This method may be said to have a world-wide distribution, and to have
had no narrow range in time. It is a very interesting study to observe
the many different practices that have been superadded to the simple
task of twirling two sticks with the design of creating fire. It is also
instructive to note how fixed have become tribal characters in so small
a thing as the shaping of the elements of the fire drill. It has well
been said by Dr. Schweinfurth, that—
A people, as long as they are on the lowest step of their development,
are far better characterized by their industrial products than they
are either by their habits, which may be purely local, or by their own
representations, which (rendered in their rude and unformed language)
are often incorrectly interpreted by ourselves. If we possessed more
of these tokens we should be in a position to comprehend better than
we do the primitive condition of many a nation that has now reached a
high degree of culture.[2]
This fact holds good with reference to tribes in a higher plane than the
learned writer included in this statement, in this way. There are many
little things that have not been subject to the modification of time,
intercourse, or environment, but co-exist with an art. To particularize:
Prof. E. S. Morse has shown the value of the simple act of releasing an
arrow from a bow-string as a classifier. Close attention to the minor
acts and arts will reveal much more than the nice measurements of man’s
practically unmodified skeleton.
Differences that have become functional in the arts have come down from
an early period; when they can be found they are of the greatest value
as aids in ethnology.
The ethnography of the simple fire drill is studied geographically,
beginning in North America with the most northerly tribes that use it,
and ranging from north to south in the different sections of the
country, among the tribes from which there are specimens in the Museum.
Other countries are examined from west to east.
The Sitkan fire-drill spindle is unusually long and thick (fig. 1). Both
hearth and drills are of the _Thuja gigantea_, a tree that enters so
largely into the life of the Indians along this coast. The wood grinds
off very well with much friction; at ordinary speed there is soon a
small heap of powder at the bottom of the fire slot. The latter is
deeply cut in from the side nearly to the center of the fire-hole. The
whole hearth has been charred at the fire. This repels moisture, and
also renders it easier to ignite the wood, charring being a process
somewhat analogous to the decay of wood by rotting. If kept carefully in
a dry place, this apparatus was perfectly adequate for the purpose of
the Sitkan, and in his skillful hands would no doubt give the spark in a
minute or so. The long drill would indicate that two worked at it
consecutively to keep up a continuous motion, as will be noted in the
use of the Aino drill (p. 551).
For tinder, the bark of the arbor vitæ was used. It is finely frayed,
and is much improved by being slightly charred. They also use,
preferably, a tinder made from a fungus, because it is “quicker,” _i.
e._, ignites more readily than the frayed bark.
The hearth is squared and measures 23 inches; the drill is of equal
length.
Going southward from Sitka the next fire-making set in the series is
from Bella-Bella, British Columbia. These Indians are of the Salishan
stock, and are called Bilhulas. The horizontal is a piece of cedar wood
dressed square on three faces. It is apparently a piece of an oar or
spear handle. The fire holes are shallow, and the fire slots are quite
narrow (fig. 2). The drills have been scored longitudinally near the
rubbing end; this may be a device to cause the wood to wear away more
rapidly, and furnish fuel to the incipient fire. Fire has evidently been
made with this set. Both parts are 1½ feet long; the drill is much
thinner than that of Sitka. The tinder is of frayed cedar bark.
From a southern family of the Salishan stock, called the Quinaielt
Indians, of Washington Territory, the museum has a complete set
collected by the late Charles Willoughby. It consists of a hearth, two
drills, and a slow-match. The hearth is a rounded piece of cedar wood;
opposite the fire-holes it is dressed flat, so as to rest firmly on the
ground. There are three fire-holes with wide notches. The drills taper
to each end, that is, are larger in the middle (fig. 3). The powder, a
fine brown dust, collects at the junction of the slot and fire-hole,
where they form a lip and there readily ignites. This side of the hearth
is semi-decayed. No doubt the slots were cut in that side for the
purpose of utilizing this quality. The drills are bulged toward the
middle, thereby rendering it possible to give great pressure and at the
same time rapid rotation without allowing the hands to slip down too
rapidly, a fault in many fire-drills. The slow-match is of frayed cedar
bark, about a yard long, folded squarely together, and used section by
section. Mr. Willoughby says:
The stick with three cavities was placed upon the ground, the Indian
kneeling and placing a knee upon each end. He placed one end of the
smaller stick in one of the cavities, and, holding the other end
between the palms of his hands, kept up a rapid half-rotary motion,
causing an amount of friction sufficient to produce fire. With this he
lighted the end of the braided slow-match of cedar bark. This was
often carried for weeks thus ignited and held carefully beneath the
blanket to protect it from wind and rain.
