368 
FIRE. 
they also made it by twirling a stick in a piece of wood 
laid on the ground ; this was nearly the plan adopted by 
the Australians, who make a pointed staff revolve in their 
hands in a hole of another laid on the ground, and held 
firm by the foot. The Japanese did the same, and also the 
Maori is said to have done so, but this statement made by 
Nicholas, an early writer on New Zealand, appears to be a mis- 
take, as the author has seen the process performed in different 
parts of the island, but never in that way ; the ordinary 
one being by rubbing or rather pushing a wedge-shaped 
piece of wood forward and backward along a groove, and 
collecting the charred dust at its extremity until it ignited, 
it was then placed in a lump of soft flax, and waved to and 
fro, when it burst out into a flame. 
The dyaks of Borneo use a bow and string, to cause a 
pointed stick to revolve on a piece of wood, which is a step 
beyond the Australian ; this plan produces an accelerated 
motion without increasing the labour, which by ordinary 
rubbing is very great, and often requires to be kept up by 
several succeeding one another ; some tribes have simply a 
cord tied round the stick, by pulling first one end and then 
the other, it is made to revolve backwards and forwards with 
considerable velocity. 
Probably the difficulty of procuring fire in the earliest 
times led to the institution of custodians, and afterwards 
vestal virgins, it thus in time became connected with fire 
worship and adoration of the sun, when it was the duty of 
those appointed to watch the sacred flame. 
The ancient Peruvians kindled their sacred fire by fric- 
tion ; the Brahmins to this day obtain it by drilling one 
piece of arani wood into another ; in the ancient Sanscrit the 
name of the fire-drill stick is Pramantha, which recalls the 
legend of Prometheus ; the great eastern god, Baal, was a 
sun god, and thus Elijah took the priests of Baal on their 
own ground, when he dared them to a public trial. “ The 
God who answereth by fire. He is the God”; he granted 
them every opportunity of testing the power of their sun 
god, giving them the entire day when they had all the heat 
