The natives produce fire by means of two pieces of dry wood, of which one, that can be described as the ‘stationary board’, is mostly soft, and the other, the ‘drill stick’, consists of a piece of harder material. Into a totally dry, soft piece of wood, maybe half of a split branch, a small notch or dent is cut. This is then put flat on the ground, notch up, and the fire maker, sitting in the usual posture of the natives, holds it firmly with his feet in front of him.
A round, straight stick, roughly tapered at the thick end, is put upright onto the notch or cut in the ‘stationary’ piece of wood. Now this vertical ‘drill stick’ is vigorously whisked forwards and backwards between the palms of the hands with the hands constantly pressing firmly down. By exercising this pressure the hands can easily glide down the drill stick, but the man then lifts them up immediately to the upper end of the stick and continues to whisk.
In the course of one or two minutes smoke rises from the point of contact of the woods, followed by red glowing of rubbed off dust particles on which the tinder, made from rolled up bark fibre, dry grass or any other easily flammable material, which had been wound around beforehand, can now easily ignite. Careful blowing produces a flame. Usually two men sit opposite each other; one turns the stick quickly, and the other one organises the tinder.
Another method of fire making consists of putting a piece of soft wood on the ground, which is split at one end. Into this split, which is kept open by a wedge jammed in, finely ground bark or dried grass is placed. A transverse notch is cut into both sides of the split wood and a piece of harder wood with an angular edge fitted into the notch is quickly rubbed in a sawing motion with some pressure through this notch, back and forth. The wood in the notch is pulverised by this and heated up, and by falling down onto the tinder in the split can easily be blown into a flame by the man making the fire.
When the natives travel anywhere they always carry a burning stick in their hand. In a hunting party there will always be one or two thus equipped, so that all the culled game can be roasted. But to safeguard against any mischance with this kind of fire making, some men also carry the rubbing wood.
The women, too, carry a piece of smouldering wood from the grass tree or honeysuckle or another suitable tree so as to be able to make fire immediately when the troop halts. This was done partly for comfort, partly to cook any provisions; it was also totally independent of the temperature. The fire was carried on the hottest summer day as well as in winter.