Atondido Stories
along with a pole over the flat plain.
After a strange journey in queer places they reached the land
of the people who owned Fire, guided along by the thin column
of smoke. The people were not people of earth. Some say they
were the Fish people, but that, no man knows. They sat around
in a large circle with Fire in their midst, for it was autumn and
the days and nights were chill. And Fire was in many places. Ra-
ven looked on for a while from afar thinking of the best plan to
obtain Fire. Then he said to Robin, "You can move faster than
any of us. You must steal Fire. You can fly in quickly, pick it up
in your bill and take it back to us and the people will not see nor
hear you." So Robin picked out a spot where there were few peo-
ple, and he darted in quickly and picked up fire in a twinkling
and flew back unharmed towards his companions. But he had
only taken a very little bit of it. When he got half-way back to his
friends, Fire was so hot in his bill that it gave him a strange pain
and he had to drop it on the ground. It fell to the earth with a
crash and it was so small that it flickered faintly. Robin called to
his companions to bring the carriage. Then he stood over Fire
and fanned it with his wings to keep it alive. It was very hot, but
he stood bravely to his task until his breast was badly scorched
and he had to move away. His efforts to save Fire were of no
avail, and before his companions reached him Fire had died, and
only a black coal remained. And poor Robin's breast was singed,
and to this day the breasts of his descendants are a reddish-
brown colour because he was scorched while trying to steal Fire
ages ago.
Then Raven asked Flea to make the attempt to steal Fire. But
Flea said, "I am too little. The heat would roast me to death; and,
further, I might miscalculate the distance and hop into the
flame."
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