[822]. Oscar Peschel, Völkerkunde 6th Ed. (Leipsic, 1885), p. 138. Mr. Man thinks it likely that the Andaman Islanders got their fire from one of the two volcanoes which exist in their island (On the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, p. 82). The Creek Indians of North America have a tradition that some of their ancestors procured fire from a volcano. See A. S. Gatschet, A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, ii. (St. Louis, 1888) p. 11 (43).
[823]. O. Peschel, loc. cit. As to the fires of Baku see further, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, p. 159.
[824]. R. Taylor, Te Ika A Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants, 2nd Ed., p. 367; W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), ii. 194; A. Kuhn, Herabkunft des Feuers, 2nd Ed., pp. 92, 102. Lucretius thought that the first fire was procured either from lightning or from the mutual friction of trees in a high wind (De rerum natura, v. 1091-1101). The latter source was preferred by Vitruvius (De architectura, ii. 1. 1).
[825]. Sir Harry H. Johnston, ll.cc. Professor K. von den Steinen conjectures that savages, who already possessed fire, and were wont to use tinder to nurse a smouldering brand into a blaze, may have accidentally discovered the mode of kindling fire in an attempt to make tinder by rubbing two dry sticks or reeds against each other. See K. von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens, pp. 219-228.
[826]. J. Dumont D’Urville, Voyage autour du monde et à la recherche de la Perouse, i. (Paris, 1832) pp. 95, 194; Scott Nind, “Description of the Natives of King George’s Sound,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, i. (1832) p. 26; E. J. Eyre, Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, ii. 357; A. Oldfield, “The Aborigines of Australia,” Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, N.S., iii. (1865) pp. 283 sq.; J. Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 15; Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xvii. (1845) pp. 76 sq.
[827]. R. Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, i. 396.
[828]. R. Taylor, Te Ika A Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants, 2nd Ed., p. 567. Other writers confirm the statement that the carrying of the fire-sticks is the special duty of the women. See W. Stanbridge, “On the Aborigines of Victoria,” Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, N.S., i. (1861) p. 291; J. F. Mann, “Notes on the Aborigines of Australia,” Proceedings of the Geographical Society of Australasia, i. (1885) p. 29.
[829]. Melville, quoted by H. Ling Roth, The Aborigines of Tasmania (London, 1890), p. 97. It has sometimes been affirmed that the Tasmanians did not know how to kindle fire; but the evidence collected by Mr. Ling Roth (op. cit., pp. xii. sq., 96 sq.), proves that they were accustomed to light it both by the friction of wood and by striking flints together.
[830]. Mr. Dove, quoted by James Bonwick, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, p. 20.
[831]. Wilfred Powell, Wanderings in a Wild Country (London, 1883), p. 196.