Comment 21 by Reckless Monkey :

Having seen footage of Australian Aboriginals lighting fires using their hands and sticks (no bows like the American Indians) and trying it as kid for some hours I can tell you it's bloodly hard work just get something warm let alone hot enough to ignite something. So I take my hat off to my smaller brained predecessors.

Did you see the comment from Helga above

how to create enough heat through friction applied to dry sticks to start a fire (something every 10 year old child knows how to do among the hunter-gatherers I lived with).

Maybe you were just bought up in the wrong part of the world :-) . I used to try with a magnifying glass as a kid but could never get a flame. Lots of charred holes in the paper. I assume our ancestors shared the fascination we all seem to have with fires.

Michael