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Frictional Fire-Making with a Flexible Sawing-Thong

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Frictional Fire-Making with a Flexible Sawing-Thong Frictional Fire-Making with a Flexible Sawing-Thong. Author(s): Henry Balfour Source: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 44 (Jan. - Jun., 1914), pp. 32-64 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2843530 . Accessed: 07/01/2015 14:55 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 204.17.31.62 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 32 FRICTIONAL FIRE-MAKING WITH A FLEXIBLE SAWING-THONG. BY HENRY BALFOUR. AMONGthe variousmethods whereby fire is obtainedby frictionof wood, there is one whose varietiesand geographicaldistribution have not hithertobeen described with any degree of comnpleteness,although its ethnological significanceis an importantone. I have, therefore,thought that it mightprove of use if I were to bringtogether rny notes on the subject,with a view to placing on record the wide range of this special method,as faras I have been able to trace it througha study of the literatuireand of specimenspreserved in inuseums and private collections. I hope that the descriptionsand the maps which I offermay be the means of elicitingfurther data, and that thus the complete geographicalrange of this fire- makingappliance may becomeknown. The better-knownfrictional fire-making apparatus which involves the employ- ment of a rigid,blade-like saw of bamboo or wood, is to be traced over an area which,to put it briefly,extends from India and Assam, though the Indo-Chinese region,the Malay Peninsula,and the Asiatic Archipelago,to Australia. It is also employedin the Nicobar Islands and in NorthAmerica, and has been claimed for one districtin CeintralAfrica. In Europe,too, it has been used in variousregions. I do not proposehere to give a detailed descriptionof its geographicaldispersal, buitmerely refer to it as beinga sawingmethod which is closely allied to the one underconsideration, and whosegeographical r'ange coincides to a verygreat extent with that of the latter. In the East, at any rate, it seems probable that the flexiblesaw, as applied to fire-making,is merelyan ilnterestingvariant of the rigid saw, and that these twomethods have one comrnonorigin. The essential differencebetween these two " sawing'"methods is to be seen in the "saw " itself,which in theone is a rigidblade or stick, and in the other is a flexibleband or thongu.In nearly all cases where the flexiblesaw is employed, the procedureis essentiallythe same. A stoutpiece of bamboo or wood is held in position,and a narrowthong of cane or othersuitable material is looped roundit, the frictionbeino caused by pulling the ends of the thongalternately, so that it is sawn across the stick or post, detachingi,in the process a fine wood-powderand generatingrby the frictionsufficient heat to ignite the powder and cause it to smoulder. From the smoulderingdust a flame can readily be obtained with the help of some quicklyinflamtmable material, such as dry grass,etc. The details and accessoriesof the processare referredto in the various local descriptionswhich I This content downloaded from 204.17.31.62 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions F'rictiona -Fire-makingwith a FlexibleSawing-thong. 33 quote below in the order of their geographicaldispersal, which, as faras I have hithertoascertained, is as follows:- NAGAHILLS, ASSAM.-The north-westerlyextremity of the main area of geographicalrange of the practice of fire-makingwith the flexiblesaw is to be foundamongst the NAGAS of the Naga Hills, who adopt this method,at any rate locally. Referenceto this regionwas given by the late Mr. S. E. Peal, formerly residentin Sibsagar,who wrote' that firewas obtainedby the Nagas (or Nogas, as he preferredto call them) " by means of a long piece of cane passed under a dry log and pulled (i.e.,the ends) alternatelyby the rightand left hand,so as to ignite somietinder placed in a hollow or split underneath"(see Fig. 1). NAGA, ASsAM. 