other party, or for smouldering remains of a lately-abandoned fire of their own.[1] This curious account fits with the Tasmanian myth recorded by Mr. Milligan, which tells how fire was thrown down like a star by two black-fellows, who are now in the sky, the twin stars Castor and Pollux.[2] Moreover, Mr. Milligan himself, on the question being put to him, has answered it in a way very much corresponding to Mr. Backhouse's account, to the effect that the Tasmanians never produced fire by artificial means at all, but always carried it with them from one camping place to another. Again, a statement of the same kind is reported to have been made by Mr. MacDonall Stuart at the 1864 Meeting of the British Association, that fire was obtained by the natives of the southern part of Australia by the friction of two pieces of wood over a bunch of dry grass; but that in the north this mode is unknown, fire-brands being constantly carried about and renewed, and if, by any accident, they become extinguished, a journey of great length has to be undertaken in order to obtain fire from other natives.[3] So Mr. Angas declares that some tribes of West Australia have no means of kindling fire, but if it goes out they get it from some encampment near; they say that their fire formerly came down from the north.[4] With these statements two things must be borne in mind. The simple apparatus for making fire by friction was in common use among Australian tribes, and in Tasmania. And it has been several times remarked that Australians, although acquainted with the art of making new fire with this instrument, yet finding the process troublesome, especially in wet weather, carry burning brands about with them everywhere, so as to be able to light a fire at a moment's notice.[5]
- ↑ Backhouse, 'Australia,' p. 99.
- ↑ See Chapter XII. Mr. Calder in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. vol. iii. p. 19, accounts for the Tasmanians' non-use of the friction-apparatus by stating that the trees of the country are mostly too hard and uninflammable for the purpose. [Note to 3rd Edition.]
- ↑ 'Athenæum,' Oct. 15, 1864, p. 503.
- ↑ Angas, 'Savage Life;' vol. i. p. 112.
- ↑ Oldfield in Tr. Eth. Soc., vol. iii. p. 233. Dumont d'Urville, 'Voyage de l'Astrolabe;' vol. i. p. 95. See Sir John Lubbock's remarks on accounts of tribes without fire, or without the art of fire-making, in 'Prehistoric Times,' pp. 433. 439, 547.
