6o NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



wood to the top of which is fastened a very slack bow string, the 

 bow hanging at right angles to the weight. By twisting up the 

 string and then quickly pressing down on the bow a spinning motion 

 is imparted to the spindle which immediately as the string unwinds, 

 winds it up again in an opposite direction. The bow is then quickly 

 pressed downward again and so continuously. The top of the 

 spindle is inserted in a greased socket and the foot in a notch in a 

 piece of very dry tinder wood. The rapid twirling of the spindle 

 creates friction which as it increases ignites the powdered wood. A 

 piece of inflammable tow is placed near this dust which suddenly 

 ignites in the socket and fires the tow which is quickly transferred 

 to a pile of kindling. Pump drills of course are not characteristic- 

 ally Iroquois, though the Iroquois used this means of producing 

 fire by friction more generally than other methods [see fig. 14].^ 



TERMINOLOGY OF FIRE 



Fire ode'ka' 



Match (it makes fire) yiondekada^kwa' 



I make a fire efigade'gat 



Fire wood oyan'da' 



Charcoal odja^'sta' 



Ashes o'ga^a' 



Smoke (in house) odia"gwa' 



Smoke (out of doors) odia'^gweot 



Flame o'do^'kot 



Bake or broil waen'dasko"de 



For cooking food anciently the fires were generally made in 

 sunken pits, variously called fire pits, pots or sunken ovens. 



Pots of clay were probably placed only in shallow saucerlike 

 depressions and held up by stones. The writer discovered such a 

 pot at Ripley in 1906. It stood upright in a pit and was supported 

 by some chunks of stone. Charcoal lay about it as if the fire had 

 been hastily smothered. Schoolcraft pictures a clay pot suspended 

 from a tripod, but most explorers picture the position of the clay 

 vessel as above described. 



Pits often were heated to a good temperature, the embers raked 

 aside and corn, squashes or other foods thrown in, covered with 



^See Morgan League, p. 381. 



