Found among my dad’s things. Interesting velvet box with black object inside
A: It’s a pocket handwarmer…an old one too. I used to have a few for camping and fishing. Haven’t seen this style for a while. You light the rod in the middle. it is a coal, you close it up and pop it in your pocket. Blow in it to stoke it up.
After that you put a sugar cone on the feuerzange and pour something like Stroh 80, a drink with 80% alcohol over it and light it up. Keep pouring the alcohol over the cone while it melts down in the whine. You now have a warm, sweet and strong drink for a nice winter evening. You should watch the movie Feuerzangenbowle while you do all this.
"may be more zebra than horse"
What do you suppose you mean by that?
I think the expression is "If you hear hooves/find hoofprints, it's probably a horse and not a zebra" – similar to Occam's razor: The most probable explanation for something is usually the correct one.
In this case, the less probable explanation appears to be correct, therefore it's "rather a zebra than a horse".
sorry – "the simple explanation", not the most probable one.