XXVITI. THE MALAY FIRE-PISTON. 
By Ivor H. N. Evans. 
(Plate XX.) 
In the collection of Anthropological Essays Presented to 
Edward Burnett Tylor in Honour of his 75th Birthday is to 
be found a very full and interesting eres on the fire-piston 
by Henry Balfour. He has demonstrated that this curious 
implement is known and put to practical use in the Shan 
States and Pegu, among the Khas and Mois, in the Malay 
Peninsula, in Western Sumatra, in Java (among the Sunda- 
nese and in the Kediri Residency), in Bali, Lombok, Sum- 
bawa, Flores, parts of Borneo, and also in Mindanao and 
Luzon. In Europe the fire- -piston seems first to have been 
produced in the year 1802. 
The present paper is written with the object of describ- 
ing certain specimens in the Perak Museum, Taiping, to 
which Balfour referred, but of which he had no description. ' 
There are seven specimens in the Perak Museum, and the 
three of these have been added to the collections by myself 
since his paper appeared. 
he materials used in the construction of our fire-pis- 
tons are buffalo-horn, wood and tin. The cylinders of the 
implements are all of horn or tin, the pistons sometimes of 
wood. I have seen the fire-piston in use on several occa- 
sions among the ‘‘ Patani’’ Malays, who have flocked into 
the north of Perak from Siamese Malaya during the last 
hundred years or so, and, provided that the instrument is in 
good condition and the tinder dry, can obtain fire with it 
myself in at least two out of three attempts made. A most 
important part of the instrument is the binding of rag, near 
the distal end of the piston, which acts as a washer, and 
prevents the escape of air. This must be so adjusted that it 
allows the piston to pass smoothly down the cylinder when 
the piston head is given a sharp blow with the palm of 
the hand, and must not be so tight that there is difficulty in 
withdrawing the piston fairly quickly, nor so loose that air 
can escape from within. In museum specimens this binding, 
which is treated with beeswax in order to facilitate its passage, 
is generally out of order 
In making fire a little piece of tinder is pushed into the 
baie fairly closely packed— to prevent it ee out—but a 
! Page 30 of his paper. 
