"They then seizing the sharp-cut stake of the wood of the olive
Thrust it into his eye. the while I standing above them,
Bored it into the hole:—as a shipwright, boreth a timber,
Guiding the drill that his men below drive backward and forward,
Pulling the ends of the thong while the point runs round without
ceasing."
In modern India, butter-churns are worked with a cord in this way, and the Brahmans still use a cord-drill in producing the sacred fire, as will be more fully stated presently. Halfway round the world, the same thing is found among the Esquimaux. Davis (after whom Davis's Straits are named) describes in 1586 how a Greenlander "beganne to kindle a fire in this maner: he tooke a piece of a board wherein was a hole halfe thorow: into that hole he puts the end of a round stick like unto a bedstaffe, wetting the end thereof in Trane, and in fashion of a turner with a piece of lether, by his violent motion doeth very speedily produce fire."[1]
Fig. 24.
The cut, Fig. 24, is taken from a drawing of. the last century, representing two Esquimaux making fire, one holding a cross-piece to keep the spindle steady and force it well down to its bearing, while the
- ↑ Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 104.
