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Jenks, Albert Ernest, 1869-1953

"The Bontoc Igorot"

Four pipes in five as
they are seen sticking from a man's hat show that the owners stopped
smoking long before they exhausted their pipes.

Fire making
The oldest instrument for fire making used by the Bontoc Igorot is
now seldom found. However, practically all boys of a dozen years know
how to make and use it.
It is called "co-li'-li," and is a friction machine made of two
pieces of dry bamboo. A 2-foot section of dead and dry bamboo is split
lengthwise and in one piece a small area of the stringy tissue lining
the tube is splintered and picked quite loose. Immediately over this,
on the outside of the tube, a narrow groove is cut at right angles
to it. This piece of bamboo becomes the stationary lower part of
the fire machine. One edge of the other half of the original tube is
sharpened like a chisel blade. This section is grasped in both hands,
one at each end, and is at first slowly and heavily, afterwards more
rapidly, drawn back and forth through the groove of the stationary
bamboo, making a small conical pile of dry dust beneath the opening.
After a dozen strokes the sides of the groove and the edge of the
friction piece burn brown, presently a smell of smoke is plain, and
before three dozen strokes have been made smoke may be seen.


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