FIRE. 
367 
Fire. 
In civilized life few are aware of the blessing they enjoy 
in possessing the power of obtaining fire with the greatest 
facility. The shipwrecked mariner on a desert island, and 
the traveller through the wilderness, in the cold climes of 
the north, know how to appreciate the power of obtaining 
it, and the anxiety felt whilst the operation is going on, on 
which perhaps even life itself depends. 
Even in Australia, with its warm climate, the native shows the 
value he puts upon it, by the care taken of it when obtained, 
he has always his fire-stick with him, and woe be to his gin 
if she permits it to go out ; on the western coast, the best way 
which the Australian native has of preserving this element 
so essential to his comfort, is to collect the seed stems or 
stalks of the Banksias, or rather the abortive ones, these are 
denuded of their outer coverings, leaving a dark brown 
velvety-looking centre, which is very retentive of fire, and 
burns slowly, so that one of these little fire-sticks, which is 
only eight inches long will last for a considerable time, a bag 
of them will suffice for an entire day. 
The Maori calls the process of making fire by friction, 
Kauoti ; he bids you me ika he alii , obtain fire ; it is inter- 
esting to compare the various modes of producing fire in 
different times and places ; the old way has disappeared 
during the present generation ; the flint and steel which, pro- 
bably had been used from the remotest times, even from the 
first discovery of iron, has at last given way to the lucifer 
and other matches ; but our forefathers were likewise ac- 
quainted with the still more ancient and primitive way of 
rubbing two pieces of wood together ; the friction of branches 
in a gale has caused trees to take fire, and might have taught 
man the way of procuring it ; this has occurred in the New 
Zealand forests. 
But different nations varied in their way of producing it 
even by this simple method ; the Mexican obtained it by 
causing a circular plate of wood to revolve on a pointed stick ; 
