[Goanet] THE EARLY DAYS OF FIRE, MATCHBOX AND FI REWOOD – Part II (Final)

[domnic fernandes]

The early days of fire, matchbox and firewood - Part II (Final)
Children who went to school in those days, did not really enjoy their summer 
holidays because there was a lot of work to be done, as monsoon provision 
was made during the months of April and May – in those days it almost always 
rained by the mid of May every year!

In the olden days, there was no radio or TV which broadcasted the day’s 
weather so one could chalk out his/her plans for the day accordingly.  
Everything depended on the Mother Nature – the sun, the moon and the sea.  
When it was time for the monsoon season, the sea would start to roar and the 
roaring would keep on increasing; thus, the people knew that the monsoon 
season was fast approaching.  People may not have been highly educated then 
but they knew how to take care of day-to-day activities and planned them 
quite meticulously.

One of the first things that people did was to gather kholieo (dried leaves) 
and packed them in a zabllo (a round net with diagonal holes about 4”Wx6”L); 
they packed as many zablle as they could fill and stored them.

The next thing was either to cut the tips of chuddttam or detach dried 
leaves from a chuddet with a koito (machete), arrange them into small 
bundles and then tie them up with a fresh keimeacho gabo (a pealing from 
banana tree trunk).  Similarly, we would cut pidde (coconut tree frond 
heads) into two pieces lengthwise, dry them and then arrange them into small 
bundles.  Also, maddachi pistori (sheath - the lower part of coconut tree 
leaf that surrounds the stem) and maddachi poi (spathe) are very good to 
start a fire.  These items, too, were arranged in bundles and stored.

As for xirputtam, people gathered as much as they could and the rest they 
brought from the hills.  Once the month of April began, people from the 
ward, including children, got together and went on the hill to collect 
firewood; they went in groups so nobody could attack them, as in those days, 
professional robbers lived in caves on Anjuna hills.  Even if one had money, 
he/she had to join in the trip to the hill because in those days everything 
was done in groups; if anyone refused, that person would be counted out for 
all purposes.  For example, people did not charge wages to work in the 
fields but they worked in each other’s fields by taking turns and thus 
provided free service to each other, but if anyone backed out, he/she was 
kind of excommunicated; this happened very rarely.  The unity in a village 
in those days was very good and strong; unlike today, nobody could separate 
relatives and neighbors then.

People mostly went on the hill in the afternoon say at around 4:00 p.m. and 
returned home by 6:30 p.m.  The tools that they carried with them while they 
went on the hill to collect firewood were a koito - to cut the trees, and a 
koiti (sickle) - to trim branches, and, of course, a large piece of cloth to 
make a chomddi (bundle of cloth on which a load is placed on the head.)

The trip was to collect only small firewood – not tree trunks/logs.  People 
mostly chose straight plants because they were easy to arrange into a bundle 
which also meant they could stack more firewood in a bundle and it also 
formed a good base for the load on the head.  The most common plant that 
people went for was “gino” – it is a straight plant, about 5-6 feet tall, 
with black bark and no branches, which means less trimming, which ultimately 
saves a lot of time; it makes good firewood as it burns quickly.  Once on 
the hill, people looked around, located bushes and cut plants from the 
bottom with a koito; the other person trimmed branches with a koiti – I did 
both parts; sometimes only one person did both the jobs.

When we felt that enough firewood was cut to make a bundle, we stopped 
cutting and headed to a kombieachem zadd to peal off its skin in order to 
prepare ropes; kombieacho gabo is very strong.  We would join two or three 
lengths of gabe together and place them horizontally on the ground at a 
distance of about 1 ½ foot from each other.  We would then arrange the cut 
firewood into a pile on four or more lengths; the length of each bundle was 
about 7 feet.  Lastly, each person would stand on either side of the pile, 
catch hold of gabo at each end, pull both the ends in opposite directions, 
secure the pile tightly, fasten the gabo with a knot and tuck extra ends 
around the fastened gabo.  Those who came alone would call for help from 
others.  Each such bundle was called a bhoro or bhori.  Once firewood 
bundles were ready, people loaded them on each one’s head with a chomddi 
underneath.  The last person had to lift his/her bhoro by himself/herself.  
He/she touched one end of the bhoro to a rock, placed his/her head in the 
middle of the bhoro and then slowly pushed it upward thus tilting the 
equilibrium and balancing the bundle on the head.  The koito and koiti were 
pressed into the bhoro on the top side.  Many local women did this as a 
means of living and it was they who often got into private properties 
instead of going on the hill.  They supplied bhore to people, including 
bhattkars, at a nominal charge – one rupee per bhoro!  Children also carried 
little bhori commensurate to their weight.