1 FIG. a ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ci NAGA, ASSAM NA A,SSAM. FIG. 2. FIG. 2A. In the EthnologicalMuseum at Berlin I saw a Naga fire-makingapparatus of this kind (Fig. 2), the native names forthe various parts being given as follows, yung= thecane strip,mniset = the woodenstick, renr-a = the tinder. I have also just received,through the kindnessof Mr. J. H. Hutton,a complete fire-makingset fromthe Naga Hills, consisting(Fig. 2A) of a billet of lime wood, split at one end and wedgedopen with a stone. The thongis a narrowsliver split froma piece of bambooand whittledsmooth, the shavingsfrom this supplyingthe tinder,which is placed under the fork. The billet is held down on the ground 1 Joturn.Antkrop. lnst., xxii, 1893,p. 252, and Plate XVIII. VOL. XLIV. D This content downloaded from 204.17.31.62 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 34 HENRY BALFOUR.-FrictionalFire-makcing witlhthe foot,and the thoingis sawn roundit in the usual way. Aliuost any wood may be used but lime is preferred. CHITTAGONGHILLS.-Captain T. H. Lewin' describesin detail this metlhodas practisedby the TIPPEKAH tribeof theChittagong hill-tracts. "They take a piece of drybamboo about a footlong, split it in half,and on its outerround suirface cut a nick or notch,about Sth inch broad,circling round the semi-circuinferenceofthe bamboo, shallow towardsthe edges,but, deepening in the centre,until a miniuteslit about a line in breadthpierces the innersurface of the bamboofire-stick. Then a flexible stripof bamboo is taken,about 12 feetlong aind 1th inch in breadth,to fit the circlinignotch or groovein the fire-stick. This slip or band is rubbedwith fine, dry sand, and then passed roundthe fire-stick,on whichthe operatorstands, a foot on eitherend. Then the slip, graspedfirmly, an end inl each hand, is pulled steadily back and fortb,increasing gradually in pressureand velocity as the smoke comes. By the time the fire-bandsnaps with the friction,there ought to appear through the slit in the fire-sticksome incandescentdust, and this,placed smoulderingas it is in a nest of drybamboo shavings, can be gentlyblown into a flame." ANNAM.-Awayto the eastward,the same processof makingfire is adoptedby the o4ois,a primitivepeople inhabitingthe table-landand mountainsbetweenl the Mekong River and the Annam coast,from the fronatiersof Yunnan to Cochin-China. They are probablyof Indonesianstock. The processis almost identical with that followedby the Tipperahs. Accordingto M. A. Gauthier,2half of a split bamboo is notchedon the convex surfaceand is held downlby the feet. Strips of green bamboo-rindare split off,c. 8 mm.-thick and 50 cm. long. To each end a little woodentoggle is fixed. About 100 of these stripsare usually prepared at a time. Fire is obtainedonly after expending some 30-40 stripswhich break afterseven or eightsawing movements. The methodis not common,as slow-matchesare usually carried,and the Mois also employthe fire-piston.3 MALAY PENINSULA.-In thisregion, the SAKAI, SEMANG and MALAYSall employ this method. W. Skeat and C. Blagden4 mention that it is a common method among both the Western,or Kedah Semang,and the Eastern Semnang,or Pangan, who use a rattanthong and a driedbranch (of certainspecial treesonly) which is held down with the feet. T. N. Annandale and H. C. Robiinson5give a full descriptionof the process as witnessedby themin Grit in the Upper Perak district,where the older men still resort to it in place of more modern methods. They describe how a SEMANG chief" took a billet of softwood, about 1I feetlong, and split it at one end so as to forma cleft of about 6 inches. Into this he inserted a small stick, which The WVildRaces of S.E. India, 1870, pp. 207, 208. 2 Bull. Soc. Geog. du Havre, xiv, 1901, p. 95. v. H. Balfour, " The Fire-piston," in AnthropologicalEssays presented to Edward Burnett Iylor, Oxford, 1907, p. 27. 4 Pagan Races of the Mal7ayPeninsula, 1906, i, p. 114. a "$Fasciculi Malayenses," Anthrop.,pt. i, 1903, p. 15. This content downloaded from 204.17.31.62 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions with a Flexible Sawving-thong. 35 formeda peg separating the two halves and standing,above the surface of the billet to the heightof an inch or more. Beside this he placed some 'palmn-scurf.' He then took a stoutstrip of rattan, about 5 feet long,and passed one end of it under the billet as it lay on the ground. To each end he fastened a stick, which acted as a handle (of. the Mois above). Then he grasped one of these sticks in each hand,and, holdingdown the cleftbillet by means of his rightfoot, he began to draw the rattanbackwards and forwardsacross the inner surfaceof the billet. He graspedthe peg whichkept the cleft open betweenthe great and second toe. The frictioncaused by the rattanrubbing against the soft wood soon produced a, considerableamiount of heat, whichfirst blackened the wood and then caused the tinderto take fire.
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