MANY METHODS ARE EMPLOYED IN MAKING FIRE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18938, 7 December 1929, Page 23 (Supplement)

MANY METHODS ARE EMPLOYED IN MAKING FIRE.

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 Negritos 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 groove 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 Uie tube. To produce fire, the native draws the plunger out and then drives it home smartly. Of course, one of the most familial of primitive fire-making devices is the band drill. The bow drill also may be used both for making fire, and then with a change of drills be made to serve as an efficient tool for penetrating shell, bone or stone. Strangely 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 mechanics. 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. When an Eskimo gets a match, he promptly makes two matches out of one by care-

fully slitting the slender fire-stick from head to butt with a fine needle.) (A.A.N.S.)