PIRE-MAKIKG APPARATUS. 571 



6 iuclies, till the wood begins to be gromid off and made to go into a little 

 heap at the end of the groove; then he gradually accelerates the speed 

 and moves with a shorter range until, when he pushes the stick with 

 great velocity, the brown dust ignites. This is allowed to glow aud if 

 it is required to be transferred to dry leaves or chips of wood it is done 

 by means of a tinder made of frayed or worn tapa cloth. 



The groove (fig. 43a) is the most characteristic feature of this appara- 

 tus, there being apparently no definite form of implements for this pur- 

 pose. Fire is made on any billet of dry wood that is available. It is 

 not necessary to cut a slot, or even a groove, the hard wood rubber will 

 form one, so that there is no more need of apparatus than among the 

 Navajos, where two bits of yucca stalk collected near by form the tire 

 tools. 



That making fire by this way is difficult to those inexperienced in it 

 is not strange. Mr. Darwin found it quite so, but at last succeeded. 

 The Samoan gets fire in forty seconds, and so great is the friction and 

 the wood so well adapted that Mr. Austin, before quoted, says it some- 

 times actually bursts into flame. 



The Australians in some parts use a method v^ery much like the one 

 described. They rub a knife of wood along a groove made in another 

 stick i^reviously filled with tinder.* 



IV.— PEECUSSION. 



1. FLINT AND PYRITES. 



Ac primum silici scintillam excudit Achates 

 Suscepitque ignum foliis atque arida circum 

 Nutrimenta dedit, rapuitqiie in Ibiiiile liaQimam, 



(^neid B. 1, 174-176.) 



One of the oldest methods of fire-making that we know of is, that by 

 the percussion of fiint aud pyrites. It is believed to have been the 

 original discovery. If there is any diHerence in the difficulties of con- 

 ception and execution in either of the inventions, it lies in favor of the 

 sticks of wood. 



The distribution of the flint and pyrites method, both in time aud 

 place, is very interesting. Mr. Evans, in his epoch-making work, 

 "Ancient Stone Implements," i)age 14, remarks that the name of pyrites 

 {■Kop, fire) is itself sufficient evidence of the purpose to which the mineral 

 was applied in ancient times. Whatever the fact is in lioman history, 

 the Eskimo calls pyrites firestoue, some Indian tribes call flint fire- 

 stone, the German name for flint isfeuerstein, and it is a reasonable 

 supposition that whatever people used flint or quartz, pyrites, or other 

 forms of iron ore for making fire, would call the stone firestoue. The 

 statement of Pliny that fire was first struck out of flint by Pyrode, the 

 son of Cilix, Mr. Evans thinks, is a myth which points to the use of 

 silex and pyrites, rather than to steel. 



*R Brongli Smith.— The Aborigines of Victoria. London, 1878. i, ji. :WJ. 