Fire is easily procured with this set. It takes but a slight effort to
cause a wreath of aromatic smoke to curl up, and the friction easily
grinds off a dark powder, which collects between the edges of the slot.
When this ignites it drops down the slot in a little pellet, and falls
upon the tinder placed below to receive it. Both drill and hearth are 18
inches long.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No 74.379, U. S. N. M. Tlingit Indians, Sitka, Alaska.
Collected by John J. McLean.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 2. Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No 20.644, U. S. N. M. Bella-Bella, B. C. Collected by James
G. Swan.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 3. Fire making Set and Slow Match.
(Cat. No 127.866. U. S. N. M. Quinaielt Indians, Quinaielt,
Washington. Collected by Charles Willoughby.)]
The Klamaths, of Oregon, of the Lutuamian stock, use a fire apparatus
that looks very much like that of the Utes. The hearth is a rounded
piece of soft wood thinned down at the ends (fig. 4). The drill is a
long, round arrow-stick, with a hard-wood point set in with resin and
served with sinew (see Ute drill, fig. 7). The holes in this hearth are
very small, being less than three-eighths of an inch in diameter. They
are in the center, and the fire slot being cut into the rounded edge
widens out below, so that the coal can drop down and get draught. The
wood is quite soft, apparently being sap-wood of yew or cedar, while the
drill-point is of the hardest wood obtainable. It is probable that sand
is used on the drill. The hearth is 13 inches long, and the drill 26.
The Chinooks, a tribe of Indians of a separate stock, called Chinookan,
formerly lived about the mouth of the Columbia River, in Oregon, but are
now nearly extinct. Hon. James G. Swan, the veteran explorer,
investigator, and collector among the Northwest coast tribes, says that
the Chinooks are the best wet-weather fire-makers he ever knew.[3]
To kindle a fire the Chinook twirls rapidly between the palms a cedar
stick, the point of which is pressed into a small hollow in a flat
piece of the same material, the sparks falling on finely frayed bark.
Sticks are commonly carried for the purpose, improving with use.[4]
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No 24096, U. S. N. M., Klamath Indians, Oregon, Collected by
L. S. Dyar.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No. 77193, U. S. N. M., Hupa Indians, California. Collected by
Lieut. P. H. Ray, U S A.)]
Mr. Paul Kane[5] describes the hearth as a “flat piece of dry cedar, in
which a small hollow is cut with a channel for the ignited charcoal to
run over. In a short time sparks begin to fall through the channel upon
finely frayed cedar bark placed underneath, which they soon ignite.” The
Ahts and Haidas also use cedar fire-sticks of the usual Indian kind.
The Hupa Indians of California are of the Athapascan stock. Their
fire-drill is a carefully made piece of apparatus (fig. 5). The hearth
is of a reddish, punky piece, probably of mesquite, _Prosopis
juliflora_, somewhat harder than the drill, which is charred slightly
for some distance along the grinding end. Fire has been made in one of
the holes; the others show the rough, frayed cavities which have been
made to start the drill. The notches at each end of the hearth seem to
be to facilitate the tying of the pieces together as a precaution to
prevent their loss or separation. They are usually intrusted into the
hands of the most skillful fire-maker, who wraps them up to keep them
from becoming damp. The effectiveness of the sticks increases with use
and age; a stick and hearth that have been charred by the former making
of fire in most cases yields the spark in half the time required for new
apparatus. Another advantage is that the drill is softer from incipient
decay.
That this set is in the highest degree efficient is shown by the fact
that the writer repeatedly got a glowing coal, the size of a pea, from
it in less than twenty seconds. The hearth is 18 and the drill 21 inches
long.
The McCloud River Indians (Copehan stock) make the drill from the
buckeye tree.
The Indians of Washoe, Nevada, from their language, have been classed by
the Bureau of Ethnology as a separate stock, the Washoan. Stephen
Powers, many years ago collected a rather remarkable hearth from these
Indians. It has eight rather small holes, in every one of which fire has
been made. The wood is soft, well-seasoned pine. Apparently sand has
been made use of to get greater friction, as is the custom of the Zuñis
and Apaches. This device, in a measure, obviates the necessity of having
tinder-like wood, or wood in a state of partial decay. For the drill any
hardwood cylindrical stick might be employed. A strip of buckskin about
an inch wide is passed around the hearth over the fire holes to keep
them dry (fig. 6).
