Fire as an agent in human culture / by Walter Hough.

  • Walter Hough
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fire as an agent in human culture / by Walter Hough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/338 (page 2)
    Gen. James M. Ashton informs me that the reindeer herds of the Chukchi and Chuvanes of Siberia are tended by the young folks, who are sometimes caught out in devastating blizzards. In such an exigency two deer are made to lie down side by side, back to the wind, and the herder creeps between them and weathers the gale between his warm hosts. Incidentally, deer are made to lie down by a gentle kick on the shin of the hind leg. The Kamtschadales are said to use dogs as bedfellows for warmth. Frequent observations go to show that many tribes in the region of seasonal cold regulate their habits in consonance with the seasonal environment. Variety in the seasons renders life in northern lati¬ tudes more expansive and tends to develop expedients meeting the needs of each period of the year. FIRELESS PEOPLES From time to time there have appeared in the accounts of travel¬ ers stories about fireless peoples. When other observers seek to verify these stories they are proven to be without foundation. Not only is fire knowledge a characteristic of all historic races, but as far back as the search for early man has been carried he is found to pos¬ sess this faithful ally. Much of the misconception giving rise to stories of fireless peoples is due to the habits of some tribes as to the preservation of fire. In some cases it is the custom to carefully pre¬ serve fire, so that an observer, though he may remain a long time, is not likely to see an example of renewing fire by artificial methods. FIRE PRESERVATION This important section of the fire subject presents some of the most interesting examples of the ingenuity of man. It must, how¬ ever, be confined to those classes which will give a comprehensive view of the primitive technology, bearing on development, and take up more extensively the use of fire in the ceramic arts, metallurgy, and other arts of enormous consequence to civilization. With the acquisition of natural fire we have the beginning of a technic regarding its preservation. The question of an adequate and suitable fuel supply comes up at once. If the acquirement of fire is to be regarded as a blessing to mankind, the burden which its care threw upon man represents a heavy price. The primitive industry in feeding the fire is the beginning of the enormous fuel industries of to-day. It is apparent also that the preservation of fire became a subject of invention to relieve the cares of fuel gathering as much as guarding against the loss of fire, which has been customarily assigned as the cause of preservation. Hints of the methods which may have been employed in early times are given by fire-preservation customs observed in various