Page:Firemaking Apparatus in the U.S. National Museum.djvu/27

 FIRE-MAKING APPARATUS. with the grain, in effect accomplishes what the use of wood of different qualities results in. The hearth and drill are in the neij;hborhood of 12 inches long, the former with a diam- eter of three-eighths of an inch and the latter one-fourth of an inch. They were collected by Dr. Charles Pick- ering in 1843. It is possible that the Somalis may have carried this method with them from Arabia. They conquered this coast, driving back the earlier tribes inhabiting the coun- try in the early part of the fifteenth century. Long since that time, and even now, some Arab tribes practice the )i ' drillingof wooden sticks to produce fire. In eastern equatorial Africa the Wataveita, says Mr. H. n. Johnston, generate fire in the common African way by rapidly drilling a hard-pointed stick into a small hole in a flat piece of wood. An interesting bit of custom comes out in connection with this art among the people. '*It is the exclusive i)rivilege of the men, and the secret is handed down from father to son, and never under any conditions (as threy say) revealed to women." I asked )' Fig. 19. FiUEMAKiNG Set. (Cat. No. 129971, U. S. N. M. So.nalis. K. Af'ri.a. Collectt'il Ijv Dr.Charles Pirkerini?. L^nt by I'eabody Miiseii.n throiigli Vrol. r. W. Pmiiaiii. ) Fig 20. TaVEITA AFKICAN.S MAKING FiRE. After IT. H. .lobiiston. (See Jour. Soc. Arts. .Jiii.c 24, 1887. ) one man why that was. " Oh," he said, ^' if women knew how to make fire they would become our masters." * The figure (fig. 20) shows how this i)eople of the great Bantu stock make fire; this tribe visited by Mr Johnston lives on the slopes of the beautiful Kilimanjaro Mountain.
 * J. Anthrop. Inst. Great Britaiu and Ireland. 18d5. xv, p. 10.