Turn The Handle

And Light Up

By R-Oi

rpHE ship was anchored off the A island of Onotoa, in the Southern Gilberts, and I was leaning over the Saloon deck rail studying the coral formation about five fathoms below.

Then my day dreams were dis turbed by a repeated clicking noise of almost mechanical precision. As I slowly came back to earth I was able to trace the source of the noise to a native canoe tied up to a hang ing fender alongside the ship’s side.

The native’s wooden pipe was home-made and didn’t run to a stem, but no doubt it was a fav ourite piece and had taken him several days to carve out of the solid wood with the few tools at his com mand. The lighting-up was aided by the very old method of “flint and steel,” and was something I hadn’t seen for some years, but this fellow seemed an expert.

He sat in his canoe in an atti tude of quiet repose, holding in one hand a piece of broken file poised as a striker, and with the other hand steadying the short bulky pipe that he was holding in his mouth, a piece of rock held by the fingers of the same hand over the pipe which had a thin layer of charcoal and coconut fibre covering the fill of tobacco. With the ease of one using a match or modern cigarette lighter, and by making a series of quick strokes with the file on the flint—at the same time drawing in on his pipe—it seemed no time be fore there was a sign of smoke to prove his success.

His unhurried movements denoted satisfaction as he opened a tin that he kept in a plaited basket hanging to one of the cross beams of the canoe, to put away his flint and striker, together with the other necessities of a smoker, such as stick tobacco, a roll of pandanus leaf (prepared for use as a cigarette wrapper), charcoal and coconut fibre.

Right at the bottom of the tin I could see a magnifying glass, which no doubt had started many a fire on shore for the owner.

Flint stone is highly valued iii the Southern Gilberts, it is, o course, imported into the colony as islands in the Gilbert Group are cd coral formation only.

On one voyage that I made with a Gilbertese crew, we called at Pon Moresby, Papua, and there was great activity by the crew collectinc flinty rocks from the new wharf sib at PM—so possibly the recent dis play I witnessed could have been ox rock from that source.

At another southern Gilbert Islanr I was amazed to see a Triumph o Modern Science, in the form of ax electric lighter, which had its origii in Nauru Island. The ownen son worked at Nauru, and hax picked up a high-tension magnetc: which he had fitted with a smaf handle, and by linking the four dis. tributor terminals on the magnet! with a common wire, he was abl to get a series of high-voltage sparte by turning the handle.

To complete this very effectiw lighter, there was a small ordinan hand oil-can which had a cottoc wick pushed up the spout. The cai itself was full of kerosene and thi high-tension lead of the magnet was placed near the kerosene-soakes wick. By vigorously turning thf handle about twenty times the high! tension spark had the wick alighr This gave quite a flame though bit smoky. It was a slight improve ment on the primitive flint ann striker method, but a bit moni cumbersome than the Sun Glass.