in a horizontal direction. They then apply a smaller piece, of a
harder substance, with a blunt point, in a perpendicular position, and
turn it quickly round, between the two hands, as chocolate is milled,
pressing it downwards at the same time. A hole is soon formed by this
motion of the smaller stick; but it has not penetrated far before the
larger one takes fire. I have also seen the same effect produced more
simply by rubbing one bit of bamboo with a sharp edge across another.*

(*Footnote. This mode of kindling fire is not peculiar to Sumatra: we
read of the same practice in Africa and even in Kamtschatka. It is
surprising, but confirmed by abundant authority, that many nations of the
earth have at certain periods, been ignorant of the use of fire. To our
immediate apprehension human existence would seem in such circumstances
impossible. Every art, every convenience, every necessary of life, is now
in the most intimate manner connected with it: and yet the Chinese, the
Egyptians, the Phoenicians, and Greeks acknowledged traditions concerning
its first discovery in their respective countries. But in fact if we can
once suppose a man, or society of men, unacquainted with the being and
uses of this element, I see no difficulty in conceiving the possibility
of their supporting life without it; I mean in the tropical climates; and
of centuries passing before they should arrive at the important
discovery. It is true that lightning and its effects, volcanoes, the
firing of dry substances by fortuitous attrition, or of moist, by
fermentation, might give them an idea of its violent and destructive
properties; but far from being thence induced to appropriate and apply it
they would, on the contrary, dread and avoid it, even in its less
formidable appearances. They might be led to worship it as their deity,
but not to cherish it as their domestic. There is some reason to conclude
that the man who first reduced it to subjection and rendered it
subservient to the purposes of life procured it from the collision of two
flints; but the sparks thus produced, whether by accident or design,
might be observed innumerable times without its suggesting a beneficial
application. In countries where those did not present themselves the
discovery had, most probably, its origin in the rubbing together of dry
sticks, and in this operation, the agent and subject coexisting, flame,
with its properties and uses, became more immediately apparent. S