CHAPTER VI 



FIRE AND ITS USES 

 Fire is a good servant and a bad master. OLD DANISH PROVERB 



It is difficult to say which of the discoveries primitive man 

 made in his gradual conquest of nature was most important, yet 

 certainly the ability to make and utilize fire was one of the most 

 important, possibly the most important. It added very greatly 

 to his creature comforts, and opened up the way to a multitude 

 of added discoveries in the arts and industries. 



Undoubtedly he came to use fire before he knew how to make 

 it. Possibly he took it from some red-hot lava stream, some 

 flaming vent of natural gas that flowed in his neighborhood, from 

 a forest fire started by lightning. Once he knew its value, he 

 guarded the glowing embers with jealous care. It seems to have 

 been one of the functions of the early priestly caste to keep the 

 fire blazing, and that blaze may well have been regarded as 

 sacred, so important was its continuance in the life of the com- 

 munity. Possibly the savage went to the sacred places to renew 

 his own home fire. In the pioneer days in our own country it 

 was no uncommon thing to go miles to the nearest neighbor to 

 borrow fire to start the blaze on the hearth when it accidentally 

 went out. Even in historic times savage peoples have been found 

 who did not know the use of fire. Magellan in his exploring 

 trips found such on islands of the Pacific. 



In these modern days when we start a fire so easily with a 

 match it is difficult to realize that the match is a recent invention, 

 and that for many centuries flint, steel, and tinder box were used 

 to start a fire, or possibly the fire stick, the fire drill, or some such 

 cumbersome device. There are still primitive peoples that use 

 the fire stick and fire drills. The former is a sharp-pointed stick 



