316 THE HUMAN SPECIES 



Manu (man). Pramatta (or matta) is the reed, the fire-stick 

 of the ancient Brahmins. The fire-stick is passed across the 

 centre of two pieces of wood fastened together at a right angle, 

 which form the ancient sign of the hooked cross. It is used to- 

 day in a more or less elaborate form by the Polynesians, the 

 Botokus and the Indians in Guiana, the Veddahs in Ceylon, 

 the Bushmen, the Kaffirs and Hottentots of South Africa, and 

 the Australians. Not long ago the aborigines in the Antilles 

 and the littoral tribes in South America obtained their fire in 

 this way. The ancient Germans, however, and other Aryan 

 races had improved the fire-stick by twisting a cord round the 

 perpendicular stick which was wound and unwound by pulling 

 upon it. The inhabitants of Dakota, Iroques and the Aleutians 

 employ a similar device at the present time. 



The second method of obtaining fire was by striking together 

 flint stones and so producing sparks which were dropped on to 

 some easily kindled substance, such as tinder, and then blown 

 into a flame. This method is of great antiquity, and goes back 

 to prehistoric times. Sir John Lubbock {Prehist. Times, 1865, 

 No. 473 f.) imagines that man discovered this in the course of 

 manufacturing flint implements, heat and sparks being developed 

 when the stones were struck together. It is certain that quite 

 early in the flint graves of Suffolk and Norfolk there were 

 people who had known how to produce sparks on dry moss by 

 striking flints together, but only those which had fresh, sharply 

 cut edges. In other cases good sparks were obtained, and there 

 was a characteristic smell of burning, but the sparks did not 

 fall on to the tinder. For this purpose, flints covered with 

 sulphur must be used, as do the inhabitants of Alaska and the 

 Aleutes. Pyrites gives an even more certain result ; the Pata- 

 gonians, the Terra del Fuegians and the classical peoples of anti- 

 quity adopted this method. 



Flints in close proximity to pieces of pyrites are found in 

 palaeolithic settlements near the remains of mammoths. 



Still more frequent are such finds in the neolithic graves and 

 pallisade dwellings^ and in the barrows of the Bronze Age right 

 down to the Hallstatt period ; later on in the Alemannic serial 

 graves they are replaced by flint and steel. 



It fell_to the women to ^preserve the fire obtained in this 



