FIRE, COOKINGj AND VESSELS. 247 



Father Zucclielli, wlio was a missionary in West Africa about 

 the beginning of last century, gives the following account of 

 the way in wbicb, lie says, the negroes made fire on their 

 journeys : — " When they found a fire-stone (Feuerstein) on the 

 road, they lay down by it on their knees, took a little piece of 

 wood in their hands, and threw sand between the stone and the 

 wood, rubbing them so long against one another till the wood 

 began to burn, and herewith they all lighted their pipes, and 

 so went speedily forth again smoking on their journey."^ It 

 is possible that not flint (as is usual), but pyrites, may here be 

 meant hj feuerstein. 



The flint and steel may have come into use at any time after 

 the beginning of the Iron age, but history fails to tell us the 

 date of its introduction in Greece and Rome, China, and most 

 other districts of the Old World. In modem times it has made 

 its way with iron into many new places, though it has not 

 always been able to supersede the fire-sticks at once ; some- 

 times, it seems, from a difiiculty in getting flints. For instance, 

 it was necessary in Sumatra to import the flints from abroad, 

 and thus they did not come immediately into general use among 

 the natives ; and there may perhaps be a similar reason for the 

 fire-di'ill having held its ground to this day among some of the 

 iron-using races of Southern Africa. 



The Greeks were familiar with the use of the burning-lens 

 in the time of Aristophanes, who mentions it in the ' Clouds,^ 

 in a dialogue between Socrates and Strepsiades :— 



" Socrates. Very good : now I'll set you another smart question. If 

 some one entered an action against you to recover five talents^ tell me, how 

 would you cancel it ? 



Strepsiades. I have found a very clever way to cancel the suit, as you 

 will agree yourself. 



Socrates. What kind of a way ? 



Strepsiades. Have you ever seen that stone in the druggists' shops, 

 that pretty, transparent one, that they light fire with? 



Socrates. The crystal, you mean ? 



Strepsiades. I do. 



Socrates. Well, what then ? 



' Zucchelli, ' Merckwiirdige Missions- und Eeise-Besclu-eibung nacli Congo ;' 

 Frankfort, 1715, p. 344. 



