Fire-making Apparatus in the U. S. National Museum

by Walter Hough

Plate LXXIV.

Figs. 21, 22. Fire-making Set and Extra Hearth.
Cat. No. 10258, U. S. N. M. Frobisher Bay. Collected by Capt. C. F. Hall.

Fig. 22.

Fig. 23. Moss in a Leathern Case.
Cat. No. 10191, U. S. N. M. Collected by Capt. C. F. Hall.

Fig. 24. Boring-set.
Cat. No. 34114, U. S. N. M. Cumberland Gulf. Collected by L. Kumlein.

The difference between these features is, that it is found to be more difficult to get fire by a single hole without groove, or slot, than when the latter features are added. The powder forms a ring around the edge of the hole, is liable to be dispersed, and does not get together in sufficient amount to reach the requisite heat for ignition. Of course this is obviated when a second hole is bored connecting with the first, when the latter becomes a receptacle for the powder.

It is found that these different ways are due to environmental modification, showing itself as remarkably in fire-making, as in any other Eskimo art. Both the stepped and central-hole hearth are different devices for the same end. The step on the hearth is to keep the pellet of glowing powder from falling off into the snow, so universal in Eskimo-land; hence, the simple hearth of primitive times and peoples of warmer climates has received this addition. The same reason caused the Eskimo to bore the holes in the middle of the block.

By following the distribution of the center hole method, a clew may perhaps be gotten to the migrations of the Eskimo.

From Labrador to Norton Sound, by the collections in the Museum, the center hole is alone used; south of Norton Sound both methods prevail, with a preponderance of the stepped-hearth species. The step seems to be an addition to the Indian hearth; the center is an independent invention.

The operation of the drill is well told in the oft-quoted description by Sir. E. Belcher. The writer can attest to the additional statement, that the teeth of civilized man can scarcely stand the shock. He says:

“The thong of the drill bow being passed twice around the drill, the upper end is steadied by a mouth-piece of wood, having a piece of the same stone imbedded, with a counter-sunk cavity. This, held firmly between the teeth, directs the tool. Any workman would be astonished at the performance of this tool on ivory; but having once tried it myself, I found the jar or vibration on the jaws, head, and brain, quite enough to prevent my repeating it.”[32]

The ethnographical study of the Eskimo fire-drill begins with Labrador, including Greenland and following the distribution of the people among the islands and around the North American coast, to Kadiak Island and the Aleutian chain. The following is an interesting account from Labrador, showing what a man would do in the exigency:

He cut a stout stick from a neighboring larch, and taking out the leather thong with which his moccasins were tied, made a short bow and strung it. He then searched for a piece of dry wood, and having found it, cut it into shape, sharpened both ends, and twisted it once around the bowstring; he then took a bit of fungus from his pocket and put it into a little hole which he made in another dry piece of wood with the point of the knife. A third piece of dry wood was fashioned into a handle for his drill.[33]

Eskimo in other localities often use such make-shifts. Cup cavities are often observed in the handles of knives and other bone and ivory tools where they have used them for heads of the fire-drill.

Cumberland Gulf is the next locality to the northward. There are several specimens in the collection from this part of Baffin Land, procured by the famous explorer, Captain Hall, and the less known, but equally indefatigable Kumlein. The fire-making implements from Cumberland Gulf have a markedly different appearance from those of any other locality in the Eskimo area. They have a crude look, and there is a paucity of ornamention unusual among this people. The drill bow is one of the things which the Eskimo usually decorates, but these bows have not even a scratch.

It can be inferred that in Baffin Land, more unfavorable conditions prevail than in southern Alaska. It must be this cause coupled with poor food supply, that have conspired to make them the most wretched of the Eskimo.

The hearth ([fig. 21], pl. LXXIV) is of drift oak. It was collected at Frobisher Bay by Capt. Charles F. Hall. It has central holes, and appears to be very unfavorable wood for fire-making. The block hearth is also from Frobisher Bay ([fig. 22], pl. LXXIV). It is an old piece of hemlock, with two central communicating holes. The mouth-piece is a block of ivory. Another mouth-piece is a bit of hard wood soaked in oil; it was used with a bone drill having an iron point. A very small, rude bow goes with this set ([fig. 24]).

Fig 25. Fire-making Set.
(Angmagsalik Eskimo, E. Greenland. Copied from G. Holm’s Ethnologisk of Angmagsalikerne, 1887.)

