Page:Firemaking Apparatus in the U.S. National Museum.djvu/68

 580 KEPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. The flint, steel, and tinder were always carried in a pouch, usually suspended from a belt as in specimen No. 8481 from the Assiuiboius (Siouan stock) of Dakota. This is a buckskin waist-belt, beaded and fringed, ornamented with bells of tin. It supports a flapped pouch for the flint, etc. The tinder used was fungus. .^-tj J^JA'jJS^J^'J'*^ Fig. 51. Flint and Steel. (Cat. No. 22*31, U. S. N. M. Otoe Indians, Kansas and Nebraska. Collected by J. W. Griest) The pouch of the Oheyennes(Algonquian stock) is compact, and neatly made of leather (fig. 52). The equipment is complete and of a supe- rior order. The bone cup is used to hold the tinder while striking a spark into it. It is the tinder horn of early days, a cow's horn which was used to hold tinder before sheet-iron boxes came into use. The Lenguas of Brazil use a horn for the same purpose.* In the Aino set, (fig. 57), and the Eskimo strike-alight, (fig. 45), can be seen this feature. The tinder with this set is rotten wood. Nearly all Indians know the value of fungus tinder. The Comanche Indian strike-a-light is a similar pouch to the one de- scribed, but much poorer in equipment (fig. 53.) A broken rasp, a piece of chert, and a piece of spunk, is enough for the purpose, and a bag made from a saddle skirt to hold them, completes the outfit. The flint and steel is still used nearly all over Mexico, Dr. Palmer informs me. There is at present a manufacture of gun and strike-a- light flints at Brandon, England, whence they are shipped to Spain, JBaud, 1888, pp. 114-115.
 * See figure in Jahrbuch Miltelscliweiz. Commercial. Ge^ellscUj Arau^ Zweiter