268 FIRE, COOKING, AND VESSELS. 



a religious ceremony^ performed in every village vpliere there is 

 a cliurch, wliich could not have been unknown to them. Perhaps 

 it will be not disagreeable for me here to give an account of 

 this ceremony, though it does not belong to the story. The 

 18th of August, Old Style, is called by the Eussians Frol i 

 Lavior, these being the names of two martyrs, called Florus 

 and Laurus in the Eoman Kalendar; they fall, according to 

 this latter, on the 29th of the said month, when the Festival of 

 the Beheading of John is celebrated. On this day the Russian 

 peasants bring their horses to the village church, at the side of 

 which they have dug the evening before a pit with two outlets. 

 Each horse has his bridle, which is made. of lime-tree bark. 

 They let the horses, one after the other, go into this pit, at the 

 opposite outlet of which the priest stands with an asperging- 

 brush in his hand, with which he sprinkles them with holy 

 water. As soon as the horses are come out, their bridles are 

 taken off, and they are made to go between two fires, which 

 are kindled with what the Russians call Givoy agon, that is, 

 ' living fire,^ of which I will give the explanation, after remark- 

 ing that the peasants throw the bridles of the horses into one of 

 these fires to turn them up. Here is the manner of kindling 

 this Givoy agon, or living fire. Some men take hold of the 

 ends of a maple staff, very dry, and about a fathom long. This 

 staff they hold fast over a piece of birch-wood, which must also 

 be very dry, and whilst they ^ngorously rub the staff upon the 

 last wood, which is much softer than the first, it inflames in a 

 short time, and serves to kindle the pair of fires, of which I 

 have just made mention." 



To sum up now, in a few words, the history of the art of 

 making fire, it appears that the common notion that the fric- 

 tion of two pieces of wood was the original method used, has 

 strong and wide-lying evidence in its favour, and very Httle 

 that can be alleged against it. It has been seen that in many 

 districts where higher methods have long prevailed, its former 

 existence as a household art is proved by traces that have come 

 down to us in several difi"erent ways. Where the use of pyrites 

 for striking fire is found existing in company with it in North 

 America, it is at least likely that the fire-stick is the older in- 