The cutting of firewood, trimming and bundling it up was the easy part.  The 
difficult part was to walk down the steep hill which was full of gravel.  
One had to have a firm grip on the ground and balance the load on the head; 
you can imagine the result if one slipped off and fell down with the heavy 
bundle tumbling upon!  This is why even those who could afford to wear 
slippers did not wear them while on this mission; bare feet were in a better 
position to take charge of the ground than with slippers on.  With the heavy 
load on the head, it was difficult to look at your feet; so, one had to look 
straight, keep picture of the hurdles ahead in mind and avoid them as one 
got closer to them, sometimes even by taking a little hop at a big stone 
which might have been lying there right in the middle of the walkway!  Once 
people reached home, they kept the bhoro upright against a tree or stone 
pedestal around it; if left on the ground overnight, white ants sometimes 
invaded the firewood.

It is easy to cut wood while it is fresh.  Therefore, the next morning 
people would sit on a bankin (small wooden seat) on the ground next to the 
bhoro with a koito and munkutto (piece of dry log) and begin to cut the 
firewood brought from the hill on the previous day.  They would leave cut 
pieces to dry for a week and then tie them up into small bundles according 
to sizes.

There is a saying in Konkani:  “Dongra voilim zaddam Dev ximpta” (God takes 
care of (waters) the trees on a mountain).  Isn’t this a wonder?  Despite 
regularly watering the plants/trees in our garden, they die, but the trees 
on the hills/mountains keep on growing and form thick jungles.  The saying 
applies to trees on the hills/mountains as well as to people who believe in 
God.  If there was no firewood freely available on the hills, how do you 
think people would have survived in those days?

The next firewood requirement was “kanttieam” (broken pieces of logs).  For 
this, people went around the village looking for any felled trees which they 
bought and brought home on a gaddo (bullock cart).  A laborer would then be 
hired to break the firewood which sometimes took as long as a week depending 
on the quantity and nature of the wood - whether the wood was dry or fresh; 
dry wood is difficult to break, whereas fresh wood breaks easily.  Mango 
tree wood is easy to break.  Here again, kanttieam were left in an open 
space for a week or so to let them completely dry.  All the firewood had to 
be thoroughly dried otherwise white ants would eat it up.  We hired a 
laborer to break wooden logs once a year when we made monsoon firewood 
provision, otherwise from the age of 12, I broke the wood myself every now 
and then with a kurad (axe).  Actually, my mother did not allow me to break 
wood for fear that the axe might slip and cut/break my leg but I did it 
anyway because I wanted to do everything myself.

By the first week of May, most firewood would be ready.  Now, it had to be 
stored.  The next thing was to repair zollovachi khomp (firewood store) by 
replacing the thatch with new mol’lam (coconut leaves partly detached at mid 
stem and let loose hanging) and arranging a new konn’nnancho zhodd (woven 
coconut leaf partitions) all around.  Once the roof and sides of the khomp 
were ready, we would clean the interior and redo the floor by beating it 
with a pettnnem (flat wooden piece shaped like a bat with smooth bottom).  
We then kept several stones on one side of the floor and placed wooden 
planks on them to form a kind of platform.  Big pieces of kanttieam were 
placed on the planks followed by smaller ones on the top; firewood was 
arranged in cross arrangement – just like a pyre.  Bundles of xirputtam, 
pistoreo, povieo, chuddteo and kott’tteo were placed on the top of firewood 
pile.  Zablle containing kholieo were also placed on a stone tripod and 
piled one upon another separately.

Whenever a carpenter was hired to do carpentry work at home, we would 
collect the waste every evening and use it as firewood.  As for the kisuv 
(wood scraping), we would collect and pack it in a sak (gunny bag) and store 
it in the khomp for use during the monsoon.  Kisuv is very useful in 
starting a new fire.

