(d) Fire
1. PRODUCTION OF FIRE
“Procuring fire by friction is an accomplishment as common to the Malay as to
the North American Indian. The process is, however, slightly different. While
the latter resorts to circular friction, the Malay cuts a notch on the converse
surface of a bamboo, across which he rapidly rubs another piece cut to a sharp
edge. A fine powder is rubbed away and this ignites. Bamboo is also used as a
flint with tinder. The all-pervading match, however, is alone used in all districts
under foreign influence.”^324
The foregoing description requires to be supplemented, for the method of
procuring fire by circular friction is hardly (if at all) less common among the
Malays than the method of cross friction. The former process takes the form of
the well-known “fire-drill,” both the block and the upright stick being generally
made of mahang wood. The upright stick is frequently worked by a species of
“bow,” such as that used by carpenters, and is kept from jumping out of the
socket in which it revolves by means of a cocoa-nut shell, which is pressed down
from above. When cross friction is used, a long narrow slit is usually cut,
following the grain, in the convex surface of the piece of bamboo, the dust which
is rubbed away falling through it and gradually forming a little pile which
presently ignites. It is hardly necessary to cut a notch for the cross-piece, as a
groove is very quickly worn when the friction is started. A species of fire-
syringe has also, I believe, been collected by Mr. L. Wray in Perak.