Handbook to the ethnographical collections . gricultural tribes whohave the greatest opportunities in this direction, since anomadic form of lifeforbids the accumu-lation of propertyother than flocksand herds; yet thepurely agriculturaltribes are, perhapsIjy reason of theiroccupation, conser-vative, apathetic,and non-progressiveexcept under the re-generating influenceof some strong ex-ternal stimulus; itis the nomadic orsemi - nomadic life,provided that theconditions are nottoo severe, whichtends to sharpen thewits and to callforth courage, self-reliance, and inge-nuity. In the earliestages no
Handbook to the ethnographical collections . gricultural tribes whohave the greatest opportunities in this direction, since anomadic form of lifeforbids the accumu-lation of propertyother than flocksand herds; yet thepurely agriculturaltribes are, perhapsIjy reason of theiroccupation, conser-vative, apathetic,and non-progressiveexcept under the re-generating influenceof some strong ex-ternal stimulus; itis the nomadic orsemi - nomadic life,provided that theconditions are nottoo severe, whichtends to sharpen thewits and to callforth courage, self-reliance, and inge-nuity. In the earliestages no doubt foodwas eaten raw, theproperties of firebeing unknown :even after the in-vention of cookingmany tribes werelong unable to pro-duce fire, and theaccidental extinc-tion of all the firein a village was nothing short of a calamity unless a fresh supply could beobtained from neighbours, or a timely lightning-fiash set fireto a tree. Difierent tribes solved the question of fire-pro-duction in different ways (fig. 7), the most common method. Fig. Stone-bladed adzes from Oceania, Eotumah. c. Niut5. d. Austral 14 INTRODUCTION ]k\u<^ tlie tViction of two pieces of wood, one hard and onesoft, either l»y drilling oi- sawing the latter with the obtained a spark by striking together two lumps of ore,or pieces of flint and bamboo, or flint and steel. But the mostremarkable apparatus comes from South-Eastern Asia, andconsists of a small c^dinder, stopped at one end, and a closelyfitting piston : by means of this appliance the heat engenderedby the compression of air serves to kindle a piece of tinderplaced in a hole at the end of the piston: the method is asfollows:—the end of the piston is placed in the cylinder, andstruck home by a sharp blow of the palm : it is immediately
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