Our knowledge of eastern Greenland has been very much increased by the explorations of Holm and Garde, who reached a village on the east coast never before visited by a white man. Extensive collections were made, both of information and specimens. In reference to fire-making, Mr. Holm reports:

“They make fire by turning a hard stick, of which the socket end is dipped in train oil, very rapidly around by means of a sealskin thong with handles. This stick is fixed at one end into a head set with bone, and the other end is pressed down into a cavity on the lower piece of wood ([fig. 25]). Therefore there must be two persons in order to make a fire. One turns the drill with the cord, while the other presses it down on the hearth; both support the block with their feet. As soon as the dust begins to burn they fan it with the hand. When it is ignited, they take it and put it into dried moss (sphagnum), blow it, and soon get a blaze. In this way they make a fire in an incredibly short time.”[34]

In the preliminary report, Mr. Holm gives the time at almost less than half a minute. It was made by the Eskimo, Illinguaki, and his wife, who, on being presented with a box of matches, gave up their drill, saying that they had no farther use for it.

In the same report Mr. Holm gives an interesting note. He says:

This fire apparatus is certainly better developed than that which has been described and drawn by Nordenskiöld from the Chukchis (Voy. of the Vega, II, p. 126). The principle is the same as the Greenlander’s drill, which they employ for making holes in wood and bone, and which is furnished with a bow and mouth-piece.[35] ([fig. 26].)

Fig. 26. Boring Set.
(Angmagsalik Eskimo, E. Greenland. G. Holm’s Ethnologisk of Angmagsalikerne.)

The central holes of this hearth are worthy of note, occurring in the farthest eastern locality of the Eskimo, and in Labrador.

Western Greenland.—The material in the Museum from western Greenland is very scanty. The southern coast has been settled for so long a time that the Eskimo and many of their arts have almost become extinct. No view of fire-making in Greenland would be complete without Davis’s quaint description of it, made three hundred years ago, but it was the upper end of the spindle that was wet in Trane. A Greenlander “begaune to kindle a fire in this manner: He tooke a piece of a boord wherein was a hole half thorow; into that hole he puts the end of a round sticke like unto a bedstaffe, wetting the end thereof in Trane, and in a fashion of a turner with a piece of lether, by his violent motion doeth very speedily produce fire.”[36]

Eskimo graves and village sites yield evidence also that the fire-making tools were not different from those at present used higher north along the coast, and on the east coast.

Dr. Bessels, speaking of Itah Eskimo of Foulke Fiord in Smith Sound, says: “The catkins of the arctic willow are used as tinder to catch the sparks produced by grinding two pieces of stone. Also the widely diffused ‘fire-drill’ is found here; the spindle is held between a piece of bone and a fragment of semi-decayed wood, and is set in motion by the well-known bow, and is turned until the wood begins to ignite.”[37]

The “fire-bag” is an accompaniment to all sorts of fire-making apparatus. The fire-bag shown ([fig. 27], pl. LXXV) was collected by Captain Hall, at Holsteinberg, western Greenland in 1860. It is made of sealskin, and is a good specimen of the excellent needlework of these Eskimo. It was used to carry, more especially, the fire-drill and tinder which require to be kept very dry.

There is a wide gap in the collections of the Museum between the locality of the specimen just mentioned, and the fire hearth from the Mackenzie River ([fig. 28]). This specimen is from Fort Simpson presumably, where B. R. Ross collected. It is said to be difficult to discriminate the Eskimo from the Indian on the lower Mackenzie. This hearth may be Indian, as it has that appearance; besides, no Eskimo hearth yet observed has side holes and slots like this without the step. The Indians of this region are of the great Athapascan stock of the North. The close resemblance of this stick to the one from the Washoans of Nevada has been commented upon. (See [fig. 6], [p. 537].)

There is also a very fine old central-hole hearth from the Mackenzie River, collected also by Mr. Ross. It is a rough billet of branch wood, cut apparently with an axe, or hatchet ([fig. 29]). It is semi-decayed and worm-eaten. It has ten central holes where fire has been made; they are quite deep, forming a gutter in the middle of the hearth. There is, as can be seen, no need of a groove, as the dust falls over into the next hole, collects in a mass, and ignites.

Fig. 28. Lower Part of Fire-making Set (on one end is gum for cement).
(Cat. No. 1978, U. S. N. M. Mackenzie River, B. C. Collected by B. R. Ross.)

Fig. 29. Lower Part of Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No. 1963, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Mackenzie River, B. C. Collected by B. R. Ross.)