AKT. 14 FIRE-MAKING APPARATUS HOUGH 69 



retains fire for a long time. It is the root of the Ulmus campestris, 

 or laevis, formerly used for the fire drill, but has come into a second- 

 ary place since the introduction of the flint and steel. 



To strike a light the Aino takes out the cork with the steel attached 

 and stirs up the tinder with the sharp point. He then holds up the 

 flint in his hand over the box and strikes a spark down into it. He 

 then transfers the coal to his pipe, or material for fire, or fire stick, 

 with the point of the steel. These articles are kept in a rush pouch 

 of twined weaving. (Fig. 53.) A much ruder pouch of fishskin is in 

 the Museum. 



The Japanese tinder box has two compartments, one with a damper 

 for the tinder and the other larger one for the flint and steel. This 

 box is a familiar object in Japanese kitchens. The mounting of the 

 steel in wood is an improvement on holding it between the fingers. 

 (Fig. 55.) No one, it seems, ever thought of so mounting the 

 steel in western countries. The matches are broad shavings tipped 

 at both ends with sulphur, and are the Japanese rendering of the 

 "spunks" used with our tinder box. 



Smokers in Japan carry a very small strike-a-light. (Fig. 56.) 

 The cloth pouch with a long flap that can be rolled around several times 

 and tied contains the three essentials, flint, steel, and tinder, the 

 latter of burnt cotton. 



3. On bamboo — Under percussion is classed the bamboo and porce- 

 lain strike-a-light first described by Sir Alfred Russell Wallace as 

 used by the natives of Ternate, Malay Archipelago. Sir Alfred 

 remarks that the Ternate people make great use of bamboo in their 

 daily life and describes a particular method by which fire is struck 

 from the flinty surface of the bamboo with a small piece of broken 

 china, producing a spark which is caught on tinder. This apparatus 

 vies with the fire piston as fire-making curiosities. Necessarily the 

 method is confined to the bamboo area strictly, but has never been 

 found in the Western Hemisphere. The bamboo selected and from 

 which the specimens in the United States National Museum are 

 made has a rough surface layer feeling like fine sandpaper. This 

 coating is in the form of a flinty layer about one-half millimeter 

 thick which is chipped away in small bits under the stroke of the 

 china. The material of the layer is probably a combination of 

 silica with some organic substance rendering it capable of taking up 

 the force of the blow and converting it into heat sufiicient to ignite 

 tinder. The specimens in the Museum consist of a joint of bamboo 

 or cane, a tinder box of bamboo with cap lid, and hooped with 

 braided rattan. A cord passes through holes at the bottom, through 

 holes in the cap, and forms a loop to pass around the bamboo joint. 

 Some of the Battak tinder boxes are decorated with incised patterns. 

 The Battak specimens usually have two tinder boxes. 



