by surroundings and isolation — tribal individuality, it may be called — 

 and admit of the arrangement of this people into a number of groups 

 that have been subjected to these influences. 



The Eskimo fire-making tools in the Museum admit of an ethno- 

 graphic arrangement, but in this paper it is not found necessary to 

 make a close studj^ of this kind. From every locality whence the 

 Museum possesses a complete typical set it has been figured and 

 described. 



The Eskimo are not singular in using a four-part apparatus, but are 

 singular in the method of using it. The mouthpiece is the peculiar 

 feature that is found nowhere else. 



The drilling and fire-making set consists of four parts, as follows: 



The mouthpiece, sometimes a mere block of wood, ivory, or even 

 the simple concave vertebra of a fish or the astragalus of a caribou. 

 More often, they show great skill and care in their workmanship, being 

 carved with truth to resemble bear, seals, whales, and walrus. The 

 seal is the most common subject. The upper part is almost always 

 worked out into a block, forming a grip for the teeth. The extent to 

 which some of these are chewed attests the power of the Eskimo jaw. 



" Throwing sticks in the National Museum. Smithsonian Report, vol. 2, p. 279, 1884. 



