The

ropes rigged to hoist them and to furl the sail. forecastle and poop are already represented by raised structures on the deck. In the Egyptian pictures of war-ships it is seen how these served as stations for the archers, while the fighting-men were also protected behind a bulwark, and there is even the "crow's nest on the top of the mast serving as a place for slingers to hurl stones from at the enemy, from which comes our "mast-head." Comparing with the Egyptian vessels the ancient galleys and ships of the Mediterranean, whether Phoenician, Greek,

FIG. 71.-Ancient Nile-boat, from wall-painting, Thebes.

or Roman, it is impossible to think these can have come into existence by separate lines of invention; the family likeness among them is too strong. Even farther off, the likeness of the craft still used in the Ganges to the ancient Nile-boats is surprising, and the eye of Osiris painted on the Egyptian funeral bark that carried the dead across the lake to the western burial-place, may perhaps have first suggested the painting of eyes as ornaments on the bows of boats, from the barks in Valetta harbour in the west to the junks of Canton in the east. In following the course of

development from the ancient to the modern ship, we notice that from time to time new appliances come in, as metalsheathing to protect the planks from the boring teredo, the iron duked anchor instead of a great stone, the capstan for hauling, &c. More masts and spars now served to carry more sails, and tier above tier of rowers impelled the classic bireme and trireme. The warr-galley lasted on into our own time in the Venetian navy, kept in use in spite of its bad sea-going quality, for its power of dashing upon sailing-vessels helpless in a calm. The galley-slaves who laboured at the huge oars were captives or criminals, and though the French galleys no longer remain for penal servitude, the term galérien or galley-slave still means a convict. The vast improvement of European sailing-vessels in the middle ages is in great measure due to an invention learnt from the far east-the mariner's compass. Ships, now able to steer their courses on long voyages out of sight of land, were improved in build and rigging, while the menof-war with several decks armed with tiers of cannon became floating castles. Lastly, during the present century, steam-power has been applied to propel the ship from within, the paddle-wheel or screw in fact taking the place of the old banks of oars, and the changeable wind-power being now only turned to account as an occasional aid and means of saving fuel. It is needless to describe the changes which modern armour-plating and huge guns have made in the construction of ships of war, but even these still show plainly enough how they were formed by successive alterations from the primitive canoe.

CHAPTER XI.

ARTS OF LIFE-(concluded).

Fire, 260-Cookery, 264-Bread, &c., 266—Liquors, 268-Fuel, 270 -Lighting, 272-Vessels, 274-Pottery, 274-Glass, 276-Metals, 277-Bronze and Iron Ages, 278-Barter, 281-Money, 282Commerce, 285.

THE subject next to be considered is Fire and its uses. Man understands fire and deals with it in ways quite beyond the intelligence of the lower animals. There is an old story how, in the forests of equatorial Africa, when travellers had gone away in the morning and left their fires burning, the huge manlike apes called pongos (probably our gorillas) would come and sit round the burning logs till they went out, not having the sagacity to lay more wood on. This story is often repeated to contrast human intelligence with the dulness of even the highest apes. Of course there had been forest-fires in ages before man, as when the trees had been set in flames by lightning or by a lava stream. But of all creatures man alone has known how to manage fire, to carry it from place to place with burning brands, and when it went out to produce it afresh. No savage tribe seems really to have been found so low as to be without fire. In the limestone caverns, among the relics of the

mammoth period, morsels of charcoal and burnt bones are found imbedded, which show that even in that remote antiquity the rude cave-men made fires to cook their food and warm themselves by.

As to the art of producing fire, the savage way was mostly by the friction of two pieces of wood, and to this day travellers may now and then see the simple apparatus at work. The hand fire-drill consists of a stick like an arrowshaft cut to a blunt point, which is twirled like a chocolatemuller between the hands (shifted up when they get too far down) with such speed and pressure as to bore a hole into an under-piece of wood, till the charred dust. made by the boring takes fire. Fig. 72 shows a Bushman thus drilling fire while his companion attends to the tinder, The Polynesian way is different, pushing the pointed stick along a groove of its own making in the under-piece of wood. Either method will make fire in a few minutes, but knack and proper choice of wood are needed, and one of us will hardly succeed. For easier working, some nations have long had a mechanical improvement on the simple savage fire-drill, by driving it with a thong wound a couple of turns round the stick, and pulled to and fro; also, working it with a bow like the common bowdrill of our tool-shops is not unknown. In either case a top-piece is required to keep the drill down (not too hard) on its bearing.

Among civilized nations, the old fire-drill had already in ancient times been superseded in common use by better contrivances, especially the flint and steel. But although discarded from practical life, it has been kept up for ceremonial purposes. As has been already mentioned, (p. 16) the Brahmans may be still seen "churning" with a fire-drill driven by a hair-cord the pure divine fire for

their sacrifices, thus religiously keeping to the old-fashioned instrument used in daily life by the early Aryans. The ancient Romans had such a survival of their past state of arts in the law that if the vestal virgins let out the sacred fire, it was to be made afresh by drilling into a wooden board. The old art has even lasted on in Europe to our own day as the orthodox means of kindling the "need-fire," with which, when there was a murrain, the peasants in many parts used to light bonfires to drive the horses and cattle through, to save them from the pestilence. rite, inherited from the religion of præ-Christian times,

This

requires new wild-fire made by friction, not the tame fire of the hearth. The last need-fire on record in Great Britain is perhaps one that was made in Perth in 1826, but they may still be seen in Sweden and elsewhere when there` is cholera or other pestilence about. In the last century there was a law passed forbidding the superstitious frictionfire in Jönköping, the very district now famous for its cheap tandstickor or tinder-sticks, that is, lucifer-matches. So curiously do the extremes of civilization come together in the world.

The fire-drill is a means of converting mechanical force