Professor Kuhn, in his mythological treatise on 'Fire and
Ambrosia,' has collected a quantity of evidence from Greek and
Latin authors, which makes it appear that the fire-making in-
strument, whose use was kept up in Europe, was not the stick-
and-groove, but the fire-drill. The operation is distinctly
described as boring or drilling ; and it seems, moreover, that
the fire-drill was worked in ancient Europe, as in India and
among the Esquimaux, with a cord or thong, for the spindle is
compared to, or spoken of as, a rpvnavov, which instrument, as
appears in the passage quoted from the Odyssey at page 241,
was a drill driven by a thong. 1

The traces of the old fire-making in modern Europe lie, for
the most part, in close connexion with the ancient and wide-
spread rite of the New Fire, which belongs to the Aryans among
other branches of the human race, and especially with one variety
of this rite, which has held its own even in Germany and Eng-
land into quite late times, in spite of all the efforts of the Church
to put it down. This is what the Germans call nothfeuer, and
we, need/ire ; though whether the term is to be understood liter-
ally, or whether it has dropped a guttural, and stands for fire made
by kneading or rubbing, is not clear.
