Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/32

cane of the grass tree, about eighteen inches long. One end of the cane is bored out, and is stuffed with tinder, made by teasing out the dry bark of the messmate tree. The operator sits down and grasps the bone, point upwards, with his feet; he then places the hollow end of the cane, containing the bark, on the point of the bone, and, with both hands, presses downwards, and twirls the upright cane with great rapidity till the friction produces fire. Or, in the absence of the kangaroo bone, a piece of dry grass tree cane, having in its upper side a hole bored to the pith, is held flat on the ground with the feet, and the sharp point of a piece of soft wood is pressed into the hole, and twirled vertically between the palms of the hands till combustion takes place. Some dry stringy-bark fibre having been placed round the hole, the fire is communicated to it by blowing. The writer has seen flame produced by this method in two minutes.