ant the possession of comfort. The gods were
naturally determined to keep this wealth in their own hands. For any one
to make a sharp deal and cheat a god of fire out of a part of this
valuable property or to make a courageous raid upon the fire guardian
and steal the treasure, was easily sufficient to make that one a
"culture hero." As a matter of fact a prehistoric family without fire
would go to any length in order to get it. The fire finders would
naturally be the hero-gods and stealing fire would be an exploit rather
than a crime.

It is worth noting that in many myths not only was fire stolen, but
birds marked by red or black spots among their feathers were associated
with the theft.

It would naturally be supposed that the Hawaiians living in a volcanic
country with ever-flowing fountains of lava, would connect their fire
myths with some volcano when relating the story of the origin of fire.
But like the rest of the Polynesians, they found fire in trees rather
than in rivers of melted rock. They must have brought their fire legends
and fire customs with them when they came to the islands of active
volcanoes.

Flint rocks as fire producers are not found in the Hawaiian myths, nor
in the stories from the island groups related to the Hawaiians. Indians
might see the fleeing buffalo strike fire from the stones under his hard
hoofs. The Tartars might have a god to teach them "the secret of the
stone's edge and the iron's hardness." The Peruvians could very easily
form a legend of their mythical father Guamansuri finding a way to make
fire after he had seen the sling stones, thrown at his enemies, bring
forth sparks of fire from the rocks against which they struck. The
thunder and the lightning of later years were the sparks and the crash
of stones hurled among the cloud mountains by the mighty gods.

In Australia the story is told of an old man and his daughter who lived
in great darkness. After a time the father found the doorway of light
through which the sun passed on his journey. He opened the door and a
flood of sunshine covered the earth. His daughter looked around her home
and saw numbers of serpents. She seized a staff and began to kill them.
She wielded it so vigorously that it became hot in her hands. At last it
broke, but the pieces rubbed against each other and flashed into sparks
and flames. Thus it was learned that fire was buried in wood.

Flints were known in Europe and Asia and America, but the P