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13- Isa sacred fire kept up, or kindled on special festivals ? 
and is its extinction unlucky ? 14. Has such fire particular 
reference to the course of the sun, the solstices, year, sea¬ 
sons, &c. ? 15. Are the fires put out and kindled from newly 
produced fire on such occasions, and by whom ? and is the 
new fire made by friction of wood, or otherwise ? 16. Is the 
kindling of the new fire a religious ceremony ? and what is 
its meaning? 
17. How is fire regarded in religion? 18. Is there any 
custom against wounding or polluting fire ? 19. Are sacrifices 
given to it or consumed by it? 20. Is the fire itself a living 
divinity receiving worship and devouring the offered food ? 
or does it act as a means of conveying sacrifice to deities and 
the dead, at funerals, and how? 21. Is there a fire-god to 
whom all particular fires belong? 22. Is fire a means of 
driving away evil demons ? 
23. Is fire a means of purification from uncleanness, blood, 
death, moral guilt, &c. ? and how is it applied ? 24. Is new 
fire made for such purification? 25. Is its making in any 
way connected with moral, especially sexual, purity ? 
E. B. T. 
No. XVII.—INVENTION. 
Among nations capable of historical record, account is to 
some extent given of the invention of particular arts, the 
introduction of new laws, the change of customs, &c. All 
such accounts should be preserved, although, more often than 
not, they are but fables invented to account for the facts. 
Otherwise our information as to new inventions, &c., must be 
derived from inspection of the arts themselves. Thus some 
instruments show that they must have been derived directly 
or indirectly from earlier and ruder forms, as the cross-bow 
from the long-bow. Some arts are judged to have grown up 
among a particular tribe because no neighbouring tribe 
possesses them—like the use of iron pyrites for striking fire 
among the Fuegians. The best general advice to observers 
I 
