Note 13 — Chapter VI · THE INTERPRETATION OF ANDAMANESE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS: MYTHS AND LEGENDS

This, briefly, is the way I would explain the legend mentioned above, and ample confirmation will be forthcoming when we consider some of the other legends. Attention may be called here to a very significant phrase in a version of the fire legend recorded by Mr Portman13 to the effect that “it was on account of the fire (i.e. of the possession of fire) that the ancestors became alive.”