In La Mythologie (pp. 185-195) I have put together a small collection of
savage myths of the theft of fire. {195b} Our text is the line of Hesiod
(Theogony, 566), 'Prometheus _stole_ the far-seen ray of unwearied fire
in a hollow stalk of fennel.' The same stalk is still used in the Greek
isles for carrying fire, as it was of old--whence no doubt this feature
of the myth. {195c} How did Prometheus steal fire? Some say from the
altar of Zeus, others that he lit his rod at the sun. {196a} The
Australians have the same fable; fire was obtained by a black fellow who
climbed by a rope to the sun. Again, in Australia fire was the
possession of two women alone. A man induced them to turn their backs,
and stole fire. A very curious version of the myth occurs in an
excellent book by Mrs. Langloh Parker. {196b} There was no fire when
Rootoolgar, the crane, married Gooner, the kangaroo rat. Rootoolgar,
idly rubbing two sticks together, discovered the art of fire-making.
'This we will keep secret,' they said, 'from all the tribes.' A fire-
stick they carried about in their comebee. The tribes of the Bush
discovered the secret, and the fire-stick was stolen by Reeargar, the
hawk. We shall be told, of course, that the hawk is the lightning, or
the Dawn. But in this savage Jungle Book all the characters are animals,
and Reeargar is no more the Dawn than is the kangaroo rat. In savage
myths animals, not men, play the leading roles, and the fire-stealing
bird or beast is found among many widely scattered races. In Normandy
the wren is the fire-bringer. {196c} A bird brings fire in the Andaman
Isles. {196d} Among the Ahts a fish owned fire; other beasts stole it.
The raven hero of the Thlinkeets, Yehl, stole fire. Among the Cahrocs
two old women possessed it, and it was stolen by the coyote. Are these
theftuous birds and beasts to be explained as Fire-gods? Probably not.
Will any philologist aver that in Cahroc, Thlinkeet. Australian,
Andaman, and so forth, the word for 'rub' resembled the word for 'rob,'
and so produced by 'a disease of language' the myth of the Fire-stealer?