This tale belongs to the first cycle of Indian myth-tales, tales which
relate the adventures of living creatures, plants, elements, objects
and phenomena in this world before they became what they are as we see
them. Among living creatures man is not reckoned, for man does not
appear in any of these myths.
In most cases the tales are simple and transparent; it is easy to
recognize the heroes either by their names or their actions or both.
The value of Indian myths lies in the fact that they represent the
mental labor of men who lived ages before those who recorded their
thoughts on papyrus, baked brick or burnt cylinders.
Sickness was a person and owned fire. Sun, whose home was in the West,
also owned fire. A council was called and the first people sent Wus to
secure fire for “the people who are to come.” The first people knew
that another race was coming and that they themselves were to be
changed.
Many mythologies give an account of the stealing of fire.—In Nosa, Au
Mujaupa, the master of fire, lived in the South. Ahalamila went there
and stole a few coals. The struggle to escape with the coals was as
strenuous as that described in the Modoc tale, but the Nosas do not
know who Au Mujaupa was.