He is a god who lives among men, miraculously reborn each day by the fire-drill, by the friction of the two sticks which are regarded as his parents; he is the supreme director of religious ceremonies and duties,and even has the power of influencing the lot of man in the future world.
His cult survived the metamorphosis of the ancient Vedic nature-worship into modern Hinduism, and there still are in India fire-priests (agnihotri) whose duty is to superintend his worship. The sacred fire-drill for procuring the temple-fire by friction - symbolic of Agni's daily miraculous birth - is still used.
The bow drill (56) was used as a fire drill to rotate wood (55) on wood (57); and the cap (54) for such use was of hard stone with a highly polished hollow.
Thus the modern Hindu, though using civilized means for lighting his household fires, retains the savage " fire-drill " for obtaining fire by friction of wood when what he considers pure or sacred fire has to be produced for sacrificial purposes; while in Europe into modern times the same primitive process has been kept up in producing the sacred and magical " need-fire," which was lighted to deliver cattle from a murrain.
A different memory was when we had a fire drill and Mrs Greenway hid me from Mrs Bunt during lining up.