At the end of the hearth is a mass of cement made of the resin of a pine
mixed with sand, apparently; a kind of material used by the Indians over
a large area in the Great Basin and southward to fix their arrowheads,
pitch the water-bottles, and for other purposes. It is quite probable
that this stick was the property of an arrow-maker, whose need of fire
to melt the somewhat intractable cement, caused him to combine these
functions in one tool.
It has a better finish, and displays greater skill in its manufacture
than the fire-tools of the neighboring tribes of Shoshonian (Utes) and
Moquelumnian stocks. In fact, it has a close affinity in appearance to
those of the very near Athapascan (Hupa, etc.) stock. It is a matter of
very great interest to compare with this a stick from the Mackenzie
River. (See Fig. 28.) The resemblance is striking; it is as though one
found a word of familiar sound and import in an unexpected place. The
related tribes of the Indians dwelling on the Mackenzie have a wider
range than the distance between the localities whence the respective
sticks came; in fact, the Athapascans range about 50 degrees in latitude
and the southern colonies of this great family are only about 250 miles
southeast of the Washoans, while, as has been stated, the Hupas are
quite near.
It would be presumptuous to say at present that this tool is a remnant
of the influence of the Athapascan wave that swept along the Great
Interior Basin, leaving groups here and there in California and other
parts to mark its progress, but there is more to its credit than a
coincidence of form and function.
[Illustration: Fig. 6. Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No. 19640, U. S. N. M. Washoe Indians, Nevada. Collected by
Stephen Powers.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 7. Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No. 17230, U. S. N. M. Pai-Ute Indians, Southern Utah.
Collected by Maj. J. W. Powell.)]
The museum is in possession of a complete collection of fire-making
material from the tribes of the Shoshonian stock. They were collected by
Maj. J. W. Powell. The native name for the Ute fire set is _whu-tu
ni-weap_. While the lower member of the set—the hearth—differs among the
several tribes in point of material, shape, etc., the spliced drill is
characteristic of the whole stock. It has never been noticed outside of
the southern part of the Great Interior Basin but in one instance—among
the Klamaths of Oregon. The main part of the drill is either a reed, or
a straight sprout, usually the former. At one end a short piece of very
hard wood—greasewood, _sarcobatus vermiculatus_—is set in and lashed
with sinew. It resembles the Shoshonian arrows, which are foreshafted in
this way. They also use sand in common with other neighboring tribes.
The Pai-Utes, of Southern Utah, make their hearths of a short, rounded
piece usually of the sap-wood of juniper. It is tied to the drill with a
thong of buckskin when not in use (fig. 7). The drill is like the usual
one, just described. This is the common form of the Pai-Ute apparatus.
The small, two-holed hearth of rounded form, and the shortened, spliced
drill are for convenience of carrying, this kind being used by hunters
while away from the lodges. Mr. S. J. Hare says that the men do not
usually make the fire, except when out on a hunting excursion. At the
lodge it is the squaw’s duty to make the fire when it is needed.
[Illustration: Fig. 8. Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No. 11976, U. S. N. M. Pai-Ute Indians, Southern Utah.
Collected by Maj. J. W. Powell.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 9. Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No. 22022, U. S. N. M. Shoshone Indians, Wind River, Wyoming.
Collected by Maj. J. W. Powell.)]
The Pai-Ute is rarely at a loss to get fire; he is master of various
devices. Mr. Hare, who was among the Utes for some time, states that
when the Indian is in need of a light he uses either the flint and
steel, the drill, or, if these are not at hand, he takes two branches,
and rubs one up and down on the other, soon getting fire. The
Australians are said to have practiced fire-making by rubbing in the way
mentioned. This is the only observation collected of its occurrence in
America. It is, in all probability, a difficult, unusual way; only
practiced under pressure of necessity among the Utes. They take great
pride in their skill; to be a quick fire-maker is to achieve fame in the
tribe. They are fond of exhibiting their art to white travelers in the
hope of gain.
Another form of hearth (fig. 8) is made of yucca flower stalk, like
those of the Apache and Navajos. The drill is of tule reed, set with a
very hard wood head. It is suggested that the reason for splicing the
drill is that the hard wood of the kind used for the head (greasewood)
can not be procured in pieces long enough to make the whole drill. This
set is apparently one used as a fixture in the Ute domestic economy, the
squaws having to light the fire. The duty is mainly relegated to the
females in several other Indian tribes, and among the Eskimo. Mr. Catlin
says that the Sioux objected to letting the squaws have their portraits
painted, saying that their women had never taken scalps, nor done
anything better than make fires and dress skins.[6] The hearth and drill
last figured are respectively 20 and 23 inches long, while in the
hunting set (fig. 8) the length is 7 and 18 inches.
