Page:Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization.djvu/247

Rh The accounts, then, of the finding of fireless tribes are of a highly doubtful character; possibly true to some extent, but not probably so. Of the existence of others who are possessed of fire, but cannot produce it for themselves, there is more considerable evidence. But, on the other hand, both the possession of fire, and the art of making it, belong certainly to the vast majority of mankind, and have done so as far back as we can trace. The methods, however, which have been found in use for making fire are very various. A survey of the condition of the art in different parts of the world, as known to us by direct evidence, is enough to make it probable that nearly all the different processes found in use are the successors of ruder ones; and, besides this, there is a mass of indirect evidence which fills up some of the shortcomings of history, as it does in the investigation of the Stone Age. Among some of the highest races of mankind, the lower methods of fire-making are still to be seen cropping out through the higher processes by which, for so many ages, they have been overlaid. The friction of two pieces of wood may perhaps be the original means of fire-making used by man; but, between the rudest and the most artificial way in which this may be done, there is a considerable range of progress.

One of the simplest machines for producing fire is that which may be called the "stick-and- groove." A blunt-pointed stick is run along a groove of its own making in a piece of wood lying on the ground, somewhat as shown in the imaginary drawing, Fig. 20. Mr. Darwin says that the very light wood of the Hibiscus tiliaceus was alone used for the purpose in Tahiti. A native would produce fire with it in a few seconds; he himself found it very hard work, but at length succeeded. This stick-and-groove process has been repeatedly described in the