Fire Saw Strips

Thin rattan strips. Pusah. (Originally 20, now 15.) A "piece of soft fibrous wood . . . is held down by the feet. . . and rests upon a bundle of fine slivers of dry wood; underneath it, is passed a strip of dry but flexible bambo, which is sawed back and forth until the friction starts a spark in the fine dust which has been thereby rubbed up; the spark is fostered and soon blown into a flame in the bundle of slivers. When the materials are in proper condition, fire can be produced in much less than a minute." A primitive and ceremonial way of making fire, used for starting a fire for the first time in a new house, or at the naming of a child,