What kind of fire in meant by the strange fire of Leviticus x. 1, Numbers di. 4, xxvi. 61 (see also Leviticus xvi. 12, ix. 11, 24, and Exodus xxx. 9), is doubtful ; but a Bralunan should maintain three fires (Vikrama and liravasi, Introduction, p. 190), two mentioned in a sakta of the ltig Veda and the Apastamba Sutra, are the Sabhya and Avasathya, the precise purport of which names is not known to the pandits, nor explained in the Bashya. The literal sense would be the fire of the assembly and the fire of the village, as if a sacrificial fire was sometimes maintained in common.
The subdivision of one fire into the three fires of the Hindu ritualistic worship is ascribed by the Mahabharata, and the rest to Pururavas. The commentator on the former specifies them as the Garhapatya, Dakshina, and Ahavaiiiya, which Sir Willitun Jones (3fanu. p. 231) renders nuptial, ceremonial, and sacrificial fires ; or rather—(1) household, that which is perpetually maintained by a householder ; (2) a fire for sacrifices, placed to the south of the rest ; and (3) a consecrated fire for oblations,—forming the Tretagni, or triad of sacred fires, in opposition to the Laukika, or merely temporal ones.
It inay be that the taking of fire from other than the established place WAS called 'strange.' The fire uaed by Hindus for the funeral pile ought to be obtained from the sacred fire, but it is at present the common practice of the Hindus of ordinary rank in the Western Provinces of India to procure fire from an out-caste to light the funeral pile. On the eastern side of India, the fire used in the household sacrifices of their homes ia obtained from the hearth fire. That used in their incremation is from the lamp lit in the ceremonial when a person is moribund; but the lamps of the temples are lit only by Brahmans, and taking fire from other than the altar would be 'strange.' A Ifindu, as indeed also a Mahomedan, does not blow' out a lamp with his breath, the Hindu believing that a deity intervenes. In the whole of Central and Southern Asia, and with Hindus, Parsecs, and 3fahomedans, to blow out a light is considered very wrong.
On the east side of the fortress of Gwalior, where myriads of warriors have fattened the soil, phosphorescent lights at one time often appeared. They are termed Shahriba by the Rajputs, perhape from the Arabic shahrib, a meteor. Colonel Tod dared as bold a Rajput as ever lived to approach them ; but he replied, men he would encounter, but not the spirits of those erst slain in battle. Such fires the northern nations believed to issue front the tombs of their heroes, and to guard their ashes; they called them Hauga Elldr, or 'the sepulchral fires,' and they were supposed niore especially to surround tombs which contained hidden treasures. When the intrepid Scan dinavian maiden observes that she is not afraid of the flame burning her, she is bolder than that bold Rajput, for Sri - Kishen, who, as above related, was shocked at the bare idea of going near the sepulchral lights, was ono of three non commissioned officers who afterwards led thirty two firelocks to the attack and defeat of 1500 Pindaris. At present the Kasak or Kirghiz do
not spit on a fire ; and in Khiva, Khokand, in many other parts of Africa and Asia and Europe, the custom continues of dancing round fire. Everywhere with the Hindus there is believed to be a fire which does not burn a person attri buted to Siva the Mahadeva, written al'so Seo or Siu ; and annually, in the Dekhan, the fire worship of Maliadeva is performed, in which the devotees run or jump through great fires, attri buting their escape to the interposition of that Hindu deity. Iu the North Arcot district of the Madras Presidency, a fire festival custom prevails annually, in which the people walk through fire, but accidents occur, ending in death.
Abul Ghazi relates that he allowed his wives before their confinements to pour grease on to the fire, to guess from the splutterings of the flame whether they would have boys or girls. This superstition is still practised in Central Asia, and finds its counterpart in the melting of wax or lead by European girls on New Year's eve, to see from the shapes into which it runs whether they will be married in the course of the year (Vambery, Bokhara, p. 283). So the ICirghiz, though profess ing Mahomedanism, threw grease on their fires. They and the people of Wakhan and Badakhshan dislike blowing out a light. Spiegel asserts, in an article which appeared in the Ausland under the title Das ostliche Turkestan, that in the 7th century after Christ, Turkish tribes in the north of the Tien-shan were fire-worshippers.
Fire is produced from several woods by friction. In India, from the Isora corylifolia• in New Zea land, by friction of the woods of 'the or Melicytus mmiflorus, of the Aralia polygama or Pate, and of the Kaikomako trees. The wood used to provide fire in Tahiti is that of the Hibis cus tiliaceus, which is also used for shoulder-poles and outriggers for steadying a canoe. Its blunt point is rubbed in a groove till the dust takes fire. Fire is kindled in the Sandwich Islands by twirling a sharp-pointed bit of wood over a small slab. The Aleutians manage the upright stick with a string in the manner of a gimlet or borer. They also rub sulphur on two stones, and strike fire from them over moss strewed with sulphur (Kotzebue's Voyage, iii p. 259, in Jam. Ed. Journ. vi.). The Guacho of the Pampas takes an elastic stick about 18 inches long, and presses one end against the breast, the other in a hole in the piece of wood, and then rapidly turns the curved point like a carpenter's centre - bit—Wilson's Hindu Theatre ; The Toy Cart ; Art, p. 112 ; G. Bennett, p. 418 ; Colebroolce on the Religious Ceremonies of the Hindus, Asiatic Res. xxi. p. 241 ; Sonnerat's Voyage, pp. 77, 78 ; Story of Nala, p. 102 ; Robin son s Travels, Palestine and Syria, i. p. 282.