ART. 14 



FIEE-MAKING APPARATUS HOUGH 



53 



III. FIRE MAKING BY PLOWING 



One of the most marked of fire-making methods in its distribution 

 is that pursued by the Pacific Islanders, confined ahnost entirely to 

 the Polynesian cultural area. It has spread to other islands, however, 

 being met with among the Negritos of New Britain: 



They rub a sharpened piece of hard stick against the inside of a piece of dried 

 split bamboo. This has a natural dust that soon ignites. They use softwood 

 when no bamboo can be procured, but it talies longer to 

 ignite. The flame is fed with grass. ''^ 



There is a close connection between the Malay 

 sawing method and this, as there is a decided 

 Malay preponderance in the make-up of the pop- 

 ulation of the islands. 



The fire sticks shown (fig. 39) were procured by 

 Harold M. Sewall, at Samoa, and deposited in the 

 Museum by him. 



The wood is a light corky variety, characteristic 

 of the Parite tiliaceum, which is used for this pur- 

 pose at Tahiti and many other islands. The rub- 

 ber may be of some hardwood, although fire may 

 be made by means of a rubber of the same kind of 

 wood as that of the hearth, though no doubt it 

 requires a longer time to make fire if this is done. 

 In the Sandwich Islands, Franklin Hale Austin, 

 secretary of the King at that period, says that the 

 rubber is of "koh" or "ohia" — that is, hard- 

 wood — and the hearth of "koh," or softwood, and 

 the friction is always in softwoods; this is true, I 

 believe, everywhere this method is practiced, is in 

 spite of the fact that a soft rubber on hardwood 

 will asnwer as well. 



Lieut. William I. Moore, United States Navy, 

 gave the writer a complete description of the 

 manipulation of theSamoan fire-getting apparatus. 



The blunt-pointed stick is taken between the 

 clasped hands, somewhat as one takes a pen, and 

 projected forward from the body along the groove 

 at the greatest frictional angle consistent with the 

 forward motion which has been found to be from 

 40° to 45°. Kneeling on the stick the man forces the rubber forward, 

 slowly at first, with a range of perhaps 6 inches, till the wood begins 

 to be ground off and made to go into a little heap at the end of the 

 groove; then he gradually accelerates the speed and moves with a 

 shorter range until, when he pushes the stick with great velocity, the 



Fig. 39.— Fire-making 



STICKS (O showing 



Groove). Cat. No. 

 13067 5, U.S.N.M. 

 SoMOA. Deposited by 

 Harold M. Sewall 



«5W. Powell. Wanderings in a Wild Country, p. 206. 