The Wind River Shoshones are also represented (fig. 9). The hearth is of
hard wood, rudely hacked out, and rounded. Upon the slanting edge are
eight holes, or shallow depressions, prepared for the drill, with
notches cut in to meet them from the sides. The drill is a willow
branch, 25 inches long, with a hard wood head mortised in, and served
with buckskin. It is most probable that sand was used with this set,
because, if the parts are not models, it would be necessary to use it on
sticks of equal hardness like these. I am inclined to believe that they
are models, from their appearance, and from the difficulty of setting up
a pyrogenic friction upon them even with sand. They were collected some
fifteen years ago by Maj. J. W. Powell.
The Mokis are the most differentiated members of the Shoshonian stock.
Mrs. T. E. Stevenson collected the two excellent fire-making sets in the
Museum from the Moki Pueblos. The hearth is a branch of the very best
quality of soft wood. In one hearth an end has been broken off, but
there still remain eighteen fire-holes, showing that it was in use for a
long time and highly prized (fig. 10). The drill is a roughly dressed
branch of hard wood. It is comparatively easy to make fire on this
apparatus. In the set numbered 126,694 these conditions are reversed;
the hearth is tolerably hard wood and the drill soft wood.
The Moki fire-tools are used now principally in the estufas to light the
sacred fire and the new fire as do the Zuñis, and the Aztecs of Mexico
did hundreds of years ago. They use tinder of fungus or dried grass
rubbed between the hands.
By their language the Zuñi people belong to a distinct stock of Indians.
Their fire-sticks are of the agave stalk, a soft, pithy wood with harder
longitudinal fibers, rendering it a good medium for the purpose of
making fire.
As to the plan pursued in grinding out fire, Col. James Stevenson
informed the writer that they make a slightly concave place where the
burnt holes are seen, cut the notch on the side, sprinkle a little fine
sand on the concavity, set the end of the round stick on the sand and
roll it rapidly between the palms of the hands, pressing down hard. The
“sawdust,” Colonel Stevenson called it, oozes out of the notch and forms
a small mass, which on blowing slightly becomes a burning coal, and the
application of a little tinder creates a blaze. For preserving the fire
for any length of time they use a piece of decayed wood. (Figs. 11 and
12.)
[Illustration: Fig. 10. Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No. 128694, U. S. N. M., Moki Indians, Arizona. Collected by
Mrs. T. E. Stevenson.)]
[Illustration: Figs. 11 and 12. Fire-making Set and Slow Match.
(Cat. Nos. 127708 and 69850, U. S. N. M., Zuñi Indians, New Mexico.
Collected by James Stevenson.)]
Viewed in another aspect than as an implement of necessary or common
use, this set is an important cult apparatus in the wonderfully
complicated religious worship of the Zuñis. These people make the sacred
fire that burns always in their estufas by friction of wood that has
been wet. New fire is made at the beginning of their new year with great
ceremony. The house is swept and everything is moved out of it until the
fire is made. Their regard for fire and their customs with reference to
it add them to the list of peoples who have held it in similar reverence
and have practiced similar customs all over the world, ranging widely in
time. The wetting of the drill, increasing their labor, may be done to
please their Gods.
This art must have been practiced for a long time in this region, for
Mr. Henry Metcalf found a hearth (Fig. 13) with three fire-holes in a
cave-dwelling at Silver City, New Mexico. It is apparently very ancient.
The wood is much altered and has become heavy by impregnation with some
salt, probably niter.
The Apaches and Navajos belong to the great Athapascan stock, that
ranges so widely in North America. Capt. John G. Bourke, U. S. Army,
collected the hearth of yucca wood shown (Fig. 14), and says:
With the stick you now see, the Apache Indians in my presence made
fire in not quite eight seconds by the watch, and one asserted that he
could make it in a number of motions, which, on the watch, occupied
exactly two seconds, that is, under most favorable circumstances. The
experiments, made under my own observation, ran all the way from eight
to forty-seven seconds; sand is generally used, although not essential
to success.
Captain Bourke’s observation is very interesting, as it records the fact
that the Apache is the most skillful fire-maker in the world. Many other
tribes can make fire in less than a minute; I think by far the majority
of them, but there is no eight-second record, while if he could prove
his ability to do it in two seconds he would arrive at the facility of
striking a match.
