THE MAGICAL AND CEREMONIAL USES OF FIRE.
BY WINIFRED S. BLACKMAN.
{Read at Meeting of May ijih, 19 16.)
There are no existing races without a knowledge of fire. On the other hand, the Andamanese are the only people certainly known to be without the art of producing it. Recently, however, in a very interesting book dealing with some of the tribes on the Amazon, it has been stated that " fire-making is unknown to the tribes on the south of the Japura;" though this knowledge is not lacking among the people north of that river.^ Such statements have, indeed, been made by other travellers from time to time in the past; but these have since been found to be false. The cause of error was doubtless lack of knowledge of the more primitive methods employed in making fire. Also, since many of these methods are more or less laborious, the people concerned would refrain from making fire more frequently than could possibly be helped ; and so, to avoid unnecessary work, care was taken not to let the fires go out. How great is the care exercised to prevent the extinc- tion of fires, even in a country where fire-making is well understood, is to be gathered from an example given by Dr. Haddon from the Torres Straits. A charm in the shape of a pregnant woman was placed near the fire when- ever the people were obliged to leave their houses for a time. The spirit belonging to this figure attended to the
^ T. Whiffen, The North- West Ainazotts, p. 48.