In the 1970’s, people began to buy lottunge (round pieces of wood) for 
firewood as well as pyre.  Loaded trucks went around villages selling 
lottunge to interested people; they were sold in 100s.  The wholesale 
dealers of such wood were located opposite the Milagres church in 
Gaunsavaddo, Mapusa.

In the absence of technology in those days, we made the best use of fire in 
our day-to-day activities.  Here are some of the common things that we did 
with fire:

There was no electricity in most parts of Goa until the early 1970’s.  Very 
few people could afford to buy a battery torch.  Most people made use of 
natural fire torch known as “uzvaddi” i.e. they gathered a bunch of dry 
coconut leaves, preferably the tip of a chuddet and held it tight with the 
help of a chuddtacho gabo pealed from the middle of a fresh piddo of a 
kavoto (young coconut tree).  They then lit the tip of the torch with a 
match stick or used fire from a chul to light it.  Once lit, one just swung 
the torch back and forth to keep it burning.  As the leaves kept on burning, 
the gabo was gradually adjusted to loosen the hold on the bunch.

A dukormaro (pig butcher) used and still uses chuddteo to clean the hair and 
skin of a pig.  Once a pig is butchered, he throws a little water on its 
body to make it wet.  A person then sets fire to a bunch of dry coconut 
leaves and gradually applies the fire to pig’s body which burns the hair and 
skin.  The butcher then takes a big knife and forcibly scrapes the skin 
while the helper pours water and cleans the waste, including ash fallen on 
the skin.

In the olden days, we ate everything natural.  Today, you get honey in 
bottles with a label which says “Pure Honey” but it is not so.  In those 
days, we found several honeycombs, especially by the hillside, on trees and 
in tree trunk hollows.  Once we came across a honeycomb, we would fix a 
bunch of dry coconut leaves to a long manchi xintari (bamboo stick), set 
fire to the bunch and direct the torch at the honeycomb.  We mostly carried 
out such missions in the afternoon.  As a precaution, we would cover our 
head with a cloth – just in case bees got attracted to our hair and attacked 
us.  Before the torch went out, we would succeed in killing most of the 
bees, including the queen bee; the rest would fly away.  We would then push 
the honeycomb with the tip of xintari and once it fell to the ground, we 
would get to it and savor fresh honey.

The best honey is “muskanchem monv”.  It is made by muskam (tiny bees) in a 
hollow of a tree trunk.  It is easier to get to such honeycomb as the bees 
are tiny.  One exposure of fire torch does the job – gets rid of muskam.  
Sometimes, we knew the location of a honeycomb through a movar (a large bird 
similar to an eagle but it mostly lives on honey; hence the name ‘movar’!)  
When a movar sits at a honeycomb and begins to drink honey, the bees are 
distracted and buzz all around; this is how we knew the location of a 
honeycomb.  We would drive away the movar and invade the honeycomb but 
sometimes we were too late; we got an empty honeycomb!

We have good weather in Goa but nights and mornings from late December 
through early February are quite cold.  So, how did we beat early morning 
cold?  As soon as we woke up in the morning, we would set fire to a pile of 
leaves or hay and prepare a doktto (bonfire) and sit around it adjusting the 
fire with a stick and adding more leaves/hay, sukim xirputtam, pid’de and 
son’nam in order to make the fire last longer.  The fire did not only 
provide us warmth but it also served as a treatment to the affected mango 
flowering – treating of area with smoke salvages early or un-seasonal 
flowering.  The elderly would also join us at the fire with a muffler 
wrapped around their heads and smoke their first morning beedi or pamparo by 
lighting it with a burning stick from the fire!

