1881.] V. Ball— On the Nature and use of Fire Sticks. 73 



Breaking off two pieces of dry bamboo which had about twice the diameter 

 of an ordinary lead pencil, they pointed one of them at one end, and on the 

 side of the other they made a small pit to receive the point ; from the pit 

 a groove or notch was cut across on the side of the stick. This second stick 

 being placed horizontally in position on some dry grass and leaves, was held 

 there by the toes of the principal operator who squatted down for the 

 purpose. Taking the first stick between the palms of his hands and placing 

 the point in the pit, by rubbing his palms together the stick was made to 

 revolve backwards and forwards, and the second operator relieved the first 

 by commencing at the top as the other worked down to the bottom. They 

 continued thus alternately relieving one another, till, in an incredibly short 

 space of time, the pit became charred and soon began to smoke, the fine 

 dust resulting from the friction falling down the already mentioned slit 

 formed a small pile on the tinder and caught the first spark. This 

 being carefully nursed and blown upon, soon burst into a flame. 



At the ethnological section of the British Association meeting in 1878 

 I exhibited and described some of these sticks and the communication 

 appeared to excite a considerable degree of interest. This, added to the 

 fact that I have found that even in India many people are not aware that 

 the knowledge of how to produce fire with two small sticks, so far from 

 being extinct, is probably universal throughout some wide tracts in this 

 country — has led me to make further enquiries. On the only two 

 occasions upon which I have been in the jungle this year I have asked the 

 first regularly jungly men I met with whether they could make fire ; both 

 replied in the affirmative and made good their words by producing a flame 

 in a very short space of time. The first case happened not many miles 

 distant from Deoghur ; here the sticks used were the already mentioned 

 pothur (Croton oolongifolium) : these are now exhibited. The second case 

 occurred in the centre of the Kharakpur Hills where I came across a tribe of 

 people called Naya. Their headman, who, by the way, was a most curious 

 and amusing individual, on being asked to produce fire sent one of his 

 companions for the sticks to the jungle close by. He returned, not with 

 the pothur, but with the woody stems of a thorny creeper. The thorns 

 having been removed, a pit was made qfc a node or joint, and then, in the 

 usual way, a very few turns produced a spark ; these sticks I also now exhibit. 

 This creeper has three native names, Kumari (or Kumree) Dahnee and 

 Mashanti ; although I omitted to get leaves or flowers I am fully satisfied 

 that it is a species of the genus Smilax and in this opinion Dr. Feistmantel 

 agrees with me. Most of the common species of Smilax have scarcely got 

 woody stems, and in this one it is noteworthy that the wood much more 

 closely resembles that of an Endogenous, than that of an Exogenous plant. 



