Other devices were intended to be carried in the pocket, and were probably brought out by the introduction of tobacco and the need of smokers for a convenient light.
Fig. 50. Strike-a-light (Briquet).
(Cat. No 129693, U. S. N. M. Boulogne-sur-mer. France. Collected by Edward Lovett.)
The pocket strike-a-light is still used. The one shown ([fig. 50]) was bought in 1888 by Mr. E. Lovett, at Boulogne-sur-mer. They are still used by the peasants and work-people of France. An old specimen in the Museum of this character is from Lima. The roll of tinder, or “match,” is made of the soft inner bark of a tree.
Among many of our North American tribes the flint and steel superseded the wooden drills as effectually as did the iron points the stone arrow-heads.
Some of these tribes were ripe for the introduction of many modern contrivances. Civilized methods of fire-lighting appealed to them at once. Among the Chukchis, Nordenskiöld says, matches had the honor of being the first of the inventions of the civilized races that have been recognized as superior to their own.[61] It was so among our Indian tribes; the Mandan chief “Four Bears” lighted his pipe by means of a flint and steel taken from his pouch when George Catlin visited him in 1832.[62]
The Otoes (Siouan stock) made use of the flint and steel shown in [fig. 51]. The flint is a chipped piece of gray chert, probably an ancient implement picked up from the surface.
The steel is a very neatly made oval, resembling those of the Albanian strike-a-lights,[63] or the Koordish pattern, ([fig. 54]). Here arises one of the perplexities of modern intercourse, perhaps both of these steels were derived from the same commercial center.
The flint, steel, and tinder were always carried in a pouch, usually suspended from a belt as in specimen No. 8481 from the Assiniboins (Siouan stock) of Dakota. This is a buckskin waist-belt, beaded and fringed, ornamented with bells of tin. It supports a flapped pouch for the flint, etc. The tinder used was fungus.
