542 



EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



them to the list of peoples who have held it in similar reverance and 



have practiced similar customs all over the world, 



ranging- widely in time. The wetting of the drill, 



increasing their labor, may be done to please their 



Gods. 



This art must have been practiced for a long time 

 in this region, for Mr. Henry Metcalf found a hearth 

 (Fig. 13) with three fire-holes in a cave-dwelling at 

 Silver City, New Mexico. It is apparently very an- 

 cient. The wood is much altered and has become 

 heavy by impregnation with some salt, probably niter. 

 The Apaches and Navajos belong to the great Atha- 

 pascan stock, that ranges so widely in North America. 

 Capt. John G. Bourke, U. S. Army^ collected the 

 hearth of yucca wood shown (Fig. 14), and says : 



With the stick you now see, the Apache Indians in my pres- 

 ence made fire in not quite eight seconds by the watch, and one 

 asserted that he could make it in a number 

 of motions, which, on the watch, occupied 

 exactly two seconds, that is, under most 

 favorable circumstances. The experiments, 

 made under my own observation, ran all 

 the way from eight to forty-seven seconds; 

 sand is generally used, although not essen- 

 tial to success. 



Captain Bourke's observation is 

 very interesting, as it records the 

 fact that the Apache is the most 

 skillful fire -maker in the world. 

 Many other tribes can make fire in 

 less than a minute; I think by far 

 the majority of them, but there is no 

 eight-second record, while if he could 

 prove his ability to do it in two sec- 

 onds he would arrive at the facility 

 of striking a match. 



Mr. William F. Corbusier has no- 

 ticed the fire-making of the Apache- 

 Yumas of Arizona ( Yumau stock).* 

 They use a drill about 2 feet long 

 and one-half inch thick, made of 

 o-oh-Tcad-je, or "Fire-stick bush." Its 

 end is dipped in sand and drilled on 

 a sott piece of agave or yucc^ st^-ll^; 

 held down by the feet, They mvvy 



Fig, 13. 



rig, u. 



^''^MAV^aR.l^^^^- ^ slow torch of dead wood (spunk) ^wwsspieos o'^mm 



, MAKIXG SjlT, 



'V^aMtM^ ^American Antiquarian. ;M^nd0«, mU ^%.^ f^i^J^: l^it 



{**W Me«icn._t,c.llact«a Djr .,,.„• ^ fi<.„+^.v,lw-,« t DOfl . — , „ «r,r. Collected by Capt, MB tir 



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