As mentioned above, we don’t have severe winter in Goa but nights and 
mornings are quite cold.  Some people were used to taking an early morning 
cold bath at a well but most preferred to have warm bath indoors, especially 
Christian women did not like to bathe at a well.  The weather during the 
monsoon season is also cold.  Therefore, hot bath does not only make one 
feel good but it also makes the body feel warm.  In those days, the only way 
to heat water was to run a fire under a big mathiecho moddko (large earthen 
pot) or tambeachem bhannd (large copper pot), which only a few could afford. 
 For the convenience of a person working in a kitchen, moddko/bhannd was 
also placed on a stone tripod in a corner of the kitchen so the person could 
simultaneously man the fire.  Actually, a copper pot was preferred because 
copper is a good conductor of heat as compared to clay.  The idea here was 
to economize on the firewood.  This is when we used kholieo, chuddteo, 
kissuv and other such firewood material to heat water.  When I was a small 
child, we used a mathiecho moddko to warm water but it had to be changed to 
copper one because of the following:

One of my akoi (father’s sister), who was a widow and worked in Bombay, had 
left her eldest son, John Peter (JP) at our place.  He was a very 
mischievous boy.  At the height of the night, he would say to ghora-maim 
(paternal grandmother):  “Mhaka atanch metieanchi pez vo mandoce vo khir 
korun dhi!” (Prepare sweet dishes and give me right now!”  Poor grandmother 
would get upset and say:  “Baba, ede rati khuim mhunn vochon hanvem 
maddanchem godd haddchem re puta?”  (My son, where shall I go at this height 
of night and get jaggery?)  He would reply:  “Tem hanv nokllo; mhaka atanch 
ghoddxem zai mhunnchem zai!” (I don’t know that but I want sweet dish right 
now!)  If he did not get, he would break moddkeo, including udkachem bhandd. 
 He would go for bath and once he was through, he would fill the tambieo 
and drop it in the moddki and voila – the moddki would give way at the 
bottom splashing water all over the kitchen and also putting off the fire 
and depriving everyone else of hot water bath that night.  It was not a joke 
to replace udkachem bhandd every now and then.  Therefore, we replaced it 
with a tambeachi moddki.  JP was so mischievous that once an elderly 
neighbor was called to punish him.  He tied JP to a coconut tree with a 
rope, poured a bottle of toddy on his body and let loose a nest of umle 
(red-ants) on his body so they could bite him all over as a punishment!  
That punishment made him even more stubborn!  JP studied in St. Joseph’s 
High School in Arpora.  After the ‘umle’ punishment, he threatened my 
ghora-maim that he would jump in the “tollem” (pond) in Arpora.  That was 
enough reason for my grandmother to send a telegram to his mother in Bombay 
to come and take her son immediately.  Today, JP is one of the quietest 
family members.  He worked in Dubai for about 25 years and retired from the 
job two years ago.  We often remind him of the high jinks he played during 
his young days.

One of the monsoon provision preparations was to boil bhat (paddy).  It was 
a big project as we had to boil at least 8-10 tambeacheo moddkeo bhat; we 
mostly boiled two moddkeo simultaneously on every alternate day.  The most 
important thing for this project was firewood.  We would gather a lot 
kholieo and arrange them in piles next to the place where we boiled paddy; 
we also gathered firewood, including pidde, dried coconut leaves and banana 
tree leaves, etc.  We would sometimes save dried roots of trees for this 
project.  Nowadays, very few people till fields and so the question of 
boiling paddy and making rice provision for the monsoon hardly arises.  Rice 
is now available in grocery shops throughout the year.

Tilling of paddy fields was one of the main professions of Goans until the 
1960’s.  The more people cared for their fields, the better the crop.  Most 
everything in those days was natural, including fertilizer.  Fallen leaves 
were available under trees everywhere in villages.  All one had to do was go 
around, collect them in a panttli or zabllo, carry them to the field and 
empty the contents in the middle of a xetachem fodd (a part or piece marked 
by ridge in a paddy field).  This job was done at the beginning of May every 
year.  By the evening, we would set fire to kholieo and reduce them to 
ashes.  We burned at least one zabllo kholieo in a fodd.  The baking of 
tefam (broken pieces of soil) and the ash mixed with the soil acts a good 
fertilizer, the result:  Those foddam which were treated with fire produced 
better crop than the rest of the field.

