[1] Curiously enough we see the same institution obtaining among the
Damaras of South Africa, where the chiefs, who sway their people with
a sort of priestly authority, commit to their daughters the care of a
so-called eternal fire. From its hearth younger scions separating
from the parent stock take away a burning brand to their new home.
The use of a common prytaneum, of circular form, like the Roman
temple of Vesta, testified to the common origin of the North American
Assinais and Maichas. The Mobiles, the Chippewas, the Natchez, had
each a corporation of Vestals. If the Natchez let their fire die out,
they were bound to renew it from the Mobiles. The Moquis, Pueblos and
Comanches had also their perpetual fires. The Redskins discussed
important affairs of state at the "council fires," around which each
_sachem_ marched three times, turning to it all the sides of his
person. "It was a saying among our ancestors," said an Iroquois chief
in 1753, "that when the fire goes out at Onondaga"--the Delphi of the
league--"we shall no longer be a people."
FIRE AND FIRE EXTINCTION. Fire is considered in this article, primarily,
from the point of view of the protection against fire that can be
accorded by preventive measures and by the organization of fire
extinguishing establishments.
History is full of accounts of devastation caused by fires in towns and
cities of nearly every country in the civilized world. The following is
a list of notable fires of early days:--