American inventions and inventors . can also learnsomething from them of the primitive modes of of the time the red men found sufficient light for alltheir wants in the wood fire. They needed no candles to read by, for they hadno books nor cared for nolamp to dress by;they sought no illu-mination for halls orchurches or little need theyhad for artificial lightwas practically satis-fied by that whichcame from the blaz-ing logs. If, however, onany special occasionthey wished to light up their long houses more brightly, theIndians used pitch-pine knots. In
American inventions and inventors . can also learnsomething from them of the primitive modes of of the time the red men found sufficient light for alltheir wants in the wood fire. They needed no candles to read by, for they hadno books nor cared for nolamp to dress by;they sought no illu-mination for halls orchurches or little need theyhad for artificial lightwas practically satis-fied by that whichcame from the blaz-ing logs. If, however, onany special occasionthey wished to light up their long houses more brightly, theIndians used pitch-pine knots. In case they were travelingby night and did not care to proceed stealthily or secretly,these fagots of pitch pine gave them all the light theywanted. The light from these sticks was dim ; it flickered soas to hurt the eyes; more smoke was given out than light;but the savage was fully content. Long before the red men were known, however, the burn-ing fagot was used by the people of Europe and Asia to les-sen the darkness of the INDIANS TRAVEUNG AT NIGHT. LIGHT—TORCHES. 63 An interesting story is told of Hannibal when lie wasleading the Carthaginian army against Rome. In the courseof his journey he marched his whole force into a valley whichwas entirely surrounded by high mountains very difficult tocross. Fabius, his Roman opponent, placed his own army inthe pass and enclosed Hannibal in the valley. Hannibal wasapparently caught in a trap, but he was a shrewd commander,and he quickly devised a trick to make Fabius withdraw hislegions. Early in the day he sent out a large detail from hisarmy to gather fagots. What was he about to do with suchgreat quantities of pine knots? In the afternoon, by Hannibals orders, these fagots werebound to the horns of oxen which had been driven alongduring the march for food for the army. At nightfall thefagots were lighted and the oxen were driven directly up thesteep side of one of the mountains. Fabius naturally sup-posed that the lights m
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