FIRE, COOKING, AND VESSELS. 



241 



this way, and the Brahmans still use a cord-drill in producing 

 the sacred fire, as will be more fully stated presently. Half- 

 way round the world, the same thing is found among the Es- 

 quimaux. Davis (after whom Davis's Straits are named) de- 

 scribes in 1586 how a Greenlander "beganne to kindle a fire 

 in this maner : he tooke a piece of a board wherein was a 

 hole halfe thorow : into that hole he puts the end of a round 

 stick Kke unto a bedstafie, wetting the end thereof in Trane, 

 and in fashion of a turner with a piece of lether, by his violent 

 motion doeth very speedily produce fire."^ The cut, Fig. 24, 

 is taken from a drawing of the last century, representing two 

 Esquimaux making fire, one holding a cross-piece to keep the 

 spindle steady and force it well down to its bearing, while the 

 other pulls the thong. ^ This form of the apparatus takes two 



Fig. 24. 



men to work it, but the Esquimaux have devised a modifica- 

 tion of it which a man can work alone. Sir E. Belcher thus 

 describes its use for drilling holes by means of a point of green 

 jade : — " The thong . . . being passed twice round the drill, 

 the upper end is steadied by a mouthpiece of wood, having a 



' Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 104. 



" Henry Ellis, 'Voyage to Hudson's Bay ;' London, 1748, pp. 132, 234. 



B 



