South Sea Islands, namely, in Tahiti, New Zealand, the Sandwich, Tonga, Samoa, and Radack groups;[1] but I have never found it distinctly mentioned out of this region of the world. Even should it be known elsewhere, its isolation in a particular district round which other processes prevail would still be an ethnographical fact of some importance. It is to be noticed also, that it comes much nearer than "fire-drilling" to the yet simpler process of striking fire with two pieces of split bamboo. The silicious coating of this cane makes it possible to strike fire with it; and this is done in Eastern Asia, and also in the great Malay islands of Borneo and Sumatra,[2] at or near the source whence the higher Polynesian race is supposed to have spread over the Pacific Islands. But it would appear that the striking fire with bamboo, simple as it seems, is for some reason not so convenient as the use of the more complex friction-apparatus; for Marsden seems to consider the fire-drill as the regular native instrument in Sumatra, though he says he has also seen the same effect produced more simply by rubbing one bit of bamboo, with a sharp edge, across another.
By a change in the way of working, the "stick-and-groove" becomes the "fire-drill." I have been obliged to coin both these terms, no suitable ones being forthcoming. The fire-drill, in its simplest form, is represented in Fig. 21; and Captain Cook's remarks on it and its use, among the native tribes of Australia, may serve also as a general description of it all over the world, setting aside minor details. "They produce fire with great facility, and spread it in a wonderful manner. To produce it they take two pieces of dry soft wood; one is a stick about eight or nine inches long, the other piece is flat: the stick they shape into an obtuse point at one end, and pressing it upon the other, turn it nimbly by holding it between both their hands, as
- ↑ Darwin, in Narr., vol. iii. p. 488. Polack, vol. i. p. 165. Tyerman and Bennet, vol. i. p. 141. Buschmann, 'Iles Marquises,' etc.; Berlin, 1843, pp. 140-1. Mariner, Vocab., s. vv. tolo-afi, tolonga, cownatoo. S. S. Farmer, 'Tonga,' etc.: London, 1855, p. 138. Walpole, 'Four Years in the Pacific;' London, 1849, vol. ii. p. 377. Kotzebue, vol. iii. p. 154. See mention of fire made by rubbing, not drilling, two pieces of wood, in Rochefort, 'Iles Antilles,' p. 440.
- ↑ Bowring, vol. i p. 206. St. John, vol. i. p. 137. Marsden, p. 60. See Tennent, 'Ceylon,' vol. i. p. 105.
