550 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



ing- it between the bands, each one catching it in turn from the others 

 without allowing the motion to stop until smoke, and at last a spark of 

 tire is seen and caught in a piece of spunk, when there is great rejoicing 

 in the crowd."* The desperate exertion was not necessary, except in 

 imitation of the Zuni fashion of wetting the drill to create sacred fire. 



It will be seen from these references given that the Sioux used the 

 customary Indian method. Later, they may have used the bow to ex- 

 pedite the drill when the wood was intractable. The bow may have 

 been borrowed from more northern tribes, the Algonquians are said to 

 use it;t Mr. Thomas G. Battey says that the Sac-Fox Indians (Al- 

 gonquian stock) used a soft wood drill and a hard wood hearth. " The 

 drill was worked by a bow and the fire caught on the end of the drill 

 and touched to tinder." 



Throughout South America the art of fire-making with two sticks of 

 wood is found to be as thoroughly diffused as it is in North America. 

 Many of the tribes still pse it ; we may say that in all tribes the use of 

 flint and steel was preceded by that of the sticks of wood. 



The Guanchos, a mixed tribe of herders on the Pampas of Ven- 

 ezuela, practice a peculiar way of fire getting. They select a j)liant 

 rod, place one end against the breast and the other agaiust the block 

 formingthe hearth, held on a Unewith the breast. By pressing against the 

 rod it is bent and turned rapidly around like an auger. This imprac- 

 ticable and no doubt very local method is described by Prof. E. B. Tylor.f 



In Brazil, in the Province of Goyaz, the Chavantes, Cayapos, and 

 Angaytes, use the simple fire drill. § The Angaytes drill figured looks 

 somewhat like that of the Molds. It is usually 28*^'". long for the 

 hearth, and for the drill 20^™. They use the throat skin of theNandu, 

 Rhea Americana, for a tinder sack. The Lenguas of the same province 

 use a strike alight consisting of a tinder horn; flint, and steel, which is 

 also figured in the cited report. This set is very interesting, because 

 from it we can say with certainty where the Lengua got it. The steel 

 is the English '' flourish," and the flint is the oval, old English shape, 

 probably broken somewhat by blows. The Lenguas, being on the line 

 of travel, have adopted the method from English traders. In liio 

 Janeiro the Indians had an angular recess at the back of their snuff 

 mills for the puri)ose of making fire by friction. || 



The Ainos of Japan formerly used fire-sticks, and are said even yet 

 to resort to this method when they have no other means of getting fire. 

 They use also flint and steel, adopted from the Japanese. A specimen 

 (No. 22257) is figured and described on page 583 of this paper. The fire- 



* Sniitlisonian Report. 1885. ii, p. 315. 



t Sir Daniel Wilson. — Prehistoric Man. ii, p. 375. 



t Darwin. —Narrative of the voyage of the Beagle, iii, p. 4S8. Cited in Early His- 

 tory of Mankind, p. 241. 



§ Dr. Eniil Hassler. — In Jahrbuch Mittelschweiz. Comnierciel. Gesellsch. Aran, 

 ZweiterBand. 1888. 114,115. 



II Harper's Monthly Magazine. Nov. 1853. vii, p. 745. 



