454 



FIRE. 



charcoal, oven, grilling, boiling, etc. ; and even before the ad- 

 vent of the Europeans, pottery* was well known. It is difficult, 

 however, to get over the distinct assertion made by Gobien, 

 which moreover derives some support from similar statements 

 made by other travellers. Thus Alvaro de Saavedra states 

 that the inhabitants of certain small islands in the Pacific 

 which he called "Los Jardines," but which cannot now be 

 satisfactorily determined, stood in terror of fire because they 

 had never seen it.f Again, "Wilkes tells us J that on the 

 island of Fakaafo, which he calls "Bowditch," "there was 

 no sign of places for cooking, nor any appearance of fire." 

 The natives also were very much alarmed when they saw 

 sparks struck from flint and steel. Here, at least, we might 

 have thought, was a case beyond question or suspicion ; the 

 presence of fire could hardly have escaped observation ; the 

 marks it leaves are very conspicuous. If we cannot depend 

 on such a statement as this, made by an officer in the United 

 States' Navy, in the official report of an expedition sent out 

 especially for scientific purposes, we may well be disheartened, 

 and lose confidence in Ethnological investigations. Yet the 

 assertions of Wilkes are questioned, and with much appearance 

 of justice, by Mr. Tylor. In the " Ethnography of the United 

 States' Exploring Expedition," Hale gives a list of Fakaafo 

 words, in which we find aft for " fire." This is evidently the 

 same word as the New Zealand ahi ; but as it denotes light 

 and heat, as well as fire, we might suppose that it thus found 

 its way into the Fakaafo vocabulary. I should not, there- 

 fore, attribute to this argument quite so much force as does 

 Mr. Tylor. It is, however, evident that Captain Wilkes did 

 not perceive the importance of the observation, or he would 

 certainly have taken steps to determine the question ; and as 

 Hale, in his special work on the Ethnology of the expedition, 



* lc. vol. ii., p. 166. f Hackluyt, Soc., 1862, p. 178. 



J United States' Expl. Exped. vol. v., p. 1 8. Early History of Mankind, p. 230. 