[Illustration: Fig. 13. Lower Stick of Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No. 35268, U. S. N. M. From a cave at Silver City, New Mexico.
Collected by Henry Metcalf.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 14. Lower Piece of Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No. 130672, U. S. N. M. Apache Indians, Arizona. Collected by
Capt. John G. Bourke, U.S.A.).]
Mr. William F. Corbusier has noticed the fire-making of the Apache-Yumas
of Arizona (Yuman stock).[7] They use a drill about 2 feet long and
one-half inch thick, made of _o-oh-kad-je_, or “Fire-stick bush.” Its
end is dipped in sand and drilled on a soft piece of agave or yucca
stalk held down by the feet. They carry a slow torch of dead wood
(spunk) and also use a flint and steel. For tinder they use dry grass or
bark fiber. They use also a fungus, _polyporus_ sp., for the same
purpose.
Another reference to the fire making of this stock (Yuman) is found in
the translation by the late Dr. Charles Rau of the writings of Father
Baegert on the Californian Peninsula.[8] He says:
To light a fire, the Californian makes no use of steel and flint, but
obtains it by the friction of two pieces of wood. One of them is
cylindrical and pointed at one end, which fits into a round cavity in
the other, and by turning the cylindrical piece with great rapidity
between their hands, like a twirling-stick, they succeed in igniting
the lower piece if they continue the process for a sufficient length
of time.
The Navajo fire-set looks very much like a mere makeshift. The hearth is
a piece of yucca stalk and the fire-holes have but a shallow side notch.
The drill is a broken arrow shaft, to which has been rudely lashed with
a cotton rag a smaller piece of yucca wood (fig. 15). This carelessness,
which it is rather than lack of skill, is characteristic of the Navajos
in their minor implements. They resemble the crude Apache in this. One
thinks of the Navajos only with regard to their fine blanket weaving and
silver working, so well presented by Dr. Washington Matthews in the
reports of the Bureau of Ethnology, and does not consider their arts in
other lines.[9]
[Illustration: Fig. 15. Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No. 9555, U. S. N. M. Navajo Indians, New Mexico. Collected by
Edward Palmer.)]
Mr. Thomas C. Battey, a Friend, long missionary among the Indians,
kindly gives a description of the Kiowan fire-making process, not now
practiced among them, but shown to him as a relic of an abandoned art:
A piece of very hard and coarse, rough-grained wood, perhaps 8 inches
in length, 2 in width, and three-fourths of an inch in thickness is
procured. In one side of this and near one edge several holes are
made, about one-half an inch in diameter by five-eighths of an inch in
depth, rounded at the bottom, but left somewhat rough or very slightly
corrugated. In the edge nearest these holes a corresponding number of
smaller and tapering holes are made, opening by a small orifice into
the bottom of each of the larger ones. These are made very smooth.
A straight stick, also of hard, rough-grained wood, about 8 or 10
inches in length, about the size they usually make their arrows or
larger, is provided. Both ends of this are rounded, but one end is
made smooth, the other is left slightly rough. The dried pith of some
kind of reed, or more probably of the yucca, some fibers of the same
loosely prepared like hackled flax, some powdered charcoal, I think
formed by charring the yucca, and a piece of hard thick leather
similar to sole leather, completes the outfit, which is carried in a
leather bag made for the purpose. The first described piece of wood is
placed upon the knees of the operator with a quantity of the fibrous
substance beneath it which has been powdered with charcoal dust; some
of the latter is put into one of the holes and the rough end of the
stick inserted, the other end is put into an indentation of the
leather placed under the chin, so that a gentle pressure may be
exerted. The spindle is then rapidly revolved by rolling it one way
and the other between the hands. The friction thus produced by the
rubbing of the roughened surfaces ignites the fine coal dust, which,
dropping as sparks of fire through the orifice at the bottom of the
hole, falls into the dry fibrous preparation, thus igniting that, then
by the breath blowing upon it a flame is produced and communicated to
some fine dry wood and a fire is soon obtained. The whole operation
occupies but a few minutes.
[Illustration: Fig. 16. Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No. 15396. U. S. N. M. Natives of Talamanca, Costa Rica.
Collected by Prof. W. M. Gabb.)]
