FIRE-MAKING APPARATUS. 



575 



surface for very obvious reasons. This gives tbe shape seen in Fort 

 Simpson and Long Barrows specimen. Mr. Murdoch says that the Es- 

 kimo think that pyrites comes down from above in meteors. They call 

 it "tirestone." A native related that in old times they did not use 

 flint, but two pieces of pyrites, and got '4iig hre." 



The flint (tig. 4G, 4) is an oblong piece of chert, square at tbe base 

 and rounded at the forward end. It is more elaborately made than the 

 flakes so numerous in Europe, one of which was found with the piece 

 of pyrites in the English Barrows. The Mackenzie Kiver scraper is 

 more like the curved ancient one (tig. 446). In most cases the flints 

 used are not mounted in a handle; this specimen, however, is fixed in a 

 handle made of two pieces of wood held together by a thong of seal- 

 skin (fig. 40, 4a). 



The bag (fig. 45, 2) is made of reindeer skin. The little bag that 

 hangs from the larger has a double use; it is a receptacle for reserve 

 tinder, but its chief use is for a toggle ; being passed under the belt it 

 prevents the loss of the outfit, which is said to be carried by the 

 women. 



An oblong pad, stufled with deer hair, is sewed to the mouth of the 

 fire-bag to protect the hand from sparks and blows of the flint. 



To get a spark, the Eskimo places (tig. 47) the piece of pyrites on the 

 pad held in the left hand over the curved 

 forefinger, the large end down and the 

 thumb set in the cup shaped cavity in 

 the top. The flap of the tinder pocket 

 is turned back and held on the forefinger 

 under the j)rotecting pad. The flint is ^i 

 held in the right hand and by a scrap- 

 ing motion little pieces of pyrites at a 

 dull red heat fall down into the tinder. 

 The pellet that glows is transferred to 

 the pipe or fire, and the flap of the tinder 

 pocket is turned down, serving to keep 

 the tinder dry and to extinguish it if 

 necessary.* 



There comes in here appropriately a 

 note of B. R. Ross on the burial customs 

 of the Kutchin Indians of the eastern 

 Athapascan stock. He says: 



They bury with the dead a flint fastened to a 

 stick, a stone to strike it ou (pyrites) to make fire, and a piece of the fnntrus that 

 grows on the birch tree for tinder and some tonch-wood also.t 



There is no mention of this process of fire-making by the older writers 



* Extracted from an article by the author \n Proceedings U. S. National Museum, 

 XI, 1888,181-4. 

 t Smithsonian Kej^ort, 186G. p. 326. 



Fig 47. 

 METHon OF Using the Stkike-a-light. 



( Ciit. No. 128105, U. S. N. M. Drawing by VV. H. Burger. ) 