Not everybody could afford to buy fish every day.  Most of the poor went 
fishing in an estuary, river or even in the high seas.  Nowadays, you get 
readymade pali (fishing rod) but most of us in those days prepared one 
ourselves.  A fishing rod is made from an ubi man (straight bamboo).  To 
fish in an estuary, one needs a small fishing rod as the catch is usually 
small.  A medium size fishing rod is required to fish in a river as the 
catch could be from small to large.  To fish in the high seas, one does not 
only need a long fishing rod but it should be strong and also have a 
bend/curve.  If you try to give a curve to a fresh bamboo, it breaks; a dry 
bamboo also cracks if you try to bend it.  The only way to give a bend/curve 
to a fresh pali and make it strong was to treat it with fire.  As soon as we 
cleaned the bamboo stick thoroughly at the joints, we would set a little 
fire and treat the pali on its flames bending it gradually and giving it the 
required shape; the fire process also strengthens the rod.  Straight bamboos 
are mostly grown inside compound walls; wild bamboos are easily available 
everywhere.  Some boys stole palieo from bhattkars’ properties during their 
siesta time, but most boys chose to buy them.  Those who bought, did not 
want to lose a pali by simply bending it; hence the fire treatment.  We also 
treated bamboo sticks with fire flames whenever we prepared huge Christmas 
stars!

In the absence of electric current, the only way for us to iron our clothes, 
was to burn coconut shells and fill the metal iron box with burning coal.  
We either fanned the dying coal with an ainno (manual fan) or used a nolli 
to puff air into the box.

Nowadays, electric crematoriums are also available to cremate Hindus but in 
the past our Hindu brothers used only wood for the pyre, and most still use 
it.  Many times it is not possible to have 100% dry wood to arrange a pyre; 
so, they mix dry and semidry wood; sometimes even fresh wood is added.  This 
is where the old saying proves right i.e. “Sukea barabor voleakui uzo 
lagta!)  (Fresh wood also catches fire along with dry!)

Goa is famous for its “Goencho pao”.  Well, we would not have been able to 
bake those delicious toddy leavened pão if we didn’t have a khorn (furnace). 
 Somehow, bread baked in electrical bakeries is not as tasty as the one 
baked in a khorn!

Nowadays, barbeque parties have become very famous.  In the olden days, too, 
we had barbeque parties but there were no barbeque units or fans to fan the 
coals.  We prepared barbeque in our own indigenous way.  Here is how we did 
it and we still do it:

Dig a small pit about 6 inches deep; place flat stones on the edge of the 
pit; place around 50 coconut shells in the pit and set fire to them; do not 
start the fire with kerosene because you don’t want your barbeque to smell 
of kerosene; this is where the old practice of starting a fire comes handy.  
Once coconut shells burn and result into coal, keep a piece of clean steel 
mesh on the stones and then place the marinated barbeque pieces on it.  If 
there is good breeze, there is no need to fan the fire; if not, you may use 
a hard board.  In any case, whenever you pour a little oil on barbeque 
pieces, the fire is bound to flare up.  In the olden days, even piglings 
were roasted in a similar way over a pile of fire, and, of course, how can 
we forget the roasted pigling prepared by the baker in his khorn?

Whenever it was time to rain, the weather would turn very warm; as a result, 
ants would emerge from the ground in large groups making it almost 
impossible to walk around.  The only medicine was to prepare a fire torch, 
apply it on the ants and get rid them.  We also did this to large groups of 
insects and in both cases it worked superbly!

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, fish was available abundantly.  I remember buying 
100 mackerels for one rupee!  Many people prepared cutlets but our favorite 
was smoked mackerels.  All we needed was some hay which we collected from 
the fields or gathered from the road with a piddo.  We cleaned mackerels and 
applied salt on the outside and stuffed some in the stomach.  We then 
arranged some hay on the ground and placed mackerels on a fresh piece of 
banana tree leaf, and placed another piece of fresh banana leaf on the top; 
“antam” were packed in an envelope prepared from fallen jackfruit tree 
leaves and sewed with an “ir” (stalk of palm leaf).  We placed more hay on 
the top and set fire; we kept adding more hay until mackerels were done.  
Smoked mackerels taste the best while they are still hot!  We sometimes ate 
so much smoked mackerels that there was no place left for food.  Sardines 
also were available in plentiful in those days and this is another fish 
which tastes great as smoked fish!  We also used kholieo to fry mackerel and 
sardines.  Smoked mackerels and sardines go well with Goan Fenni!