One of the rudest fire-making appliances in the Museum was collected by
Prof. W. M. Gabb, at Talamanca, Costa Rica. The hearth is a rude billet
of charred, black wood, resembling mahogany. It has central holes, with
no gutter usually, though sometimes a shallow notch is cut on both sides
of the fire-hole. The drill is a light branch, rather crooked, but
dressed down roughly with a knife. Another hearth is of partly decayed,
worm-eaten wood; with this a hard wood drill can be used, the hearth
wasting away instead of the drill (fig. 16.) The absence of any fire
slot, that is, the use of the central fire-hole, is worthy of notice in
this locality. I have only observed its use in various parts of the
Eskimo area, from East Greenland to Kadiak; outside of this range I have
not noticed it anywhere else among the present tribes of the world. From
descriptions given it seems to have been practiced by the Caranchua
Indians, a recently extinct tribe in Texas and Mexico. (See below.)
These specimens from Costa Rica are the crudest fire tools, not to be
mere make-shifts, that have come to my notice or have been described in
the literature examined. The Costa Rican Indians are very interesting in
their preservation of several other arts that may justly be classed
among the most ancient. One may be mentioned, that of bark cloth making.
Professor Gabb made quite a collection from Talamanca, but has not left
any notes on these remarkable people, who are well worthy of the careful
study of ethnologists.
A curious modification of this central hole plan is figured and
described in Oviedo, folio 90, as occurring in Hispaniola; that is, the
West Indies, Hayti, San Domingo, etc. He says that “two dry light sticks
of brown wood were tied firmly together, and the point of the drill of a
particular hard wood was inserted between the two and then worked.” Mr.
H. Ling Roth[10] thinks that if one can judge from the illustration
(which is a miserable one) in Benzoni’s work, the natives of Nicaragua
also used three sticks in making fire. Benzoni, however, says:[11]
All over India they light fire with two pieces of wood; although they
had a great deal of wax, they knew no use for it, and produced light
from pieces of wild pine wood.
From Oviedo’s description I am inclined to believe that the dust in
which the fire starts was allowed to fall below on tinder placed beneath
the hearth.
Through the kindness of Prof. F. W. Putnam, curator of the Peabody
Museum, at Cambridge, Mass., I have received an extract from a
manuscript written by Mrs. Alice W. Oliver, of Lynn, who, as a girl, in
1838 resided on Matagorda Bay, and learned the language and customs of
the Caranchua Indians, a separate stock, now thought to be extinct.
Mrs. Oliver says:
After the hut is built a fire is made, the squaws usually begging fire
or matches from the settlers, but, in case their fire is out and they
have no other means of kindling it, they resort to the primitive
method of producing it by friction of wood. They always carry their
fire-sticks with them, keeping them carefully wrapped in several
layers of skins tied up with thongs and made into a neat package; they
are thus kept very dry, and as soon as the occasion for their use is
over, they are immediately wrapped up again and laid away.
These sticks are two in number. One of them is held across the knees
as they squat on the ground, and is about two feet long, made of a
close-grained, brownish-yellow wood (perhaps pecan), half round in
section; the flat face, which is held upward, is about an inch across.
Three cylindrical holes about half an inch in diameter and of equal
depth, the bottoms slightly concave, are made in it. The three holes
are equally distant apart, about 2 inches, and the first one is the
same distance from the end of the stick, which rests upon the right
knee. In one of the holes is inserted the slightly-rounded end of a
twirling stick made of a white, softer kind of wood, somewhat less
than the diameter of the hole, so as to turn easily, and about 18
inches long.
Holding the twirler vertically between the palms of the hands, a
gentle but rapid alternating rotary motion is imparted. After
continuing this for about five minutes the abrasion of the softer wood
causes a fine, impalpable dust to collect in the hole, from which soon
issues a thin, blue line of smoke.
As soon as the Indian sees this he quickly withdraws his twirler with
one hand, while with the other he catches up and crushes a few dry
leaves previously placed on a dry cloth close by (having been produced
from thin wrappings, in which they have been preserved for this very
purpose, to serve as tinder), and quickly but lightly sprinkles them
in and around the hole, over which both hands are now held
protectingly, the head bent down, and the incipient fire fanned to a
blaze with the breath. As soon as the blaze has fairly caught, the
stick and tinder are deftly turned over upon a little pile of dry
twigs and leaves, got ready beforehand, and the fire is started.
This operation of getting fire is always performed by the men, and not
by the squaws. The fire is invariably built in the center of the hut,
upon the ground, and, is usually kept burning, for the Indians never
slept regularly, but whenever they pleased, often asleep in the day
time and awake nights, or _vice versa_, as they felt inclined.