ABSTRACT
The Lengua Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco tell the following story of the origin of fire among men. They say that in early times, being unable to produce fire, men were compelled to eat their food raw. One day an Indian had been out hunting, but had been unsuccessful all the morning; so towards mid-day, in order to stay the pangs of hunger, he repaired to the vicinity of a swamp to gather some snails. While he was eating them, his attention was attracted to a bird coming out from the swamp with a snail in its bill. This it seemed to deposit near a large tree some little way off. It then returned to the swamp and brought up another snail, and repeated the process several times. The Indian also noticed that from the spot where the bird placed the snails there arose, as it were, a thin column of smoke. His curiosity was aroused, and the next time the bird flew away he proceeded cautiously towards the place where the smoke had risen. There he observed a number of sticks, set point to point, the ends quite red and giving forth heat. Drawing still nearer, he saw some snails placed close to the sticks. Being hungry, he tasted the cooked snails, and finding them delicious he made up his mind that he would never eat raw snails again.