Goldsmiths would not have been able to make beautiful gold ornaments had it 
not been for the fire which helps them melt the gold and also enables them 
to mould it into desired designs.  When it comes to crafting designs, the 
fire has to be mild.  In Goa, goldsmiths use kott’tteo for this purpose and 
they use a bato (bellows) to fan the fire.  The bellows is a device for 
delivering pressured air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location.  
At its most simple terms, a bellows is a container which is deformable in 
such a way as to alter its volume which has an outlet or outlets where one 
wishes to blow air.  A bellows differs from a fan in that it exerts much 
greater control in where it delivers the air.  Several metallurgical 
processes require such heat that they could only be developed after the 
invention of the bellows.  Goldsmiths use the annealing (metallurgy) method 
– a heat treatment wherein the microstructure of a material is altered, 
causing changes in its properties such as strength and hardness.  Speaking 
of goldsmiths, I remember we used to say the following during our childhood 
whenever a goldsmith passed by us:

Sonar Xetti
Bhangar petti
Sonarachi bail
Ed’di motti

Annealing is also used in the manufacture of glass – heating a piece of 
glass until its temperature reaches a stress-relief point.

In the olden days, people did not know about CPR (cardiovascular pulmonary 
resuscitation) but they had natural ideas which they put to use.  For 
example, when someone got drowned they would try to pump out water by 
pressing his chest, would rub his feet, etc.  Sometimes, they would hang a 
person by his legs in an upside down position to a horizontal beam and start 
a little fire underneath, preferably with son’nam, which would generate 
smoke; this method sometimes worked in the resuscitation of a person 
provided he/she had not drowned too long ago.

Today, fire has become one of the worst destroyers of houses/buildings, 
warehouses, forests, plantation on hills such as cashew crop, etc. resulting 
not only in huge financial losses but also claiming lives almost every day.

In Goa, the spring season starts around February and with it begins blooming 
of cashew trees.  While kazkars, who pluck cashew apples for ur’rak, fenni 
and cashew nuts, gear up to meet the oncoming season, some miscreants set 
fire to straw on the slope of a hill and the fire immediately spreads to the 
entire hill causing severe damage to cashew plantations, thus destroying 
cashew flowering to a great extent. Once the fire takes place, and if there 
is strong breeze, it is impossible to put it off!  This is why our ancestors 
have left us an adage:  “Ujea lagim ani udka lagim khell manddinaka!” (Don’t 
play games with fire and water!)

In the olden days, when a husband died, the woman in India practiced Sati 
and ended her life by throwing herself in the burning pyre of her husband.  
Today, though Sati has been abolished, Indian women practice it differently. 
 Nowadays, many mother-in-laws and close relatives in India use fire as a 
means to get rid of their daughter-in-laws for not bringing enough dowries 
with them.  In many cases, burners of a cooking range are deliberately left 
open so as to allow LPG from a cylinder to escape and fill the kitchen.  The 
daughter-in-law is then asked to go to the kitchen and prepare a cup of tea 
or something else.  Poor daughter-in-law steps in the kitchen and lights a 
match stick or lighter which instantly sets fire to the whole kitchen and 
engulfs the person in flames almost instantly killing her.  Sometimes, they 
douse a person with kerosene/petrol, set fire to her with a match stick, and 
make it look like a suicide case.  What heartless creatures!  Thus, the very 
matchbox that was invented to help us create a fire becomes a weapon of 
murder!

Although the Vedic fire-sacrifice (yagya) has largely disappeared from 
modern Hinduism, Agni with the fire-sacrifice is still the mode of ritual in 
any modern Hindu marriage, where Agni is said to be the chief sakshi or 
witness of the marriage and guardian of the sanctity of marriage. Indeed, 
without seven encirclements around the holy fire, the modern Hindu Marriage 
Act of law regards a Hindu marriage as void.

In the past, kateacho uzo (husk fire) was used widely.  Once a sonn’ catches 
fire, it burns slowly and lingers on.  Smokers used kateacho uzo to light 
their cigarettes, beedis, pamparo, pipes, etc.

