The Ainos of Japan use flint and steel for striking-a-light, this method having supplanted the generation of fire by sticks ([p. 551].) This outfit shown ([fig. 57], pl. LXXXI) is complete. The shoe-shaped steel is attached by a piece of sinew to the cork of a small wooden bottle containing the soft charcoal used as tinder. The flint is a small piece of ferruginous silex. With this set is a piece of stick which retains fire for a long time. It is the root of the Ulmus campestris, or lævis, formerly used for the fire-drill (see [fig. 17]), but has come into a secondary place since the introduction of the flint and steel.
Fig. 54. Flint and Steel.
(Cat. No 126576, U. S. N. M. Guadalajara Indiana, Mexico. Collected by Edward Palmer.)
Fig. 55. Smokers’ Pipe-lighting Outfit (showing flint, steel, pipe-pick, and pincers).
(Cat. No. 130607, U. S. N. M. Koords of Bhotan, eastern Turkey. Collected by Rev. A. N. Andrus.)
Fig. 56. Strike-a-light.
(Cat. No. 130311, U. S. N. M. China. Gift of George G. Fryer.)
Plate LXXXI.
Fig. 57. Strike-a-light. Flint, steel, tinder-box, and rush-pouch.
Cat. No. 22257, U. S. N. M. Ainos of Yezo, Japan. Collected by B. S. Lyman.