FIRE-MAKING APPARATUS. 53? 



in which a small hollow is cut with a channel for the ignited charcoal 

 to ruQ over. In a short time sparks begin to fall through the channel 

 upon finely frayed cedar bark placed underneath, which they soon 

 ignite." The Ahts and Haidas also use cedar fire-sticks of the usual 

 Indian kind. 



The Hupa Indians of California are of the Athapascan stock. Their 

 fire-drill is a carefully made piece of apparatus (fig. 5). The hearth is 

 of a reddish, punky piece, probably of mesquite, Prosopis juUflora, 

 somewhat harder than the drill, which is charred slightly for some dis- 

 tance along the grinding end. Fire has been made in one of the holes ; 

 the others show the rough, frayed cavities which have been made to 

 start the drill. The notches at each end of the hearth seem to be to 

 facilitate the tying of the pieces together as a precaution to prevent 

 their loss or separation. They are usually intrusted into the hands of 

 the most skillful -fire-maker, who wraps them up to keep them from be- 

 coming damp. The effectiveness of the sticks increases with use and 

 age ; a stick and hearth that have been charred by the former making 

 of fire in most cases yields the spark in half the time required for new 

 apparatus. Another advantage is that the drill is softer from incipient 

 decay. 



That this set is in the highest degree efficient is shown by the fact 

 that the writer repeatedly got a glowing coal, the size of a pea, from it 

 in less than twenty seconds. The hearth is 18 and the drill 21 inches 

 long. 



The McCloud River Indians (Copehan stock) make the drill from the 

 buckeye tree. 



The Indians of Washoe, Nevada, from their language, have been 

 classed by the Bureau of Ethnology as a separate stock, the Washoan. 

 Stephen Powers, many years ago collected a rather remarkable hearth 

 from these Indians. It has eight rather small holes, in every one of 

 which fire has been made. The wood is soft, well-seasoned pine. Ap- 

 parently sand has been made use of to get greater friction, as is the 

 custom of the Zunis and Apaches. This device, in a measure, obviates 

 the necessity of having tinder-like wood, or wood in a state of partial 

 decay. For the drill any hardwood cylindrical stick might be em- 

 ployed. A strip of buckskin about an inch wide is passed around the 

 hearth over the fire holes to keep them dry (fig. 6). 



At the end of the hearth is a mass of cement made of the resin of a 

 pine mixed with sand, apparently ; a kind of material used by the In- 

 dians over a large area in the Great Basin and southward to fix their 

 arrowheads, pitch the water-bottles, and for other purposes. It is quite 

 probable that this stick was the property of an arrow-maker, whose 

 need of fire to melt the somewhat intractable cement, caused him to 

 combine these functions in one tool. 



It has a better finish, and displays greater skill in its manufacture 

 than the fire-tools of the neighboring tribes of Shoshonian (Utes) and 



