FIRE OF THE WORLD

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1929, Page 4

FIRE OF THE WORLD

HOW WILD FOLK GET SMOKE: The pigmies of New Guinea tremble in awe when a match is struck. They fear the magic of the reading lens used by explorers to bring the sun’s rays into a heap of dried leaves. But the pigmies make fire in a manner that causes the civilised white men to do their share of wondering. Those little folk “saw” their fire out of a piece of wood with a strip of flexible Bamboo. In the Philippines, the Negrotis rub one piece of bamboo across the other, using shavings for tinder. Some tribes of India and Burma do the same. In the Polynesian Groups, in the South Seas, another interesting friction process is used. This is the fire plough. A hard rubbing stick about eighteen inches long/ is moved backwards and forwards along the surface of a softer piece of wood until the resulting friction lights the wood dust in the grove thus formed. One of the most interesting methods of obtaining the precious flame is that used in certain parts of the . East: Siam, Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sarawak, Java and the Philippine Islands. There they make fire with, a .popgun, technically called a fire syringe. These odd fire-producers consist of a wooden tube, with a short plunger fitting tightly in the bore of the gun, and a wad of tinder packed in the lower end of the tube. To produce fire, the native draws the plunger out and then drives it home smartly. Of course, one of the most familiar of primitive fire-making devices is the hand drill. The bow drill also may be used both for making fire, and then with a change of drills be made to serve as ah efficient tool for penetrating shell, bone or stone. Strange enough this type of primitive drill is used by modern jewellers in drilling the most costly pearls. There has been no change in this method since the dawn of mechancis. Small chunks of iron pyrites are carried by the Eskimos of the North as their fire-making apparatus. In Baffin Land matches are held as precious as gold or silver.