Note 23 — Chapter IV · MYTHS AND LEGENDS

Mr Man gives three different versions of legends as to the origin of fire. According to the first of these, Puluga, after he had made the first man, Tomo, gave him fire and taught him its use. Puluga obtained fire by stacking in alternate layers two kinds of wood known as co̱r and ber, and then bidding the sun to come and sit on or near the pile until she ignited it, after which she returned to her place in the sky23. The second version is that Puluga came to Tomo with a spirit named Lači Puŋa Ablola to instruct Tomo, who at his direction, prepared a pyre and then struck it, on which the fire was kindled and Puŋa Ablola proceeded to teach him how to cook food24. This legend contains an obvious contradiction. Lači Puŋa Ablola, as is shown by the name itself (Lači = the late), is the name of some one who is supposed to have lived and died and so become a spirit. Yet at the same time Tomo is supposed to have been the first of the Andamanese. There is the possibility, however, that this inconsistency is due not to the natives themselves, but to Mr Man’s transcription. It is possible that the legend is that fire was discovered and was given to the ancestors (the Tomo) by a person who, being dead, is now Lači Puŋa Ablola, but who was then alive and one of the ancestors (Tomo) themselves.