Chamisso, who accompanied Kotzebue in his voyage, describes it as follows: "In the Caroline Islands, they rest a vertical piece of roundish wood, terminating in a point, and about a foot and a half in length and one inch in diameter, upon a second one fixed in the ground, and then give it a rotary motion by acting with the palms of the hands. This motion, which is at first slow and measured, is at length accelerated, while at the same time the pressure becomes stronger, whereupon the dust from the wood which has formed by friction and accumulated around the point of the movable piece begins to carbonize. This dust, which, after a fashion, constitutes a match, soon bursts into flame. The women of Eap are wonderfully dexterous in their use of this process."
FIG. 2.--PROCESS EMPLOYED IN NORTH AMERICA
FOR PRODUCING FIRE.
Fig. 3 shows another manner of obtaining fire by rotation which is employed by the Guachos, a half savage, pastoral people who inhabit the pampas of South America. Longitudinal friction must have preceded that obtained by rotation. It is still in use in most of the islands of Oceanica (Fig. 4), and especially in Tahiti and in the Sandwich Islands.
In these latter, says again Chamisso, upon the fixed piece of wood they place another piece of the same kind, about the length of the palm, and press it obliquely at an angle of about 30 degrees. The extremity that touches the fixed piece is blunt, and the other extremity is held with the two hands, the two thumbs downward, in order to allow of a surer pressure. The piece is given an alternating motion, and in such a way that it shall always remain in the same plane inclined at an angle of 30 degrees, and form, through friction, a small groove from six to eight centimeters in length. When the dust thus produced begins to carbonize, the pressure and velocity are increased. Wood of a homogeneous texture, neither too hard nor too soft, is the best for the purpose.
The Malays operate as follows: A dry bamboo rod, about a foot in length, is split longitudinally, and the pith which lines the inside is scraped off, pressed, and made into a small ball which is afterward placed in the center of the cavity of one of the halves of the tube. This latter half is then fixed to the ground in such a way that the cavity and ball face downward. The operator next fashions the other half of the tube into a straight cutting instrument like a knife-blade, which he applies transversely to the fixed half and gives an alternating motion so as to produce a sort of sawing. After a certain length of time, a groove, and finally a hole, is produced. The cutting edge of the instrument is then so hot that it sets on fire the ball with which it has come in contact.
FIG. 3.--GAUCHO OBTAINING FIRE.
Some peoples, the Fuegians especially, procure fire by striking together two flints. In the Aleutian Islands these latter, having been previously covered with sulphur, are struck against each other over a small saucer of dry moss dusted with sulphur. The Eskimos employ for this purpose pieces of quartz and iron pyrites.
In the Sandwich Islands recourse is had to a process that necessitates much skill. There is arranged in a large dry leaf, rolled into the shape of a funnel, a certain number of flints along with some easily combustible twigs. On attaching the leaf to the end of a rod, and revolving the latter rapidly, it is said that fire is produced.