116 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



hang it up over smoke fires and dry it in that way, 

 but the ordinary way of using tobacco is for the native 

 to take a green leaf from the tobacco shrub and bruise 

 it and then throw it on hot coals until it is dry, and 

 then shred it and smoke it in a bamboo pipe. Fresh 

 tobacco prepared in this way is not at all unpleasant 

 to smoke, and my Malay servant used to make me 

 quite decent cigars of native tobacco. 



These hill tribes of New Guinea have a very quick 

 method of making a fire. They cut a species of 

 lawyer cane into about three-feet lengths and twist it 

 into rings, of which they will carry some half-dozen 

 or so on each arm. These lengths of vine are called 

 " New Guinea matches." When a native wishes to 

 make a fire he takes from his arm one of these rings 

 and then chooses a bit of very dry wood which he 

 splits half way down. His next step is to make a 

 tinder of a little shred of tapa cloth, which he puts 

 into the slit of the wood. The piece of wood is then 

 laid on the ground and steadied with the native's 

 foot, and the length of dried vine passed under it, 

 and drawn very quickly to and fro. The friction 

 generates enough heat to set the tapa tinder aflame 

 in a very few seconds. 1 



1 I have already quoted in a previous footnote from the observa- 

 tions of the Hon. M. S. C. Smith on the hill tribes in the Kikori 

 division. His record of this method of fire-making (which is 

 far more generally known among the natives than he supposed) 

 is as follows 



" Their method of making fire is superior to the usual Papuan 



