FIRE OF THE WORLD

Hokitika Guardian, 28 November 1929, Page 7

FIRE OF THE WORLD

HOW WILD FOLK GET SMOKE,

PRIMITIVE AND INGENIOUS CONTRIVANCES.

I lie pigmies of New Guinea tremble i" mve when a match is struck. They lear the magic of the reading lens used by explorers to biing 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 tneir share of wondering. Those little folk “saw” their fire out of a piece of \Vood with a strip of flexible bamboo.

In the Philippines, the Negritos rub one piece ol 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 moving backwards and forwards along the surface of a softer pieee of wood until the resulting friction lights the wood dust in the grove thus formed, t 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, witli a short plunger fitted 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 lie made to serve as an efficient tool for penetrating shell, hone or stone. Strange enough this type of primitive drill is ns“d by modern jewellers in drilling the most costly pearls. There lias been no change in ill is method since the dawn of mechanics.

Small chunks of ir n Tivriles are carried by the Eskimos of the North as their fire-making apparatus, Jn ii-vfiin Land matches are held as precious as gold or silver.