The Mokis are the most differentiated members of the Shoshonian stock. Mrs. T. E. Stevenson collected the two excellent fire-making sets in the Museum from the Moki Pueblos. The hearth is a branch of the very best quality of soft wood. In one hearth an end has been broken off, but there still remain eighteen fire-holes, showing that it was in use for a long time and highly prized ([fig. 10]). The drill is a roughly dressed branch of hard wood. It is comparatively easy to make fire on this apparatus. In the set numbered 126,694 these conditions are reversed; the hearth is tolerably hard wood and the drill soft wood.
The Moki fire-tools are used now principally in the estufas to light the sacred fire and the new fire as do the Zuñis, and the Aztecs of Mexico did hundreds of years ago. They use tinder of fungus or dried grass rubbed between the hands.
By their language the Zuñi people belong to a distinct stock of Indians. Their fire-sticks are of the agave stalk, a soft, pithy wood with harder longitudinal fibers, rendering it a good medium for the purpose of making fire.
As to the plan pursued in grinding out fire, Col. James Stevenson informed the writer that they make a slightly concave place where the burnt holes are seen, cut the notch on the side, sprinkle a little fine sand on the concavity, set the end of the round stick on the sand and roll it rapidly between the palms of the hands, pressing down hard. The “sawdust,” Colonel Stevenson called it, oozes out of the notch and forms a small mass, which on blowing slightly becomes a burning coal, and the application of a little tinder creates a blaze. For preserving the fire for any length of time they use a piece of decayed wood. (Figs. [11] and 12.)
Fig. 10. Fire-making Set.
(Cat. No. 128694, U. S. N. M., Moki Indians, Arizona. Collected by Mrs. T. E. Stevenson.)
Figs. 11 and 12. Fire-making Set and Slow Match.
(Cat. Nos. 127708 and 69850, U. S. N. M., Zuñi Indians, New Mexico. Collected by James Stevenson.)
Viewed in another aspect than as an implement of necessary or common use, this set is an important cult apparatus in the wonderfully complicated religious worship of the Zuñis. These people make the sacred fire that burns always in their estufas by friction of wood that has been wet. New fire is made at the beginning of their new year with great ceremony. The house is swept and everything is moved out of it until the fire is made. Their regard for fire and their customs with reference to it add them to the list of peoples who have held it in similar reverence and have practiced similar customs all over the world, ranging widely in time. The wetting of the drill, increasing their labor, may be done to please their Gods.
This art must have been practiced for a long time in this region, for Mr. Henry Metcalf found a hearth ([Fig. 13]) with three fire-holes in a cave-dwelling at Silver City, New Mexico. It is apparently very ancient. The wood is much altered and has become heavy by impregnation with some salt, probably niter.