Page:Aboriginesofvictoria01.djvu/480

396 Travellers have informed me that they have seen the wooden knife or wedge employed by some men in the interior exactly in the same way as the Maories use it—that is to say, rubbed rapidly along a groove until the fine charcoal-dust at the extremity is ignited. The Aborigines of the Yarra, and others in Victoria, assert that they have never heard of this plan.

There are probably many other ways of using the fire-sticks known to the tribes in the interior; but all the evidence yet obtained shows that friction only—and no easier or better method—is resorted to by the Australians on the somewhat rare occasions when they have to practise the art of getting fire. Their habits, in the ordinary life of a tribe, would prevent the necessity of having recourse to the fire-sticks. Whether encamped or travelling, a tribe is always well provided with fire. It is the duty of the women to carry fire. A stick, a piece of decayed wood, or more often the beautiful seed-stem of the Banksia, is lighted at the fire the woman is leaving; and from her bag, which, in damp weather, she would keep filled with dry cones, or from materials collected in the forest, she would easily, during her journey, preserve the fire got at the last encampment.

Messengers, warriors on an expedition, and hunters, would sometimes have to use the fire-sticks, but in ordinary camp life rarely.

It happens, consequently, that white men who have lived with the Aborigines, and who have become acquainted with many of their practices, are unable to say how fire is procured; and when asked to describe the process, state vaguely that two sticks are rubbed together, and that, after some exertion, one of them bursts into a flame. In all the processes the knack consists in keeping the charcoal-powder exactly in the place where there is the most friction, and it is needless to say the stick does not burst into a flame.

The art of making fire is, without doubt, known to all races of men. The legends and stories and some curious practices of the highly-civilized peoples of Europe, show that their remote ancestors procured fire exactly in the same way as the Australian gets it, i.e., by friction.