We all know that no function in Goa is complete without firecrackers.  Since 
a match stick usually goes off in open air, people find it easier to use a 
burning husk to set fire to firecrackers.  In the olden days, at the end of 
Christmas and Easter midnight mass, feast mass and salvi our church 
employees, pede, prepared and fired fozne (mortar).  Two pede were 
positioned on the tower to ring church bells and two were assigned to 
prepare fozne.  Anjuna church had a set of twelve fozne which two pede fired 
simultaneously.  Most pede smoked beedi.  About ten minutes before mass 
ceremony came to an end pede would prepare a small fire with sonn’nnam and 
add to it some xirputtam.  Mortars were prepared and kept in two separate 
rows to be fired separately by two pede.  Each mortar was kept at a distance 
of around six feet.  When it was time to fire the mortars, they would pick a 
burning stick or sonn’ and set fire to gunpowder line on the ground which 
got to each mortar and instantly activated the packed gunpowder in the 
mortar and produced a big blast.  The pede were experts in preparing fozne; 
rarely any of their fozne failed.  It was interesting to see them prepare 
fozne, light them and run way.  As children, we knew when it was time for 
the mortars to go off; so, we would rush to the site and enjoy the blast 
which was as good as a bomb and could be heard far away from one village to 
the other.  The mortars were arranged and fired from the west entrance of 
Anjuna church.

The Olympic Fire/Flame/Torch/Light is a symbol of the Olympic Games.  
Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its 
origins lie in ancient Greece, when a fire was kept burning throughout the 
celebration of the ancient Olympics.  The fire was reintroduced at the 
Olympics in 1928, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever 
since.  The modern torch relay was introduced by Carl Diem, president of the 
Organization Committee for the Berlin Games of 1936, as part of an effort to 
turn the games into a glorification of the German Empire (1933-1945).  But 
despite its Nazi origin, the torch ceremony is still practiced today.

In the past, churches/chapels made use of a dumpel (thurible) more often 
than today.  In order to use a dumpel to burn dump (incense), we had to 
prepare fire.  About 15 minutes before the end of mass ceremony, we would 
begin to start a fire in the dumpel itself which contained old coal.  We 
usually used a piece of paper and kato (loose husk) to start a fire.  
Sometimes, we had a difficult time in starting a fire during the monsoon 
season, especially if we forgot to carry a warm matchbox from home, as the 
one left in a church/chapel would go soft due to cold weather.  For our 
convenience, we always kept a nolli in the church/chapel to puff air into 
thurible.

We used an earthen dumpel at home to burn incense whenever Saibinn was 
brought, or at a house blessing, or at a litany, etc.  Furthermore, we used 
embers/coal to incense a child after bath.  Still further, we burned incense 
in the house in the evenings in order to get rid of mosquitoes.  In all 
these cases, we collected embers from chul or burned a couple of kott’tteo 
and placed the charcoal in a dumpel.  Today, very few people use dump in a 
house.  As far as mosquitoes are concerned, people buy ready made electrical 
units which when plugged in drive away the mosquitoes, but all of them are 
not as effective as incense which is burnt with the help of fire!  Fire 
still remains a force to reckon with!

Fires and burning have often been used in religious rites and symbolism.  
One reason may be that the smoke of the fire disperses upwards, into what 
may be considered into the heavens, which we always point upwards.  In 
Christianity, fire is a symbol of the Holy Ghost and is often used in 
description of Hell, which we always point downwards.

Pentecost is a feast of the universal Church which commemorates the Descent 
of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, fifty days after the Resurrection of 
Christ, on the ancient Jewish festival called the ‘feast of weeks’ or 
Pentecost (‘Pfingsten’ in German), is the Greek for ‘the fiftieth’ (day 
after Easter).

On the day of the Pentecost, the twelve Apostles were assembled in a house 
when suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, 
and it filled the house where they were sitting.  And there appeared unto 
them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.  And they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, 
as the Spirit gave them utterance.

When John the Baptist baptized people he said to them:  “I baptize you with 
water for repentance.  But after me will come one who is more powerful than 
I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry.  He will baptize you with the Holy 
Spirit and with fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear 
his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the 
chaff with unquenchable fire!”

Kobar (The End)

That’s all for now from Dom’s antique shelf!

Moi-mogan,
Domnic Fernandes
Anjuna/Dhahran, KSA

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/