The Origins of Fire

Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.

From The Mythology of All Races: Oceanic by Roland B. Dixon, 1916.

Myths of the origin of fire are generally known and of several different types. Most widely spread, apparently, are tales which declare fire to have been originally owned by certain birds or animals from whom the secret was then stolen. The version of one of the Victorian (?)tribes runs as follows.

The bandicoot was once the sole owner of fire, and cherishing his fire-brand, which he carried with him wherever he went, he obstinately refused to share the flame with any one else. Accordingly the other animals held a council and determined to get fire either by force or by stratagem, deputing the hawk and the pigeon to carry out their purpose. The latter, waiting for a favourable moment when he thought to find it unguarded, made a dash for it; but the bandicoot saw him in time, and seizing the brand, he hurled it toward the river to quench it. The sharp eyes of the hawk saw it falling, and swooping down, with his wing he knocked it into the long dry grass, which was thus set alight so that the flames spread far and wide, and all people were able to procure fire.

A New South Wales version is somewhat different. According to this, fire was originally owned by two women (Kangaroo-Rat and Bronze-Winged Pigeon)who kept It concealed In a nut-shell. For a long time the other animals could not discover how these women were able to cook their food; but at last they set spies to watch them and so learned the secret, whereupon, resolving to secure fire by a ruse, they arranged a dance and invited the two women to be present. One after another the different animals danced In ludicrous positions in an attempt to make the women laugh; and at length one performer succeeded so that the women, convulsed with merriment, rolled upon the ground. This was just what the conspirators had been waiting for, and rushing up, they seized the bag In which was the nut that contained the fire. Opening this and scattering the flame about, they set the grass alight, and In this way fire was caught in the trees, whence ever since it can be procured from their wood by means of friction.

A different mode of origin is found in another series of tales which is also widespread; and in some instances this second type is combined with the first.

Thus, a tribe in the vicinity of Melbourne say that once two women were cutting a tree to get ants' nests when they were attacked by snakes. The women fought them for some time, but at last one of them broke her fighting stick, whereupon fire came out of the end of it, and the crow, seizing this, flew away with it. Pursued by two men, it let the fire fall, thus starting a conflagration. These two men were set by Pundjel in the sky as stars, and he told all the people to be careful not to lose fire, now that they had it; but after a time they let it go out, and mankind was again fireless, while snakes became abundant everywhere.

At length Pallyang sent his sister Karakarook down from the sky to guard the women, and she went about everywhere with a great stick, killing snakes; but in dispatching one, her stick broke and fire came from it. The crow once more seized this and flew away with it, but the two men who had followed him before descended from the sky, and going to the high mountain where the crow had hidden the fire, brought it back again safely to mankind. Karakarook, the sister, had told the women to examine carefully her broken stick from which the fire had come and never to lose the secret; but since this was not enough, one of those who had rescued the fire from the crow took the men to a mountain where grew the proper sort of wood to make fire-sticks, and showed them how to manufacture and use them, so that ever afterward they should have fire whenever they needed it.

A somewhat different element appears in another small group of tales. The Arunta in central Australia say that in mythical times a euro carried fire in its body. A man pursued the animal in the hopes of getting possession of the precious object, but for a long time he was unable to catch up with the euro, and although he tried to make fire with fire-sticks, he did not succeed. After many days, however, he finally caught the animal and killed it, and on examining the body, found fire concealed within. This he took and used to cook his food; and when the fire went out, he tried again to make it with his fire-sticks, and now was successful. A variant of this type is found in Queensland, where fire was originally thought to have been contained in the body of a snake. As In the case of some of the tales of the origin of water and the sea, the other animals decided that the only way to get what they wanted was to make the possessor laugh; and when a bird succeeded in doing this by its comical gyrations, the fire issued from the snake's mouth, thus becoming the common property of all. The belief that fire was primarily contained in the body of its owner is one widely distributed both in Melanesia and In Polynesia.

That fire was originally obtained from the sky is also an idea found in Australia.

Thus, one of the tribes from Victoria declares that a man threw a spear upward to the sky, into which it stuck; but since he had tied a string to the spear, he was able to climb up to the sun and to bring fire down to men.

In Queensland the details differ. In the beginning there was no fire on earth, and so the wren volunteered to fly up to the sky to get some; but though he succeeded in his quest, he hid the fire under his tail-feathers in order that others might not get the benefit of his discovery. When he returned and was asked how he had fared, he replied that he had failed In his attempt; but as he suggested the advisability of attempting to get fire from different sorts of wood, other people tried, only to make their hands sore and to abandon the task in disgust. Turning around suddenly, however, one of them burst out laughing, for he saw the fire as a red spot on the tail of the deceitful wren. The latter then admitted that he had been successful, and showed the people how to make fire properly; but ever since he has had a red spot on his tail-feathers.

Still another form of legend of the origin of fire, in which the method of making is discovered by accident or is invented, is shown in a myth from New South Wales. Once there was no fire in the world, and all people had to eat their food raw or dried in the sun; but one day, when the crane, Bootoolgah, was rubbing two pieces of wood together, he saw a faint spark and a slight smoke, whereupon he called out to Goonur, the kangaroo-rat, "See, smoke comes when I rub these pieces of wood! Would it not be fine, if we could make fire for ourselves and cook our food without waiting for the sun to dry it?”

"Yes," said his wife, "it would indeed be good. Split your stick and put dried grass in the cleft, so that even one spark may kindle it." He did so, and behold! after much rubbing, there came a tiny flame. Though they had now discovered the art of making fire, they resolved to keep it secret; and accordingly, the next time that fish were caught, the two took theirs aside and cooked them. When they brought them back to camp, the other people saw that they looked and tasted differently, and asked what they had done to them; at which the two declared that they had only dried them in the sun as always. The others, however, did not believe this; so they spied and at last discovered the secret. It was then resolved to steal the fire, and this was accomplished, as already stated in previous tales, by making the stingy owners laugh and then seizing the precious receptacle containing fire while they were still overcome with merriment.

A variant occurs in Queensland. In the beginning fire and its uses were accidentally discovered by lightning setting fire to the dry grass and thus partly roasting a kangaroo which had been killed. A woman was sent to get a fire-brand, of which she was put in charge to see that the fire should never go out; but one day it was extinguished through her carelessness, and to punish her for her negligence she was sent out to find fire again and bring it back. Her search was fruitless, however, and in her anger at failure she took two sticks and rubbed them together until fire was produced, the secret of its making thus being found.'

One of the very few myth fragments from Tasmania relates to the origin of fire. According to this, two men once appeared standing on the top of a hill, whence they threw fire like a star, which fell among the people and frightened them so that they ran away. Apparently this started a conflagration, and on their return the people were able to get the fire which they had previously lacked.

Dixon, Roland B. The Mythology of All Races: Oceanic. Edited by Louis Herbert Gray and George F. Moore, Marshall Jones Co., 1916.

Roland B. Dixon

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