When first Rolf noticed the wigwam's place, he wondered that Quonab had
not set it somewhere facing the lake, but he soon learned that it is
best to have the morning sun, the afternoon shade, and shelter from the
north and west winds.
The first two points were illustrated nearly every day; but it was two
weeks before the last was made clear.
That day the sun came up in a red sky, but soon was lost to view in a
heavy cloud-bank. There was no wind, and, as the morning passed, the day
grew hotter and closer. Quonab prepared for a storm; but it came with
unexpected force, and a gale of wind from the northwest that would
indeed have wrecked the lodge, but for the great sheltering rock. Under
its lea there was hardy a breeze; but not fifty yards away were two
trees that rubbed together, and in the storm they rasped so violently
that fine shreds of smoking wood were dropped and, but for the rain,
would surely have made a blaze. The thunder was loud and lasted long,
and the water poured down in torrents. They were ready for rain, but not
for the flood that rushed over the face of the cliff, soaking everything
in the lodge except the beds, which, being four inches off the ground,
were safe; and lying on them the two campers waited patiently, or
impatiently, while the weather raged for two drenching hours. And then
the pouring became a pattering; the roaring, a swishing; the storm, a
shower which died away, leaving changing patches of blue in the lumpy
sky, and all nature calm and pleased, but oh, so wet! Of course the fire
was out in the lodge and nearly all the wood was wet. Now Quonab drew
from a small cave some dry cedar and got down his tinder-box with flint
and steel to light up; but a serious difficulty appeared at once--the
tinder was wet and useless.
These were the days before matches were invented. Every one counted on
flint and steel for their fire, but the tinder was an essential, and now
a fire seemed hopeless; at least Rolf thought so.
“Nana Bojou was dancing that time,” said the Indian.
“Did you see him make fire with those two rubbing trees? So he taught
our fathers, and so make we fire when the tricks of the white man fail
us.”
Quonab now cut two pieces of dry cedar, one three fourths of an inch
thick and eighteen inches long, round, and pointed at both ends; the
other five eighths of an inch thick and flat. In the flat one he cut a
notch and at the end of the notch a little pit. Next he made a bow of
a stiff, curved stick, and a buckskin thong: a small pine knot was
selected and a little pit made in it with the point of a knife. These
were the fare-making sticks, but it was necessary to prepare the
firewood, lay the fire, and make some fibre for tinder. A lot of fine
cedar shavings, pounded up with cedar bark and rolled into a two-inch
ball, made good tinder, and all was ready. Quonab put the bow thong once
around the long stick, then held its point in the pit of the flat stick,
and the pine knot on the top to steady it. Now he drew the bow back and
forth, slowly, steadily, till the long stick or drill revolving ground
smoking black dust out of the notch. Then faster, until the smoke was
very strong and the powder filled the notch. Then he lifted the flat
stick, fanning the powder with his hands till a glowing coal appeared.
Over this he put the cedar tinder and blew gently, till it flamed, and
soon the wigwam was aglow.
The whole time taken, from lifting the sticks to the blazing fire, was
less than one minute.
This is the ancient way of the Indian; Rolf had often heard of it as a
sort of semi-myth; never before had he seen it, and so far as he could
learn from the books, it took an hour or two of hard work, not a few
deft touches and a few seconds of time.
He soon learned to do it himself, and in the years which followed,
he had the curious experience of showing it to many Indians who had
forgotten how, thanks to the greater portability of the white man's
flint and steel.
As they walked in the woods that day, they saw three trees that had been
struck by lightning during the recent storm; all three were oaks. Then
it occurred to Rolf that he had never seen any but an oak struck by
lightning.
“Is it so, Quonab?”
“No, there are many others; the lightning strikes the oaks most of all,
but it will strike the pine, the ash, the hemlock, the basswood, and
many more. Only two trees have I never seen struck, the balsam and the
birch.”
“Why do they escape?”
“My father told me when I was a little boy it was because they sheltered
and warmed the Star-girl, who was the sister of the Thunder-bird.”
“I never heard that; tell me about it.”
“Sometime maybe, not now.”